Pet in China. Unusual pets in China. Animal panda - symbol of China
China is the country where they invented ice cream and toilet paper, banned Facebook and reincarnation, and kept crickets as pets. More interesting facts are in our selection.
1. Every fifth person in the world is Chinese.
2. There is not a single character in the Chinese language that can be read in more than one syllable.
3. According to Chinese mythology, a dragon named Nian ("Year") comes on New Year's Eve to... eat people.
4. About 20 million trees are cut down every year to produce Chinese chopsticks.
6. “Chinese” fortune cookies were actually created in San Francisco in the early 1900s.
7. Some bricks of the Great Wall of China are held together thanks to... rice flour.
8. Over the past decade, China has built enough housing to accommodate the population of all of Japan and almost all of Russia.
9. At the same time, about 30 million Chinese live in... caves. Renting a one-room apartment in a cave costs about $30.
10. In 2011, China produced 42.5 billion packages of instant noodles.
11. The Chinese consider 8 to be a lucky number because in their language the name of this number sounds almost the same as “prosperity”.
12. Paper money was invented in China.
13. The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing are still the most expensive - they cost 40 billion dollars.
14. Despite its huge territory, China is located within the same time zone.
15. In the west of the country the sun does not rise until 10 am.
16. Half of the world's pig population lives in China.
17. The length of Chinese railways is so great that they can encircle the Earth twice.
18. In China, reincarnation is prohibited by law. To do this, you must obtain government permission.
19. The national sport of the country is table tennis.
20. The Yangtze is the longest and most abundant river not only in China, but throughout Eurasia, and the third in terms of these indicators in the world. Its name is translated as “Long River”, and its length is almost 6300 kilometers.
21. One of the popular entertainments in China is cricket fighting. In many families, these insects are favorite pets.
22. The invention of toilet paper belongs to the Chinese. It first appeared in the 1300s, but in those days only members of the imperial family were allowed to use it.
23. Ice cream was also invented in this Asian country. Previously, it was made from milk, rice and snow.
24. In China, you should be careful with the color white - there it is considered the color of mourning.
25. But red is considered a lucky color in China. It is used to decorate celebrations, national festivals and other joyful events.
26. Popular Chinese lanterns were invented back in 250 BC. For wealthy families, such large specimens were made that it was not possible to lift them alone.
27. At one time in China, long nails were considered a sign of nobility. Both women and men grew their nails, and to protect them from damage they wore special overlays made of silver or gold, which, moreover, visually lengthened the fingers.
28. The One Child Program has led to an imbalance between men and women. Today there are 34 million more boys than girls in the country. In the future, many Chinese men will be forced to live alone or marry foreigners.
29. The bat in China is a symbol of good luck. Don't be surprised when you see her image on fabric, a mug, or anywhere else.
30. The world's largest shopping center is located in China. And it's 99% empty.
On one of the streets of Shanghai I found shops selling crickets. In China, the cricket symbolizes summer, courage, and rebirth. The chirping cricket was often a pet. These pets were kept in boxes or cages and were considered a symbol of long life, happiness and good luck.
Often in China you can find old people sitting on park benches, serenely listening to the chirping of crickets coming from the reed boxes. These are the owners of song crickets. They are sure that their pets have given them longevity and peace. A little further away, a group of men, huddled together, are carefully looking for something on the ground. They scream loudly and gesticulate wildly. It happens that it comes down to hand-to-hand combat. These are fans of fighting crickets. Although gambling is prohibited in China, bets are made here little by little, usually no more than fifty yuan.
01. Cricket shop. 
02. Since ancient times, keeping singing insects was considered an elegant activity, and many famous people - poets, artists, musicians and even Buddhist monks - did not hesitate to “play” crickets. Cricket breeding was also carried out by numerous concubines of the emperor during long hours of waiting. And in general, it is very Chinese to take care of insects in order to enjoy the sounds that some call chattering, but the Chinese consider a joyful song. 
03. They ask more for a handsome black man, less for a pale gray one. Crickets are valued for their appearance, color, and ability to make beautiful sounds. And even more serious demands are placed on fighting crickets in terms of their cockiness and ability to endure grueling training. 
