Did you know Chinese opera singers paint their faces so they look like characters?  They learn to paint theri face by practicing on paper masks. We took a class with an opera master from the Beijing Opera to learn about this and then he taught us to sing a bit of Chinese Opera.  Here are 20 other surprising facts about China: 1. The one child policy has changed.  It used to be that people in the city could only have one child and people in the country could have two.  Now in the city if your mom and dad are both only children, the can have 2 kids.  2. The thresholds on old doors are high so that ghosts (who they think are very tiny) can’t get in. 3. People usually don’t eat rice in north China, only noodles. 4. There were lots of rules about how to dress under the various dynasties.  During the Tang Dynsasty, the emporer could wear 9 pieces of jade on his belt, scholars could wear 2, and merchants couldn't wear any.  If you wore the wrong number you could be killed! 5. The wider the gate of your house, the more beams fit, and the more beams you have, the richer you are: 12 for the imperial family, 4 for government officials, 2 for rich families, 1 or 0 for normal people. 6. Many regular/poor families don’t own toilets and share them with others. 7. If you lose a tooth on the top row you have to drop it down a well, so it will grow strait down. If you lose one from the bottom row you have to throw it up in the air, hoping it will grow up. 8. In major cities like Beijing, one square meter can cost up to $4500. 9. People believe that old spirits rest in trees, and if you cut one down you will have very bad luck. 10. 1 in every 5 people in the world is Chinese. 11. Toilet paper was invented in China and used to be only for emperors. Ice Cream was invented in China around 2000B.C when some people put a soft rice and milk in the snow. 12. Kites were invented by the Chinese 3000 years ago, to scare enemies in battle. 13. The number one hobby in China is stamp collecting 14. White, instead of black, is the color for mourning in China. Wedding dresses are red. 15. In the late empire it was customary for rich men and women to grow their pinky nail very long as a sign of wealth. 16. Tea was invented when a tea leaf fell into an emperor’s boiling water. 17. Because the Chinese invented silk, the Romans called China “Serica” meaning “Land of silk”. 18.  Anyone caught trying to smuggle the secret of silk making out of China was killed. 19. In China, the bat is a traditional good luck symbol. 20. Most rich people in old China had horses and tied them to a post to make sure they don’t run away. They had a picture of either a ghost or monkey because a monkey means they are lucky and ghost because it is believed that if someone stole the horse the ghost would follow them. NOTE: This blog was done thanks to John Sun, Gerard, and www.facts.randomhistory.com/2009/05/05_china.html