China Facts for Kids: Fun Facts about China for School Projects

Looking for some fun facts about the country China? Look no further! We have compiled all the best facts about China that you need to know about.

If you’re looking for other country facts for kids, be sure to check out the rest of our country facts for kids articles here.

Here are some quick facts to get into the spirit:

China has the largest population of any country with more than 1,400,000,000 people!
China is the fourth largest country in the world by land size.
There are two languages spoken in China, Mandarin and Cantonese.
The Great Wall of China is 21,196.18km long.

If you want to learn even more about China, take a look at these cool books for kids!

Where is China?

The People’s Republic of China comprises a number of different areas including mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Inner Mongolia and has a total land size of 9,706,961km2.

Mainland China is located in Southeast Asia on the Pacific Coast and the capital city is called Beijing. The official currency is Yuan (or Renminbi). It stretches 5,000km from east to west and 5,5000km from north to south. It’s huge!

Mainland China is surrounded by 14 other countries including Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Vietnam.

Find our more about China on this map of China

How many people live in China?

China has the largest population of any country in the world with more than 1,400,000,000 people!

The biggest city is Shanghai which has more than 24,000,000 people living there! The next biggest city is Beijing with more than 21,000,000 people.

You can l e arn more about China in these helpful DVDs

What language is spoken in China?

There are two languages in China. The official language is Mandarin and however Cantonese is also widely spoken.

Although similar, these two languages sound different. Mandarin has 4 tones (sounds) whereas Cantonese has 6-9 tones. Mandarin is spoken in most of mainland China, and Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong, Macau and some provinces in the south of mainland China.

The Chinese language uses characters to write. These characters started as drawings and have now become symbols which, when used together, create sentences.

You can learn to speak Cantonese here

You can learn to speak Mandarin here

Geography of china

Because China is so large it has a range of landscapes. There are beaches, forests, deserts, lakes, plateaus, basins and mountains.

The Yangtze River is the longest river in China and is 6,300km long. It is the third longest river in the world after the Amazon and the Nile. It is the longest river to flow entirely within one country.

The Gobi Desert is the fifth largest desert in the world and covers part of northern China and into Mongolia. It can have freezing cold winters and blazing hot summers.

Are colours important in China?

Yes! Red is the colour of luck in China and symbolises happiness, good fortune and joy. A bride will wear red at a wedding and people give each other red envelopes of money to celebrate at Chinese New Year.

The colour white can be associated with death and mourning and is often worn at funerals.

Chinese New Year facts

Chinese New Year is a big celebration in China, but it doesn’t happen on 1 January. Chinese New Year works off the Lunar Calendar which is a calendar based on the cycles of the moon. The celebration lasts for 15 days and people love to wear red and celebrate with their families. People will set off firecrackers, watch lion dancing and give each other envelopes of money.

Your year of birth determines which sign you are. Unlike the western system, the Chinese use a 12 year cycle named after animals.

You can decorate for Chinese New Year with these beautiful decorations

Time zones in China

There is only one time zone in China although it geographically spans five time zones. The time zone is UTC + 8 which means it is 8 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time.

What sports do they play in China?

Table Tennis (or Ping Pong) is widely thought of as the national sport of China. China has the strongest national Table Tennis team and has won almost every table tennis medal at the olympics.

Basketball, soccer and badminton are also exceptionally popular sports in China.

What food is eaten in China?

Because China is such a huge country it is no surprise that the types of food are many and varied. Some cooking styles are very spicy, while others are focused on fresh ingredients and others who are based near the ocean contain mainly seafood.

It is common to eat rice with most meals and everybody eats with chopsticks. Famous Chinese foods include Peking Duck, Moon Cakes, dumplings, wontons and more! Yum!

Noodles are also very popular and there are many different types including egg, vermicelli, udon and ramen noodles.

Famous things to see in China

There are no shortage of amazing, historic tourist attractions in China, some date back thousands of years

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is a wall that took more than 2000 years to build and stretches for 21,196.18km from west to east in northern China. It was originally built to protect Chinese territory from invasion from the north and then it was expanded to protect the Silk Road trade.

The average height of the wall is 6-7m and averages 6.5m in width. It took more than 1,000,000 people to build it.

The Terracotta Warriors

The Terracotta Warriors are a collection of approximately 8,00 stone statues of warriors, 130 chariots and 670 horses that were buried underground. They were found accidentally by a farmer in 1974. They were created by the Emperor Qin as part of his tomb as he believed they would protect him in the afterlife. Emperor Qin started this project when he was 13 and it took almost 40 years to complete.

The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is a palace complex in Beijing that is more than 600 years old. It used to be the winter home of emperors and now it is a museum that contains 9,000 rooms! Situated in the heart of Beijing, The Forbidden City takes up 178 acres or 1424 tennis courts!

Leshan Giant Buddha

This 71m tall Buddha was carved out of a stone cliff face by monks and took 90 years to complete. It is the largest stone Buddha statue in the world.

What animals are in China?

The only place you can see a giant panda in the wild is in China! Giant pandas are black and white bears that live in the highlands in central China. These bears are HUNGRY – they eat for 12 hours every day and eat up 12kg of bamboo every day! They grow up to 1.5m high and can weigh as much as 135kg.

China also has Red Pandas, Asiatic Black Bears, many species of monkeys and Siberian Tigers.

Check out these gorgeous plush pandas here.

Why does traditional Chinese music sound different?

China uses the pentatonic scale which only has five notes, as opposed to the diatonic scale used by many western countries, which has eight notes.

When you listen to traditional Chinese music it can seem nasal and high pitched because of this.

You can buy CDs of traditional Chinese music here

Fun facts about China for kids

What do you think? Do you think we have covered all the most interesting and unique facts about China? We hope this has helped you to better understand this hugely unique country!

Discover more of our fun facts for kids country guides below.