04. These are the boxes they sell crickets in. 
05. In China, during the Tang Dynasty, cricket fighting was very popular. Now in some parts of China they continue to attract crowds of people, despite the fact that betting is prohibited. 
06. In general, cricket, shishuai, is a collective name. There are many species and names, about 67. For example: malin, jinling are small singing crickets, and gogo are large ones. The name of the singing cricket speaks for itself. Malin is translated as “horse bell”, and jinling is translated as “golden bell”. If you choose the right few crickets, you can get a nice orchestra. Depending on the voice, the price of a singing cricket can reach $100. Fighting crickets are called chuichu. They are the loudest. 
07. During the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), special people worked in the imperial palaces, whose main occupation was caring for singing crickets, which gave a “musical concert” at the first request of the emperor. 
08. Crickets have good hearing, and their ears are on their legs. During the mating season, the cricket hears the call of its girlfriend at a distance of many kilometers. There is a special laboratory at the Chinese Academy of Sciences that studies the unique capabilities of this type of insect, their ability to transmit information over long distances using a sound apparatus. 
09. In Beijing, there is a tradition of giving crickets for the New Year. If the house is filled with the quiet chirping of a cricket, happiness will certainly settle in it for the whole next year. Crickets also have a practical use: if a child cannot sleep for a long time or is afraid of the dark, then a box with a cricket is placed next to his crib and it sings lullabies. 
10. Previously, completely different things were used to keep a cricket: any dishes, drawers, boxes. Often, a domestic insect spent its entire life in a teapot. The fashion for cricket houses only appeared during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Cricket lovers wanted to present their hobby more elegantly.
The houses immediately became very popular; different materials, mechanisms and designs were used to make them. There are small bamboo boxes, the size of a cigarette pack, with a glass lid. 
11. Sometimes the box has several compartments, like a dormitory for crickets. In the imperial tradition, cages were usually made of gold or silver. The imperial crickets also had jade houses. Such houses can still be seen in Chinese museums today. Some of them are real palaces, and at one time they were served by a whole staff of servants who walked the crickets, prepared delicious dishes for them, and monitored the purity of the water in tiny cups. Palace doctors prepared special medicines for them in case of illness. And when the crickets died, they were solemnly buried in tiny coffins made of silver or precious wood.
They also made houses from porcelain and turtle shells. There were wooden, bone, copper and bamboo houses. Sometimes they make reed ball houses, and large crickets live in them. But more often such balls are used as packaging, for one time. Air and light pass through the holes, and food is also pushed in there. The cricket can even walk - the ball will roll. In the market, cricket can be sold already in such a ball. There are also simple clay pots with a lid. 
12. And these are rabbits. 
13. I still don’t understand why the Chinese need rabbits. 
14.
15. They also sell a lot of fish. This fish is “defective” - it was simply thrown out of the aquarium so as not to spoil the appearance. 
16. Turtles. 
The text about crickets is taken from the article -
In China, especially in big cities, pets have ceased to be exclusively objects of culinary preferences and are gradually becoming fashionable. Just a few years ago, when you came to the market and spotted a dog you liked, when asked how much such a fluffy miracle costs, you could easily hear the answer: “Eight yuan per jin,” that is, 1 dollar per half a kilogram.
Now, in the Chinese capital, a large number of pet stores have appeared, as they say, without a catch, where you can buy yourself a four-legged (feathered, creeping) friend, and not a snack. “Hurry! Persian cat for only one thousand yuan ($120),” reads the sign at the entrance to one of these establishments.
A cozy, clean room, where a wide selection (from fish to puppies) is pleasing to the eye, as well as pleasant, courteous salespeople who give young Beijingers - and they are the main buyers - advice on keeping pets. This is very important, since most Chinese citizens have no experience in this area. For many years, due to strict government restrictions, the most that city residents could count on was to own a bird (pigeon, starling or canary). The majority were content with even less: grasshoppers and cicadas. By the way, these insects, each sold in a small, fist-sized wicker cage for $0.25 each, are still one of the best toys for schoolchildren during the holidays.
