World

The United States has more than 170,000 miles of railroad track. Japan has about 30,000 miles of track. But the people of Japan use their railroads far more than Americans do, far more, in fact, than any other people on earth. The average American travels about 45 miles a year by railroad. The average Japanese […]

In 1978, a Japanese man was spending a vacation near Lake Ikeda in Japan. One afternoon, as he stood near the shore with a camera, he saw something rise out of the lake. It was a snake-like creature with dark skin and humps on its back. Its body appeared to be at least 45 feet […]

The Ryukyu Islands are a string of islands that stretch from Japan almost to Taiwan. Poisonous snakes abound on these islands. There is another fearsome creature in the Ryukyus, a giant crab. The giant spider crab lives in the waters off the coast of the Ryukyus. This crab is the largest crustacean on earth. It […]

Nintoku was a Japanese emperor who ruled in the 4th or early 5th century. According to one legend, Nintoku wanted his brother to become emperor instead, so he refused to take his throne for three years. His brother also refused to become emperor, and he eventually committed suicide to assure that Nintoku would rule. Another […]

In Japanese, Fujiyama means “never-dying mountain.” Mount Fuji is the Highest Mountain In Japan. The peak of Mount Fuji, about 50 miles from Tokyo, is also sometimes known as the “most beautiful mountain on earth”. This volcanic peak rises 12,390 feet in the shape of a nearly perfect cone. It towers over a fertile plain, […]

The piano was invented in Italy in the eighteenth century. For many years afterward, almost all pianos were produced in Europe, especially in France, Germany, and England. America began manufacturing pianos even before the Revolutionary War. By 1909, the United States was producing about 360,000 pianos a year. But what nation is today the leader […]

In America, it’s a custom to bring flowers to a sick person. But in Japan, a person would never bring cut flowers when visiting a sick friend. In the Japanese view, cut flowers are already dead, since they have been cut off from their roots and will soon wither. It would be bad luck, then, […]

Kyoto was the capital city of Japan during the Middle Ages. It was the home of the shogun, or Japanese military ruler. Nijo Castle was built in Kyoto in 1603. It has more than strong walls and a moat to protect the shogun, it has a squeaking floor, too! The floors of the outer rooms […]

The English playwrights Gilbert and Sullivan wrote a musical about the emperor of Japan called the Mikado. Most people think that the Mikado was the name of the Japanese emperor. The Mikado was actually the name of a door! In medieval times, the Japanese were not allowed to say the name of their emperor. Saying […]

Karate, the art of self-defense employing chopping blows with the side of the hand, is a Japanese invention right? Actually, karate was not invented by the Japanese. It was invented by the people of Okinawa, as a means of defense against the Japanese! Okinawa, an island about 350 miles from the coast of Japan, has […]

In America and Europe, many people consider 13 an unlucky number. The reason for the superstition is open to question. In Japan, the numbers 19, 33, and 42 are considered unlucky. The reasons for these superstitions aren’t so unclear. The Japanese word for the number 19 sounds much like the word for “bad luck”. The […]

Homogeneous comes from the Creek words homo, which means “same” or “equal”, and genus, which means “race”. In regard to population, the word homogeneous means of the same race or of common descent. Of all the countries on earth, the nation with the most homogeneous population is Korea. Both North Korea and South Korea have […]

The largest armies on earth are those of the former Soviet Union, China, and the United States. Do you know what nation has the fourth largest army? It’s India, with about 1.3 million people in its armed forces. Since 1948, Korea has been divided into two countries, North Korea and South Korea. Both nations have […]

Taiwan is an island of about 13,800 square miles, lying about 90 miles off the coast of China. For many years, the island was called Formosa by Europeans, a name that means “beautiful” in Portuguese. Its name in Chinese has long been Taiwan, which means “terraced bay.” Taiwan gets its name from a kind of […]

