The Thai zodiac includes a Naga in place of the Dragon and begins, not at Chinese New Year, but at either on the first day of fifth month in Thai lunar calendar, or during the Songkran festival ( now celebrated every 13 – 15 April ), depending on the purpose of the use.

* In the Chinese language, common era ( 公元 ， Gong yuan ) has been predominantly used to refer to the western calendar without any religious connotation.

An example of a Chinese calendar.

The Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar, incorporating elements of a lunar calendar with those of a solar calendar.

In most of East Asia today, the Gregorian calendar is used for day-to-day activities, but the Chinese calendar is still used for marking traditional East Asian holidays such as the Chinese New Year, the Duan Wu festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, and in astrology, such as choosing the most auspicious date for a wedding or the opening of a building.

Another name for the Chinese calendar is the " yin calendar " ( 陰曆 / 阴历 ) in reference to the lunar aspect of the calendar, whereas the Gregorian calendar is the " yang calendar " ( 陽曆 / 阳历 ) in reference to its solar properties.

The year 2012 in the Chinese calendar is the Year of the Dragon.

The earliest evidence of the Chinese calendar is found on the oracle bones of the Shang Dynasty ( late second millennium BC ), which seem to describe a lunisolar year of 12 months, with a possible intercalary 13th, or even 14th, added empirically to prevent calendar drift.

The sìfēn 四分 ( quarter remainder ) calendar, which began about 484 BC, was the first calculated Chinese calendar, so named because it used a solar year of 365¼ days ( the same as the 1st century BC Julian Calendar of Rome ), along with a 19-year ( 235-month ) Rule Cycle zhang 章, known in the West as the Metonic cycle.

And one cannot but wonder whether Marshal Malinovsky, who was blowing hot and cold, exalting peace but also almost openly considering the possibility of preventive war against the West, wasn't trying to keep the Chinese quiet.

The ledger was full of most precise information: date of laying, length of incubation period, number of chick reaching the first week, second week, fifth week, weight of hen, size of rooster's wattles and so on, all scrawled out in a hand that looked more Chinese than English, the most jagged and sprawling Alex had ever seen.

Bursting from the lips of a charging cavalry trooper was the last sound heard on this earth by untold numbers of Cheyennes, Sioux and Apaches, Mexican banditos under Pancho Villa, Japanese in the South Pacific, and Chinese and North Korean Communists in Korea.

The concept of the Middle Kingdom at peace, strong and united under a forceful ruler, which had been only a longed-for ideal in the time of the Warring States, was finally realized by the establishment of a Chinese Empire under the Ch'in dynasty ( 221-207 B.C. ).

Although modern scholars have expressed surprise that `` the simple magic square of three '', a mere `` mathematical puzzle '', was able to exert a considerable influence on the minds and imaginations of the cultured Chinese for so many centuries, they could have found most of the answers right within the square itself.

Such an analysis speedily reveals why the middle number of the Lo Shu, 5, was so vitally significant for the Chinese ever since the earliest hints that they had a knowledge of this diagram.

Although the primary mathematical properties of the middle number at the center of the Lo Shu, and the interrelation of all the other numbers to it, might seem enough to account for the deep fascination which the Lo Shu held for the Old Chinese philosophers, this was actually only a beginning of wonders.

The Chinese world view during the Han dynasty, when the Lo Shu seems to have been at the height of its popularity, was based in large part on the teachings of the Yin-Yang and Five-Elements School, which was traditionally founded by Tsou Yen.

but in this respect it was merely following the accepted Chinese convention for all maps.

In its monastic form, Mahayana was merely an organization of magic-practicing monks ( bonzes ), who catered to the Chinese faith in the supernatural.

But in the Chinese mind, there was little difference between the two -- the bonzes were no more metaphysical than a magician has to be.

Early Chinese anchoritism was theoretically aimed at a mystic pantheist union with the divine, personal salvation being achieved when the mystical recluse united with divine essence.

In the popular Chinese mind, Ch'an ( Zen ) was no exception to the ideas of coarse magic that dominated.

The zero was probably introduced to the Chinese in the Tang Dynasty ( 618-907 AD ) when travel in the Indian Ocean and the Middle East would have provided direct contact with India, allowing them to acquire the concept of zero and the decimal point from Indian merchants and mathematicians.

); its design was planned by the government of the day ; and it places individual letters in syllable clusters with equal dimensions, in the same way as Chinese characters, to allow for mixed-script writing ( one syllable always takes up one type-space no matter how many letters get stacked into building that one sound-block ).

In Chinese astronomy, the stream of water flowing from the Water Jar was depicted as the " Army of Yu-Lin " ( Yu-lin-kiun ).

Even though this period-known in its earlier part as the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period-in its latter part was fraught with chaos and bloody battles, it is also known as the Golden Age of Chinese philosophy because a broad range of thoughts and ideas were developed and discussed freely.