The current favorites of Beijingers are already more expensive. For example, rabbits start at 100 yuan ($12), while for 300 yuan you can buy a rat, pigeon or squirrel. Prices for dogs, cats, even not particularly valuable breeds, amount to several hundred dollars.
However, price is not the only problem. The fact is that the established rules for keeping pets bring owners a lot of trouble, a kind of fly in the ointment of communication with our smaller brothers. Strict restrictions apply primarily to dogs. In Beijing, for example, it is prohibited to keep breeds larger than 35 centimeters at the withers, and walking with them is only allowed from 8 pm to 7 am. All animals must be registered, and for this you need to pay 5 thousand yuan ($605) at a time, and then contribute 2.5 thousand yuan ($302) to the city treasury every year. For these reasons, small breeds are now most popular in the capital, for example, the famous Pekingese.
It's also hard for bird lovers. According to the decree put into effect in July of this year, they are deprived of the right to build dovecotes on the roofs of houses, balconies, and also to let their pets stretch their wings in the wild. Violation is punishable by a fine of 50 to 200 yuan ($6-24). The authorities explain their decision with concern for the urban environment on the eve of the 2008 Olympics, but ordinary people, including many pensioners, believe that they are being deprived of the opportunity to properly care for their birds (a pigeon is no longer a pigeon if it is deprived of the ability to fly). Unfortunately, despite the fact that the Chinese Association of Domestic Pigeon Fans, which has more than 23 thousand members, intervened in the matter, the authorities’ decision is unlikely to be revised before the Olympic Games.
The only place in Beijing where animal lovers and their pets can feel completely at ease is the territory of the Russian embassy. In a huge green park, which even has water canals, dozens of different representatives of the animal world coexist peacefully. In addition to dogs and cats, which are decorously walked by diplomatic mission staff, here you can see completely independent hedgehogs, squirrels, rabbits, geese, ducks, blue magpies, and so on (you would never see such a picture in any Beijing park). True, ordinary Chinese are prohibited from entering the embassy territory, so they can only envy such an idyll.
Igor Nikolaev
Reading time: 3 minutes
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China's agriculture and livestock production are interdependent and interconnected. The importance of this industry for the Chinese national economy is enormous, despite its auxiliary nature.
It provides draft power for agriculture and transport, as well as consumed products for food. In addition, livestock farming supplies industry and the population with meat, bristles, hides, entrails, wool, eggs, and so on. In turn, agriculture receives organic fertilizers. Livestock products are also a significant export item.
Most of the livestock live in the agricultural regions of the PRC, populated predominantly by the Chinese, but many types of animals are raised in pastoral areas populated by national minorities.
Draft cattle for agricultural areas are raised here, as well as raw meat and livestock for Chinese industry. Apart from the northwest and northeast, there are practically no pastures in China, so stall farming predominates. In the northern Chinese agricultural provinces, the bulk of livestock consists of cows, goats, sheep, as well as horses, mules and donkeys. To the south, in the rice-growing zone, there are quite a few of these animals. The buffalo, which is rare in the northern provinces, is used as a draft animal. Chickens and pigs are everywhere, and geese and ducks predominate in the south of the country.
Cattle (huangniu in Chinese) are more common in northern China, especially in the provinces neighboring Inner Mongolia. These are mainly low-productive and low-growing cattle, but very unpretentious Mongolian breeds.
Cows, like bulls, are used as draft animals. Moreover, until recently in China, cows were not milked at all, as it was believed that this weakened them. Currently, dairy farms have been established in the vicinity of large cities. Dairy livestock farming is best developed in Manchuria, since, after the completion of the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway, the best breeds of dairy cattle were brought here from the Soviet Union. In the coastal provinces of the PRC, on the contrary, there are mainly Dutch breeds of cattle. It should be noted that the total number of dairy cattle is small.