The Altai and the Tien Shan are mountain ranges in the area where Mongolia, China, and the Soviet Union meet. Few people live in this region today, and there are parts of the mountains that have never been seen by more than a handful of explorers. However, if some reports are true, this region may […]

Of all the capital cities on earth, which would you guess to be the coldest? Helsinki, Finland, might be a good guess. The average low temperature there in February is just 15 degrees. Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, would be a better guess, for the low temperature there in January averages just 9 […]

Mongolia is the 18th largest nation on earth, with an area almost four times the size of California. But the population of this vast nation was just 1.6 million in the 1980s, less than a quarter of the population of California’s largest metropolitan area! There are only 2.6 persons on the average square mile of […]

Chin Shih Hwang-ti was a Chinese emperor who reigned in the third century B.C. Under his rule, much of China was united for the first time. But Chin is probably best known today for a construction project begun during his reign: the Great Wall of China. Parts of this wall were probably already standing when […]

Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, was long known as the “Forbidden City”. Not only is it sealed off from the world by the towering Himalaya Mountains, but it was closed by law to foreigners until 1890. This was because Lhasa was the sacred city of Tibetan Buddhists, and it was the home of their leader, […]

The river we call the Yangtze is known by many other names in China. Part of the river is called the Kinsha Kiang, or the “river of golden sand”. Another part is known as the Chang Kiang, or “Long River,” which is the official name of the Yangtze. The name Yangtze is used by the […]

Around the middle of the 19th century, much of China was ruled by the Manchus, Mongolian people from northern China. A famine during the 1840s helped turn the peasants of China against the Manchus, and a revolt broke out that came to be called the Tai-Ping, or “Great Peace,” Rebellion. The rebellion was led by […]

Hwang Ho means “Yellow River” in Chinese, and we usually call the river by that name. The river deserves its name, too. Part of the Hwang Flo flows through a region of loess, or yellow earth, and this loess is carried downstream by the river in the form of silt and sand. So much of […]

When you think of agriculture in China, you probably think of rice. China is indeed the world’s number-one producer of rice, accounting for about 37 percent of the world crop. But rice is the principal crop only in the southern part of China. In the cooler north, wheat is the main crop, just as it […]

Chin Shih Huang-ti was one of the most important rulers in the history of China. He did much to unify that nation, and he ordered the construction of the Great Wall. But Chin is as much remembered for what he destroyed as for what he built. Many Chinese scholars opposed Chin, so the emperor ordered […]

Dominoes are rectangular blocks with clots on their faces. They are used to play a number of games. Dominoes first appeared in Europe in the 18th century, in Italy and France, and they were brought to England by French prisoners. But dominoes have been used in China for almost as long as playing cards. Chinese […]

During the later part of the 19th century, a number of foreign nations controlled parts of China. Because of this, there was widespread unrest among the people of China. In 1900, a group of Chinese set out to rid China of all foreigners. They attacked foreign churches, schools, and settlements. This group was known as […]

The farthest country from any sea or ocean is Kyrgyzstan. If you like the open seas, then the last place on earth you would like to visit would be Xinjiang, a province of China that used to be called Sinkiang. One place in the desert region of northern Xinjiang is second farthest from the sea […]

What do muslin, cashmere, denim, damask, calico, suede, and satin have in common aside from the fact that all are kinds of fabric? They were all named after places! The cotton cloth called muslin was named after the city of Mosul, Iraq, where it was made. Cashmere is named after the region of India called […]

When we say that the year is 1985, we mean that the year is the 1,985th since the supposed date of Christ’s birth. But the Chinese date their calendar from legendary events in the twenty-seventh century B.C. To the Chinese, our year 1981 was the year 4679! The Chinese have not only numbers for their […]

Do you know how large a number 1 billion is It’s equal to 1,000 million! If you were to count one number every second, without stopping to sleep or do anything else, it would take you 32 years to count to 1 billion. Now you have an idea of how many people live in China. […]

