Size does matter!

Anyone who discusses scale in any forum is invariably talking about China or India. Most likely, it is China than the other alternative.

Here is some perspective , the obvious ones being :

The world’s most populated country. The most spoken language in the world(obviously!). The biggest manufacturing industry – the world’s factory. The fastest and the largest emerging nation. The largest Communist Country. The second largest economy. The worlds fastest train – Guangzhou to Wuhan. The world’s biggest square – Tiananmen. The G2.And many more.


Here are some examples that are testimonies to the largesse of China, both historically and in modern times :
 Courtesy:Web 2.0

The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire during various successive dynasties against foreign invasion from the Mongolians and the Manchurians. The Great Wall stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. The entire Great Wall, with all of its branches, stretches for 8,851.8 km. This is made up of 6,259.6 km of sections of actual wall, 359.7 km of trenches and 2,232.5 km of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers.




Courtesy:Web 2.0

The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang the First Emperor of China are figures, dating from 210 BC, discovered in 1974 by some local farmers near Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China. The pits contain terracotta statues of over 8,000 life sized soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits. The Terracotta statues are spread across the underbelly of the city of Modern day Xian for 53 square kilometers! That is a massive city under a city with life
sized palaces, cavalry, horses, armaments and infantrymen made of terracotta with no single horse , soldier or general resembling another, buried under the city as a takeaway for the emperor to be reborn with in his after life. Only 1 % of this h as been excavated and less than half of it has been made open to the public.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the founding and the ruling political party of the People's Republic of China (PRC) is also the world's largest political party. The party was small at first, but grew intermittently through the 1920s. Twelve voting delegates were seated at the 1st National Party Congress in 1921. The total membership in the party had grown to a staggering 60 million by 2000!






Courtesy:Web 2.0



 Courtesy:Web 2.0

The Three Gorges dam is the world biggest man made dam built ever. This is China’s Mega dam across the mighty Yangtze river or the Chang Jiang as the Zhongguoren, the people of the Middle kingdom call it , is the 3rd biggest river in the world after the Amazon and the Nile! The dam wall is made of concrete and is about 2,309 metres (7,575 ft) long, and 101 metres (331 ft) high. The wall is 115 metres (380 ft) thick on the bottom and 40 metres (131.2 ft) thick on top. The project used 27,200,000 cubic metres (35,600,000 cu yd) of concrete, 463,000 tonnes of steel, enough to build 63 Eiffel Towers, and moved about 102,600,000 cubic metres (134,200,000 cu yd) of earth. The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest hydroelectric power station by total capacity, which will be 22,500 MW. The reservoir flooded a total area of 632 km² of land, enough to cover Singapore. This dam provides 10% of the power needs of the powerhouse that is China!


There are many more examples and every one of them clearly of magnificent proportions. These are not rare to find but on the contrary, are too common and too many to list in this blog. These are manifestations of the Chinese phsyche. This is a reflection of their superiority and largesse. This is a reflection of their intent to be the biggest and the most dominating force in the world. The canvas in China is very tall and wide. The writing on the canvas is loud and clear. China is big, getting bigger and bigger in all realms. And size does matter.