The Agrarians believed that Chinese society should be modeled around that of the early sage king Shen Nong, a folk hero which was portrayed in Chinese literature as " working in the fields, along with everyone else, and consulting with everyone else when any decision had to be reached.

The main question of this school was whether Being came before Not-Being ( in Chinese, ming and wuming ).

Mahayana Buddhism was far more successful in China than its rival Hinayana, and both Indian schools and local Chinese sects arose from the 5th century.

The Chinese School of Agrarianism was a philosophy that advocated peasant utopian communalism and egalitarianism.

It was also widely used by the Chinese for its healing chemicals, curing illnesses such as infections, rashes, and migraines.

First catering to miners and railroad workers, they established eateries in towns where Chinese food was completely unknown.

but I am also a young, able and willing girl who wants to study the Chinese language but is not old enough.

Amaranth greens, also called Chau lai ( Hindi ) and Chu or Chua ( Kumauni ), Chinese spinach, hinn choy or yin tsoi (); callaloo, dhantinasoppu ( ದ ಂ ಟ ಿ ನ ಸ ೊ ಪ ್ ಪ ು) / harive ( ಹರ ಿ ವ ೆ) ( Kannada ); త ో టక ూ ర ( Telugu ); Rajgira ( र ा जग ी र ा) ( Marathi ); ம ு ள ை க ் க ீ ர ை ( Tamil ); cheera ച ീ ര ( Malayalam ); bayam ( Indonesian ); phak khom ผ ั กโขม ( Thai ); tampala, or quelite ( Oriya ); Khada Saga, are a common leaf vegetable throughout the tropics and in many warm temperate regions.

Since tomatoes are New World plants, they are also fairly new to China and Chinese cuisine.

Restaurants specializing in Cantonese, Sichuanese, Hunanese, Northern Chinese, Shanghainese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong traditions are widely available, as are more specialized restaurants such as seafood restaurants, Hong Kong-style diners and cafes ( also known as Cha chaan teng ( 茶餐廳 chácāntīng )), dim sum teahouses, and hot pot restaurants.

Many Chinatown areas also feature Chinese bakeries, boba milk tea shops, roasted meat, vegetarian cuisine, and specialized dessert shops.

These include Hindu astrology ( also known as " Indian astrology " and in modern times referred to as " Vedic astrology ") and Chinese astrology, both of which have influenced the world's cultural history.

Tibetan astrology also shares many of these components but has also been strongly influenced by Chinese culture and acknowledges a circle of animal signs similar to that of the Chinese zodiac ( see below ).

The research also indicates that Italian, Mexican and Chinese ( Cantonese ) have become so adapted to such an extent that " authenticity " is no longer a concern to customers.

The Centauro Wheeled Tank Destroyer of the Italian and Spanish Armies, the Chinese anti-tank gun PTL-02 and the French AMX 10 RC heavy armored car are also good examples.

Modern weapons include the Russian ZSU-23-4 Shilka and Tunguska-M1, South Korean K30 Biho and K263A1 radar-guided Vulcan, Chinese Type 95 SPAAA, Swedish CV9040 AAV, Polish PZA Loara, American M6 Bradley Linebacker and M1097 Humvee Avenger, Yugoslavian BOV-3, Canadian ADATS, aging German Gepard, Japanese Type 87 SPAAG and similar versions with the British Marksman turret ( which was also adapted for a number of other users ), Italian SIDAM 25 and Otomatic, and versions of the French AMX-13.

There are also the many North American Indian festivals tied to harvest of autumnally ripe foods gathered in the wild, the Chinese Mid-Autumn or Moon festival, and many others.

Bilge's khaganate spanned vast steppes from the Caspian Sea to Manchuria ; he also invaded the western sections of the Chinese territories.

" Pearl milk tea " is also used by English speakers and overseas Chinese and Taiwanese speakers, but it is usually called bubble tea.

Genetically altered mammalian cells, such as Chinese Hamster Ovary cells ( CHO ), are also used to manufacture certain pharmaceuticals.

A more general binomial theorem and the so-called " Pascal's triangle " were known in the 10th-century A. D. to Indian mathematician Halayudha and Persian mathematician Al-Karaji, in the 11th century to Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam, and in the 13th century to Chinese mathematician Yang Hui, who all derived similar results .< ref > Al-Karaji also provided a mathematical proof of both the binomial theorem and Pascal's triangle, using mathematical induction.

Chinese characters can also be written in either direction as well as vertically ( top to bottom then right to left ), especially in signs ( such as plaques ), but the orientation of the individual characters is never changed.

There are also numerous historical constellations not recognized by the IAU, or constellations recognized in regional traditions of astronomy or astrology, such as Chinese, Hindu and Australian Aboriginal.

The 28 lunar mansions are one of the most important and also the most ancient structures in the Chinese sky, attested from the 5th century BC.

In this period, the Chinese worshipped many different gods — weather gods and sky gods — and also a supreme god, named Shangdi, who ruled over the other gods.