Chinese Triads

The Chinese triads is an interesting subject because I learned a little about this in my criminal justice class. The history is the triads goes back to when the British controlled Hong Kong, they were named the "White Lotus Society" or "The Boxers". The triads follow a structure for leadership and the organization is very secretive and flows down to all its members. The triads originally started in China and now has influences all throughout Asia and maybe even further. The triad members engage in things such as extortion from businesses and people, money laundering, human trafficking and controlling prostitution. They have also been know for counterfeiting money and smuggling contraband. I saw a couple of Cantonese movies growing up about triad members and I thought I would make a posting about this. The triads also follow an initiation method that is similar to the Italian Mafia or the Japanese Yakuza. The amount of money the triads has now is a considerable amount and the amount of crime these days have lowered due to the more business like methods the triads conduct now. 

Dujiangyan Irrigation System

The Dujiangyan is a irrigation system that was built in 256BC and is located in the Min River. It irrigates over 5,300 square kilometers of land and is the oldest dam free irrigation system in the world. Originally, this irrigation system was built to remove the excess water from the mountains that had melting ice which would flood the grounds below. Now, this is used for access to a good supply of water for agriculture. The irrigation system was build by the Qin governor Li Bind and it is now considered a world heritage site. The Dujiangyan irrigation system follows a 3 piece system with the Yuzui or fish mouth in the front. It is a artificial levee that divides the water into the inner and outer stream. The inner stream carries water when the season is dry and the outer stream carries away excess water. The second part of the system is the Feishayan or the Flying Sand Weir. It is a 200 meter wide opening that connects both the inner and outer stream and is used to drain out water to protect against flooding. The last piece is the Baopingkou or the bottle neck channel, this is the last part that is pierced through the moutain and it distributes water to the farmlands and protects the land against flooding by creating whirlpools to carry extra water away. This was interesting because I did not know China has a strong piece of history as creating the oldest dam free irrigation system that still works today.

Agriculture in China

Agriculture in China is a much needed industry because of the amount of money and time China has invested in agriculture. China has employed over 300 million farmers and China has the highest output in producing things such as rice, wheat, potatoes, tea, pork, fish, etc. China produces 20% of the worlds population of food and only has 10% of the arable land worldwide. China primarily uses the land for food crops such as rice. This is the most popular export in China because of the regions that China controls for growing them. Wheat is the second most grown crop in China and is usually grown in the valleys or northern China. China has the highest level of exported foods in the world and sustains one of the highest income for exports. China also has a large amount of livestock farms that raises cattle, pigs, chickens, and fowls. There are exports of gourmet foods in China too such as exotic meats. China exports turtles from their turtle farms and sells roughly 92,000 tons of turtles a year or about 300 million turtles. Because China market of selling agriculture is unstable, farmers sell their produce at different prices and prices fluctuate depending on the harvest and the profit margins for that year. If one produce is in demand, then farmers would most likely produce those to maximize profits. The agriculture market is not regulated like here in the U.S.

Education In China

Education in china is a real important factor of life because it can decide whether you get into a certain school or how your future will be. The education system in china is a state-run system that is ran by the ministry of education. Every citizen in China must attend school for at least 9 years, in which those are the first 6 years in elementary and 3 in middle school. Any education further than that will ultimately come down to grades and how high the scores were in terms of tests. Since the population of China is so large, the requirements for grades and the ranking of tests are put much higher than standards in the U.S. The budget of China education is lower than that of the U.S but China's education standards are one of the highest in the world. China ranks third in the amount of international students that studies in China and ranks 6th in privatized education. China has a strict exam called the "National Higher education entrance examination" which is an exam for those in the high school level seeking college admission. This is a strict 3 day exam that tests on the 8 subjects of school. High school also has an entrance exam as well but it isn't as high as this exam.