The Maldives is a chain of islands in the Indian Ocean, about 350 miles southwest of India. The Maldives include about 2,000 islands spread over a distance of 500 miles. Even with all those islands, the total area of the Maldives is just 115 square miles, about the size of Portland, Oregon! If you like […]

Sri Lanka is a pear-shaped island in the Indian Ocean, off the southern coast of India. Though only about the size of West Virginia, Sri Lanka is really two lands in one, it boasts two peoples, two languages, two religions, two kinds of climate, and two kinds of terrain. The northern half of Sri Lanka […]

The city of Anuradhapura was founded in the fifth century B.C. and remained the capital of Ceylonese kings for 12 centuries. After the people of Ceylon had been converted to Buddhism, Anuradhapura became a holy city and the destination of many Buddhist pilgrims. The Ceylonese built in Anuradhapura a number of massive stupas, monumental mounds […]

Today, there is no land link between the mainland of India and the island of Sri Lanka, which lies off the southern tip of India. But scientists believe that India and Sri Lanka were connected in recent times. Adam’s Bridge is a chain of sandbanks stretching more than 30 miles between India and an island […]

Bangladesh, the nation of the Bengali people, is surrounded by India, Burma, and the Bay of Bengal. The people of Bangladesh have belonged to three different countries within the short period of 25 years! The Bengal region was part of India until 1947. That year, when the independent nation of India was formed, the nation […]

Bangladesh is one of the poorest, most heavily populated nations on earth. Though it is only about the size of Idaho, Bangladesh had a population of about 85 million! While 86 countries are larger in area, only 7 have a larger population. The population density of this crowded country is about 1,554 people per square […]

A delta is a large deposit of sand and soil at the mouth of a river formed from sediment carried downstream by the river water. The name comes from the Greek letter D, which is called delta and is shaped like a triangle, because most of the world’s deltas are in the shape of a […]

Bhutan, a nation about half as large as Indiana, is nestled in the Himalaya Mountains between India and China. The high mountains of Bhutan chill the moist winds blowing from the seas to the south and cause heavy rainfall, some parts of Bhutan receive more than 300 inches of rain in a year. The weather […]

When it comes to mountain ranges, there is no match on earth for the Himalayas. This range stretches 1,500 miles along the borders of Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan, and Tibet. Together with a neighboring range known as the Karakorum, the Himalaya-Karakorum mountains include most of the world’s Very high peaks. Amazingly, 96 of the world’s […]

The Sherpas, the people who live on the slopes of the towering Himalaya Mountains, tell of a strange creature that roams this snow-covered region. The creature, called the Yeti, is described as large and apelike, its body covered with black or brownish-red hair. Stories have been told of the Yeti piercing the stillness with its […]

In the seventeenth century, Shah Jehan ruled a vast Muslim empire in India. His capital of Agra was one of the richest and most magnificent cities in the world at the time. When Shah Jehan’s wife Mumtaz Mahal died in 1631, the emperor set out to build a tomb for his wife that would be […]

Until 1974, one of the world’s least-known countries was Sikkim, a princely state in the Himalaya Mountains, between Nepal. India, Bhutan, and the Tibet region of China. The area of Sikkim is just 2,745 square miles. But within this state, the climate ranges from arctic to temperate to tropical as a traveler journeys up or […]

The city of Madurai was the capital of a kingdom that ruled part of southern India in ancient times. The city was ruled for a time by Muslim invaders, then it became part of a Hindu kingdom in the 14th century. In the 16th century, a king in Madurai built a great temple in the […]

“Badminton” sounds like an English name, so you might guess that the game is an English invention. Yet badminton, similar to tennis but played with a light “ball” called a bird, actually comes from India! British soldiers played this game while they were stationed in India. They called it poona, after the name of an […]

The Indian city of Delhi is noted for a number of monumental pillars. One of them, called the Iron Pillar of Delhi, now stands in the courtyard of a ruined mosque. This pillar was built around the year 400 and is more than 23 feet high. The pillar is built of solid iron, and that’s […]

