First Outer Court, Forbidden City, Beijing, adjacent to vast Tiananmen Square

First Outer Court, Forbidden City.
Originally uploaded by monstro.

This photo illustrates the first of three huge courtyards between the entrance of the city and the inner section, where the emperor and his concubines resided.

Struggle of the titans:
from the late 1940's, the end of WWII, the clash was bwteen the US and the USSR. It resulted in the Cold War. Your grandparents and parents learned that our foe was Russia.

But in the early 1990's, 2 things changed:
* the USSR collapsed and Russians abandoned communism.
* the Chinese abandoned the communistic Controlled Economy. To be sure, they kept the Totalitarian aspect of communism (example: "One family, one child.").

The result? China's economic freedom has boosted the economy enormously. Their income growth has far surpassed the Russians.'

Thus, today it is the US vs. China. And the new era is often called China's century.

Place these cities in order of population rank:
Hong Kong
Shanghai
Beijing (Peking)

What is it about the location of Beijing that makes it an unlikely capital?

Comparison between the palace in the Forbidden City and the White House?

"Ni hau!" is the most widely-spoken greeting in the world. Is it Mandarin Chinese (northern) or cantonese Chinese (southern)? Mandarin.

Mandarin also indicates things of high quality (mandarin oranges) or a family of power and achievement (the Bush and Kennedy families would be American mandarins).

Western stereotypes about Asians:
inscrutable (scrutiny) - cannot tell what they're thinking.

japanese currency: yen
Chinese currency: yuan.

Infanticide and the dowry: in India and China girl infants are not highly valued - they represent a large future expense in the dowry system.