The Xia — China’s Oldest Known Dynasty

May 29, 2010

At one time, the Xia Dynasty (2205 – 1783 BC) was a myth as the Yellow Emperor still  is. Then in 1959 AD, scientists excavated the city “Yanshi”, which contained large palaces, making some archaeologists think that Yanshi was the capital of the Xia Dynasty. Source: Hanna Shakeri

Chinese archaeologists recently found a large-scale building foundation in the Erlitou Ruins of Yanshi in Henan Province, which belongs to the later period of Xia Dynasty. The discovery, the first of its kind “causes great concern because it was founded at the key moment when the Xia Dynasty was replaced by the Shang Dynasty (1783 BC – 1123 BC),” said Dr. Xu Hong, head of the Erlitou Archaeological Team under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Was it built by people of the Xia or the Shang? Further excavation will help discover the final resolution….

Shang Dynasty map (The Xia Dynasty would have ruled over roughly the same territory)

“The discovery of the Yin Ruins astounded the world in the 20th century,” Dr. Xu Hong said. “We believe the Erlitou Ruins will lead the study of Chinese ancient civilization to a new stage in the 21st century.” Source: China.org

Who knows? Maybe archaeologists will discover that the myth of the Yellow Emperor, who tradition says ruled China from 2697 – 2597 BC, is true.

Discover Qin Shi Huangdi, the Emperor who made China

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

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The Dizi, a Chinese bamboo flute

May 29, 2010

The Dizi is a traditional Chinese musical instrument that was popular during the Warring States period (472-221 BC) and was used in opera during the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties.

There are two opinions about where the Dizi came from. Official Imperial documents say that a messenger for Han Emperor Wudi brought one with him from western China in 199 BC.

Chen Yue – “Touching Dizi”

However, older bone and bamboo flutes have been found in ancient tombs. One was found in an Eastern Han tomb (206BC – 9 AD).  Several bone flutes were found in Zhejiang province and more than thirty flutes have been found that were nine thousand years old.  The number of holes varies.

Discover more about Chinese music. See the Gu Zheng

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

His latest novel is the multiple-award winning Running with the Enemy.

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Intel in China

May 28, 2010

When you hear Americans complaining about China stealing jobs, here are a few facts to know.

Chinese consumers buy computers. In fact, there are more Chinese using the Internet than the entire population of the United States. That’s a lot of Internet surfing. Source: Internet World Stats.com

For that reason, Intel’s President and CEO, Paul Otellini said, “China is our fastest-growing major market and we believe it’s critical that we invest in markets that will provide for future growth to better serve our customers.”

Intel is one of the largest foreign investors in China and is opening a wafer fabrication facility in Dalian, Liaoning Province.  This added investment in China will cost $2.5 billion bringing Intel’s total investment to $4 billion. The last new fabrication plant Intel built was in Ireland in 1992.

Intel now has over 6,000 employees on assembly and test research and developing in 16 cities in Mainland China. Intel also has a facility in Bangalore, India. Source: Intel

In the United States, Intel has over 20 different locations. In Oregon alone, Intel has invested $22 billion and employs 15,500 Americans with an annual payroll of $1.5 billion. Source: Intel

Learn more about Chinese Stereotype Alive and Rotten in America

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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Exports and Imports Equals Jobs

May 28, 2010

When rumors say that China is going to sell Euros or cash in on US Treasurys, stock markets tend to panic. Then China denies the rumors as they did recently. “Europe has been and will be one of the major markets for investing China’s exchange reserves,” China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange says. Source: 24/7 Wall St

It would not serve China’s interests to hurt Europe or America’s economies since China exports more than 200 billion Euros worth of mainly industrial good to Europe, which means jobs in China. Europe also exports more than 80 billion Euros in goods to China, which translated into European jobs.

Overall, China imported $922 billion  dollars worth of products from the rest of the world last year while exports declined to an estimated 1.19 trillion.

Although exports to the U.S. fell in 2009 by 12.2% to 296.4 billion, China’s imports only went down to 69.6 from 69.7 billion dollars from the prior year so America improved its trade deficit with the PRC by 15.4% in 2009. This means jobs were lost in China but not as many jobs were lost in America from what America sells and exports to China.  Source: China Trade Statistics 2009

See Jobless in America and Angry at China

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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