Asia Factoids...You'd never guess!

Food $ Entertainment Technology People and Geography

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Food

The first "beef-free" McDonald's was opened in India in late 1996.
Due to Hindu dietary customs, which proscribe the eating of beef,
the "Maharaja Mac" was introduced instead...and is made of mutton.

Canadian exports of mozzarella cheese to Asia have increased considerably over the past ten years due to the Asian demand for, you guessed it, Pizza!

The rice terraces of the upland Philippines are considered one of the seven wonders of the world.

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In terms of Purchasing Power Parities the Indian GNP is one the largest in the world.

Mumbai (formerly Bombay) has some of the highest office real estate prices in the world.

Approximately 80% of Singaporians own their own homes.

8.4% of the cars sold in Thailand in 1995 were Mercedes-Benz. The Kingdom is the second largest market share for Mercedes outside of Germany. Canada, though, has more automobiles per person than any other country with at least one care for every two Canadians.

Japan ranks in at number one according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) when it comes to overall human/social development. The UNDP's human development index a combination of income levels, literacy rates and life expectancy. Japan scores 98.3 whereas Canada is a close second at 98.2.

Japan has the most rail passengers than any other nation in the world with 1, 992 persons per km per year. It also has the largest fleet of merchant ships in the world. Singapore has the largest fleet of merchant ships in the world reporting 238,400,000 tonnes of cargo traffic in 1994. 1996, Canada loaded and unloaded 351 million tonnes of cargo in its ports.

Entertainment

The films "Hard Target" and "Broken Arrow" were directed by Hong Kong's John Woo.

98% of Japanese citizens own a VCR!

India produces more full-length feature films than any other country in the world with 750 produced in 19 languages in 1995.

China has the highest rates of cinema attendance in the world at 14.1 visits per head, per year. India on the other hand, is the world's most prolific film makers with 750 films produced in 18 languages in 1995.

Technology

India has more computer programmers than any other country in the world.

Taiwan makes and exports more motherboards than any other Asian economy.

People and Geography

Indonesia is not only the fourth most populous country in the world with a population of 197 million (1995), but has the highest population of Muslims compared to any other nation.

The Japanese language is related to Korean and Mongolian and, as a member of the Altaic linguistic family, is distantly related to Turkish, Finnish and Hungarian.

The colony of Hong Kong (returned to China in July of 1997) includes 235 surrounding islands.

Approximately 95% of the population of Bhutan is engaged in subsistence agriculture.

More than half of all Mongolians are under 15 years old.

Bangladesh has the third highest marriage rates in the world (after Bermuda and Cuba) with 11.3 marriages per 1000 persons.

The "Jeepney" of the Philippines, a form of informal transport, is based on the World War II American Jeeps that were left in the country more than 40 years ago.

There are at least 100 ethnic groups living in and 300 distinct languages spoken in the Indonesian archipelago.

The Philippines is the number one exporter of labour in the world. It is estimated that at least 4.5 million Filipinos work abroad, mostly women. Remittances from expatriate Filipinos contribute significantly to the Gross National Product of their country.

There are over 13,500 islands in the Indonesian archipelago. The Philippines contains more than 7,000.

The ancient Indus Valley Civilization in northwest India and Pakistan (circa 3-5000 BC) was the home of complex cities and social structures boasting advanced civil engineering, cultural production and agricultural sophistication. The script remains undeciphered to this day.

China has the third largest land area in the world with 9,561,000 square km.

The highest peak in the world is Mount Everest in Nepal/China (separate peaks part of the same massif). Height -- 8,848 metres.

The Yangtze river is the third longest river in the world (6,380 km) after the Nile and the Amazon. By comparison, Canada's longest river, the Mackenzie, is 4,241 km in length.

Hong Kong has the second highest population density in the world, after Macao, at 5,677 people per square km. Macao's density is an incredible 31,063 persons per square km.

India has the second largest road network after the US with 1,843,420 kms. Hong Kong has the most crowded road network with 279 vehicles per km (1988-1992). Canada has 300,000 km of surfaced roads and 530,000 km of unpaved roads across the country.

Indonesia has the second largest concentration of tropical forests in the world after Brazil and can therefore be considered one of the "lungs of the planet". It is home to 500 species of mammals, 1500 bird species, 1000 types of reptiles and amphibians and 3000 kinds of fish as well as countless invertebrates.

The four highest peaks in the world are in the Himalayan range straddling Nepal, China and Pakistan. Canada's highest peak is Mount Logan in the Yukon (5,951 m).