Today, we use the word thug to mean a brutal hoodlum. It might seem that this word is modern slang, but it’s not. It has been in use for centuries as the name of an organization of murderers in India! The modern word Thug is derived from the word Thuggee, which is Indian in origin. […]

The peanut first grew in South America. It was unknown to Europeans before the discovery of the New World. The peanut was then transplanted in Africa, especially to provide food aboard slave ships traveling from Africa to America. Eventually, it was planted in the United States, where George Washington Carver’s research found many new uses […]

After China, India is the second most populous country on earth. In the 1980s, India had a population of more than 650 million. That’s equal to about 16 percent of all the people on earth! According to current figures, it’s been estimated that in the year 2008, India had a population of about 1.13 Billion […]

Among certain people in southern India, custom holds that a younger brother cannot marry until his older brother is married. What happens if a young man wants to marry, and his older brother is still single? Then the older brother is officially married to a tree! The marriage between the older brother and the tree […]

Jahangir was the emperor of a large part of northern India during the seventeenth century. He was the father of Shah Jehan, who built the Taj Mahal. The emperor’s original name was Salim, but he called himself Jahangir, which means “Conqueror of the World”. He also gave himself titles meaning ”Possessor of the Planets’ and […]

Many millions of years ago, all the continents may have formed a single landmass. Many scientists now believe that this single landmass then broke to form two huge landmasses. These two landmasses later broke apart to form the continents. One of these landmasses, called Gondwanaland, consisted of South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and India. The […]

Akbar the Great reigned as the emperor of a large part of India from 1556 until 1605. Akbar often amused himself by playing chess, but he didn’t use ordinary chess equipment. Akbar liked to do things in a big way! The monarch used an entire garden as his chessboard, and dancing girls were his chess […]

Hollywood was the world’s film-making capital for many years. But today, the United States is no longer number one among film making nations, it’s not even number two! Seven nations now make more full-length movies each year than the United States. Japan, France, Italy, the Philippines, the former Soviet Union, and Mexico each make more […]

The Todas are a tribe of people who live in southern India. Many of the Todas’ customs are not shared by any of the other people who live around them. The Todas practice sorcery, live in beehive-shaped huts, and observe a marriage custom that allows a woman to have more than one husband. Its possible […]

India has long been a mostly Hindu nation. But Muslims invaded parts of India as early as the eighth century, and Muslim emperors, called Moguls, ruled much of India between the 16th and 19th centuries. So in addition to Hindus, there have been large numbers of Muslims in India, too. In 1941, when India was […]

Asoka was the grandson of a great Indian military leader who set up the first large Indian empire. Asoka himself became emperor around 275 B.C. and according to legend, he immediately killed his brothers. Then he conquered more lands and added them to this empire. After about eight years of rule, Asoka suddenly had a […]

Central Asia is called the “roof of the world” because of the great mountain ranges there. The Pamir region of central Asia might also be called the “crossroads of the world”, for here five mountain ranges and five nations meet. The Pamir Mountains are sometimes known as the Pamir Knot because most of Asia’s great […]

During the 1960s, scientists began to unearth the remains of a city that had long lain buried under a mound in Turkey. Only a small part of the ancient ruins have been uncovered so far, but it’s already known that the first city on this site was built about 8,000 years ago! This city, known […]

Most of Turkey is in Asia. But a small part of that nation is in Europe, across the straits that connect the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and separate Asia from Europe. Part of those straits is called the Bosporus. For centuries, a great city has stood on the Bosporus, where the East meets […]

The great works of the Greek poet Homer, the Odyssey and the Iliad, tell of a war between the Greeks and the city of Ilium, which was also called Troy after the region in which it was located. According to Homer, Troy was a fortified city in present-day Turkey, near the shore of the Aegean […]