In the southwestern provinces (such as Yunnan and Sichuan), the humpback (zeb) breed of cattle has become widespread. Dairy female buffaloes are bred in only one place - in the city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. Buffalo milk is thicker in consistency, fattier than cow's milk and tastes sweeter. You can get up to 10 liters of milk or even more per day from a buffalo, so part of it is processed into butter. In general, the cultivation of “shuinyu” (that’s how “buffalo” means “water cow” in Chinese) is due to its close connection with the culture of growing rice using the jellied method.
Buffaloes are very rarely used as transport, as they are reserved for very difficult field arable work in flood sowing conditions. The skins of this type of animal come only from pastoral areas that specialize exclusively in cattle breeding. In agricultural provinces, slaughtering livestock is strictly prohibited. Animal hooves, horns, entrails and the bones themselves are used to produce bone meal.
Small cattle are of great importance to the economy of a number of provinces.
Previously localized in the north, sheep breeding is now actively moving into the southern regions of China. The sheep population is represented mainly by Mongolian (half of the total), as well as Tibetan (more than a third) and Kazakh breeds. Sheep are used very effectively in China. Sheep skins are used for sewing winter clothing, shoes and gloves are made from sheep leather, wool is used for making felt, as well as for making carpets, blankets, felt and other fabrics, felt shoes, and the like. Sheep entrails are widely used in the production of sausages (especially intestinal casings), and are also actively exported. Goats are popular mainly in the mountainous provinces of China.
Horse breeding in the territory of the People's Republic of China has been known for a long time. The majority of the livestock is represented by the low-growing Mongolian breed, which is undemanding to living conditions. Due to the geographical factor, it is most widespread in northern China, especially in the provinces neighboring Inner Mongolia. This breed is best suited for moving through the mountains and is widespread in the provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan and Sichuan.
These horses are mainly used for transport and in agriculture, although cattle are more often used in the latter sector. The main horse breeding region is the northeast of the country, where horses are actively used for draft power during field work. There are much fewer horses in southern China. Horse breeding as a branch of livestock breeding provides very valuable resources such as horse leather and horse hair. The latter is used to make bows for stringed instruments, as well as paint brushes, all kinds of sieves and brushes. For the production of bows, white horsetail hair is especially valued and is mainly exported.
Donkeys in China are divided not by their breeds, but by their size, and therefore come in three types: small, medium and large. They are mainly used in individual farming due to their unpretentiousness. This type of livestock is not suitable for a climate with high humidity, so the bulk of the livestock is localized in the north.
A hybrid of a mare with a donkey (mules) and a hybrid obtained from a donkey with a stallion (hinnies) are fast, hardy, strong and efficient animals. Most of the livestock is located in Northern China. These animals are used mainly for transporting goods along mountain trails where modern equipment does not pass. Their numbers are relatively small, since these hybrids themselves are not capable of reproduction.
The most important and leading livestock industry in China is pig farming. Pork is the most popular and beloved type of meat in China.
In addition, pig farming provides organic fertilizers, leather for making a wide range of products (from shoes and jackets to drums and suitcases), as well as bristles and intestinal casings for making sausages. Also, Chinese pork is an important part of China's exports. Basically, the structure of pork export products consists of the meat itself, as well as pork hams, intestinal casings and spinal bristles. Local breeds developed in China are ready for fertilization from the age of six months.
There are two Chinese breeds of pigs: South China and North China. The first is characterized by a short, massive carcass and black and white color, while the second is mainly black in color, with an elongated body, a saggy belly and a long snout. In terms of the total number of pigs, as well as in the production of bristles, China confidently holds first place in the world.
Poultry farming is a long-established and widespread livestock industry in China. Needless to say, this is one of the most famous industries in the world and the most important for China.
More than 80 percent of the total domesticated poultry population in China is chicken. More than 300 million units of this bird are raised every year. Chicken farming is most developed in such provinces as Hebei, Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, Sichuan, Guangdong and Jiangxi. The best Chinese breeds are Lanshan (Jiangsu province), Shougan (Shandong province), Jiujinghuang (Shandong and Hebei provinces) and Sushan (Zhejiang province). Popular imported breeds include the Leghorn, Plymouth Rock and Rhode Island.
