Free Republic

Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Chinese authorities have arrested two construction workers accused of using an excavator to dig a hole through the Great Wall in central Shanxi province, according to local reports. The Shanxi Cultural Relics Bureau said Monday that the two people used the excavator to dig a shortcut through the 32nd Great Wall, which dates back to the Ming Dynasty of 1368-1644, in Youyu county, Shanxi province, state-run China Daily reported. The suspects have been identified by local police as a 38-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman, according to Sina. Local police were notified of the damage at...

Estimates say it killed 830,000 people.Humans have documented earthquakes for nearly 4,000 years. Of those recorded, the deadliest occurred in China. On January 23, 1556, a powerful quake rocked the province of Shaanxi and the neighboring province of Shanxi, killing an estimated 830,000 people.Historical records often refer to the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake as the Jiajing Great Earthquake because it occurred during Emperor Jiajing’s reign in the Ming dynasty. The approximate death toll comes from local annals that also tracked 26 earthquakes in the region. In those records, the earthquake is starkly different from others: they describe leveled mountains, floods, fires...

The Shun Dynasty only lasted two months in China, but it still managed to find its way to these pages by deposing the ruling Ming Dynasty and setting the scene for the Q’ing Dynasty. In the early 1500s, the Ming Dynasty significantly increased contact with Europe, and it immediately saw the value in exploited mineral wealth from the West. At the time, the government was having difficulty maintaining a currency with perceived value: paper money was a massive flop and standard copper coins could not be trusted. Something new was needed, and European silver was a quick and easy answer....

The Lingguan Tower in China was completed destroyed by flames yesterday Fire started from a hall below the pagoda and quickly spread to the structure Two other buildings in Nine Dragons Monastery were also reduced to rubble No casualties was reported and authority is investigating the cause of the fire A huge fire yesterday reduced a 16-storey Buddhist pagoda to rubble in China. The Lingguan Tower, billed as 'Asia's tallest wooden pagoda', burnt to the ground after being engulfed in the flames for about four hours. The fire reportedly started from a hall underneath the pagoda and quickly spread to...

After the dynasty collapsed, there were no clues as to where it was and it lived on only in legend through writings such as those of 13th century Venetian merchant Marco Polo. If Polo is to be believed, the walls of "the greatest palace that ever was" were covered with gold and silver and the main hall was so large that it could easily seat 6,000 people for dinner. "The palace was made of cane supported by 200 silk cords, which could be taken to pieces and transported easily when the emperor moved," he wrote in his travel journal. It...

Construction first begun in the third century BC, but nearly 6,300 kilometres were built in the Ming Dynasty of 1368-1644, including the much-visited sectors north of the capital Beijing. Of that, 1,962 kilometres has withered away over the centuries, the Beijing Times reported. Some of the construction weathered away, while plants growing in the walls have accelerated the decay, said the report Sunday, citing a survey last year by the Great Wall of China Society. "Even though some of the walls are built of bricks and stones, they cannot withstand the perennial exposure to wind and rain," the paper quoted...

One of ChinaÂ’s renowned ancient towns was under water on Wednesday as heavy rain hit the centre of the country, with tens of thousands of people evacuated from the area. The old town district of Fenghuang nestles on the banks of a winding river in a picturesque, mountainous part of Hunan province, and boasts stunning Qing and Ming dynasty architecture dating back hundreds of years. [Â…] According to ChinaÂ’s official Xinhua news agency, the Tuojiang river in the town had reached 1.1 meters above its previous highest recorded level, and several bridges had been damaged or destroyed. Â…

It is not much to look at - a small pitted brass coin with a square hole in the centre-but this relatively innocuous piece of metal is revolutionising our understanding of early East African history, and recasting China's more contemporary role in the region. A joint team of Kenyan and Chinese archaeologists found the 15th Century Chinese coin in Mambrui-a tiny, nondescript village just north of Malindi on Kenya's north coast. In barely distinguishable relief, the team leader Professor Qin Dashu from Peking University's archaeology department, read out the inscription: "Yongle Tongbao" - the name of the reign that minted...

A joint expedition of scientists led by Chapurukha M. Kusimba of The Field Museum and Sloan R. Williams of the University of Illinois at Chicago has unearthed a 600-year-old Chinese coin on the Kenyan island of Manda that shows trade existed between China and east Africa decades before European explorers set sail and changed the map of the world. The coin, a small disk of copper and silver with a square hole in the center so it could be worn on a belt, is called "Yongle Tongbao" and was issued by Emperor Yongle who reigned from 1403-1425AD during the Ming...

Archaeologists are stumped after finding a 100-year-old Swiss watch in an ancient tomb that was sealed more than 400 years ago. They believed they were the first to visit the Ming dynasty grave in Shangsi, southern China, since its occupant's funeral. But inside they uncovered a miniature watch in the shape of a ring marked 'Swiss' that is thought to be just a century old.

<p>I've occasionally gotten emails asking me what I think about the Chinese space program.</p> <p>Now, I'm prompted to respond, with this story about supposed plans to extend the Middle Kingdom to Luna, complete with resource extraction.</p> <p>Well, I sincerely hope that they do so. If they do, there's at least a possibility that it will shake us from our continued complacency toward serious civil space policy in this country. That's not to say that I hope that we'll immediately drop everything and head back to the Moon a la Apollo, but that at least we'll have a useful national discussion about it, which hasn't happened in decades.</p>