Here's an interesting compendium of factoids on China that was published in Britain's Independent newspaper.
30,000: The expected number of Chinese MBA graduates in 2008. The number in 1998: 0
5.7 million: Students graduated from Chinese universities in 2007 (compared with 270,000 in 1977)
30: Number of nuclear power plants being built in China
500: The number of coal-fired power plants China plans to build in the next decade
10 million: The estimated number of Chinese people who have no electricity
97: New airports to be built in the next 12 years, bringing the total number to 244 by 2020
540 million: Number of mobile phone users in China, with an increase of 44 million in the past six months
180: The number of foreign press correspondents arrested or harassed in 2007
67: The percentage of journalists who replied "no" when asked in a survey by the Foreign Correspondents Club of China if they believed Beijing had kept its promise to give foreign media "complete freedom of reporting" in the run-up to the Olympics. Only 8.6 per cent said "yes"
33: The number of Chinese journalists thought to be held in prisons in 2008
95: The estimated percentage of DVDs sold in China that are fake. Uncensored foreign films are widely available from 50p
20: The approximate number of foreign films passed by Chinese censors each year for screening in cinemas. Banned films have included 'Ben Hur' (for its depiction of religion), 'Brokeback Mountain' (for its homosexuality) and the 'Borat' film (for its depiction of, among other things, incest).
Passed films are often subject to further editing. Examples include the deletion of scenes showing hanging laundry in Shanghai in 'Mission: Impossible III' and the removal of footage containing Chow Yun-Fat that 'vilifies and humiliates the Chinese' in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End'
160: Cities in China with populations that exceed a million. In the USA there are nine; in the UK just two
80: Percentage of the world's zips produced in factories in the Zhejiang Province city of Qiaotou (amounting to 124,000 miles of zip each year, or enough to stretch half way to the moon). Qiaotou also produces 60 per cent of the world's buttons (15 billion a year), while nearby Datang makes a third of the world's socks. As many as 80 per cent of the world's toys are made in China, which boasts more than 10,000 toy factories
21 million: The number of Chinese-made toys recalled last year by the US toy company Mattel
0: Miles of motorway in 1988
30,000: Miles of motorway today
6.3 million: The number of passenger cars registered in 2007 (compared with 2.3 million in 2004). More than 1,000 new private cars hit the roads every day in Beijing alone
68: The number of crimes thought to be punishable by death in China, including non-violent offences such as tax fraud, embezzlement and the taking of bribes
350 million: The number of Chinese people who smoke (a third of the world’s smokers). Around a million people a year are thought to die from smoking-related diseases
240bn yuan: (£17.3bn)* The estimated amount earned by the Chinese government in tobacco taxes in 2005
1.3 billion: China’s population. The country accounts for one in five people in the world.
400 million: The estimated number of births prevented by China’s one-child policy, introduced in 1979
22: The number of suicides per 100,000 people, about 50 per cent higher than the global average. Suicide is the fifth most common cause of death in China, and the first among people aged between 20 and 35
700,000: The number of people living with HIV or Aids in China. The UN has warned China it could have 10 million cases by 2010 unless action is taken
45 billion: Estimated number of chopsticks China produces every year, the majority of them disposable. In 2006, Beijing introduced a five per cent tax on disposable wooden chopsticks in an attempt to help save the country’s forests
30: The number of different animal penises on the menu at Guolizhuang, Beijing’s ‘penis emporium’. A yak’s costs about £15, while a tiger’s (which must be pre-ordered) will set you back £3,000
* A British pound is worth about $2 U.S.
Read the complete story at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-dragon-awakens-china-how-did-it-happen-823627.html
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