Short articles for your coffee break
Ching Shi (1775 – 1844) was a prositute from southeastern China. She became one of the most powerful female pirate, with the command of a fleet exceeding 300 ships.
After a coalition with the Cantonese pirate forces, the Red Flag fleet grew to more than 1700 ships, manned by more than 50 000 pirates. Ching Shi entered in conflict with the Portuguese Empire, the British Empire, and the Qing dinasty, and became the “Terror of South China”.
More info: Ching Shi
Built over 1300 years ago, the city of Shi Cheng (“Lion City”) is only accessible by experienced divers.
In order to create a lake for the Xin’an River Dam project in 1959, the valley was deliberately flooded. Located 400 km south of Shanghai, the ruins of the ancient city remain in the bottom of Qiandao Lake.
More info: Shi Cheng
In Hunan province in southern China, women from the Yao people used for a long time a secret ancestral writing.
Writing in nüshu was for them a way to prevent men to understand their communications.
More info: Nüshu
The Coffee Corner 