- Siyu
Ni Hau! My name is Siyu and I live in the world's most populous nation - China! Over 1 billion people live here, even though the area of our country is just slightly smaller than the United States. With so many people, it is understandable that China is extremely diverse in many regards - from the eight different languages and the hundreds of dialects spoken to the large economic gap between different regions.
Want to learn more about my country? Click here!
- China Map (Source: UNICEF)
Capital City: Beijing
Language(s): Standard Chinese or Mandarin, Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghaiese), and many other local languages and dialects
Religion(s): Daoist (Taoist), Buddhist, Muslim, Christian (but officially the country was declared atheist in 2002)
Communicating With Your Sponsored Orphan:
Ni Hao Ma (How are you?)
Hen Hao (Very good)
Xie Xie (Thank you)
Zai Jian (Good-bye)
Did you know?
- China has approximately 300 million children under the age of 16 - that's one fifth of the total number of children in the entire world!
- Current laws in China forbid most urban couples to have more than one child. As a result, many babies - in particular, girls or any child with a special need - are abandoned to the care of orphanages.
- Several major natural disasters hit China every year - from floods to droughts to earthquakes. These disasters cause both loss of life and economic loss - and children are often the most vulnerable victims.
- There are over 40,000 written Chinese characters - not just 26, like in the English alphabet! Fourth graders in China are expected to know 2,000 of these characters, while college-educated adults usually have 4,000-5,000 memorized.
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