Q 01/05

Jiaozi, first issued in Song-dynasty Chengdu, are regarded as the world's earliest what?

A) Postage stamps

B) Paper money

C) Lottery tickets

D) Printed newspapers

Answer · why

B) Paper money

Paper money grew out of notes issued by Sichuan merchant houses, and when several of them went bankrupt the Song government took over the printing in ...

Q 02/05

Sichuan opera, a staple of Chengdu teahouses, is famous for bian lian, the instant changing of what?

A) Masks

B) Wigs

C) Shoes

D) Fans

Answer · why

A) Masks

Masks vanish with the swipe of a fan or a turn of the head, a secret that performers traditionally passed down only within their own families.

Q 03/05

Chengdu's New Century Global Center, one of Earth's largest structures, houses which indoor attraction?

A) An indoor ski slope

B) A motor racing track

C) An artificial beach

D) A safari park

Answer · why

C) An artificial beach

An artificial beach of 5,000 square metres sits inside the water park, facing a 150-metre screen that plays sunrises and sunsets along a fake horizon.

Q 04/05

Chengdu has one of China's lowest yearly totals of what, getting less than much of Northern Europe?

A) Rainfall

B) Humidity

C) Lightning

D) Sunshine

Answer · why

D) Sunshine

Sunshine reaches Chengdu for only about 1,000 hours a year, because the mountains ringing the Sichuan Basin hold fog and haze over the city.

Q 05/05

Which fiery Chengdu dish is named after the pockmarked old woman said to have created it?

A) Twice-cooked pork

B) Mapo tofu

C) Hot and sour soup

D) Tea-smoked duck

Answer · why

B) Mapo tofu

Mapo tofu joins 'ma', for pockmarks, with 'po', for an old woman, and records tie the dish to the Chen family's eatery beside a Chengdu bridge.