< China and Japan >
Many people want to travel abroad. Especially, these days, my school mates want to go to travel. Maybe they are under stress of final exams. I also want to get out of this circumstance. Thus, I compare two countries, China and Japan which are destinations where many Koreans go to travel. Simply, I observe basic information, cuisine, and capital cities. I feel these parts deserve some exploration.
Now, I introduce basic information of two countries. First of all, I will tell you about China. Total area of china is 9.8 million square kilometers and its population is 1.2 billion. China has shared borders for centuries with Korea, the formerly Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Burma, Laos and Vietnam. Unlike China, Japan is not a continent. It is a island.
Japan is situated in northeastern Asia between the North Pacific and the Sea of Korea. The area of Japan is about four hundred thousand square kilometers, nearly equivalent to Germany and Switzerland combined or slightly smaller than California. Japan consists of four major islands, surrounded by more than 4,000 smaller islands. The people's republic of China is the third largest country in the world in terms of area and the largest in terms of population, and most of them use chinese. Of course, population of Japan is quit numerous, but it is smaller than population of China. Its population is over 130 million, and there is only one official language spoken in Japan, which is of course Japanese.
And it is good to know about a capital when we travel. A capital city of China is Beijing. The Chinese history has strewn the land of Beijing with sites of cultural and historical interest. Some of them, such as the Great Wall, Former imperial Palace, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, and the ruins of Peking Man at Zhoukoudian, are UNESCO-endorsed world cultural heritage sites. Imperial palaces, mansions, gardens and tombs are epitomes of classical Chinese architecture. Among the massive number of ancient buildings that have remained to this day are quite a few Buddhist monasteries, Taoist temples and Catholic churches, such as Yonghegong Lamasery and Big Bell Temple. There are 120 museums worth seeing, including Museum of Chinese History and China Art Gallery.
A capital city of Japan is Tokyo. It is not only the center of politics and economy of Japan, but also it offers a number of must-see places. There are large scale downtown areas including the Ginza where all famous shops around the world stand side by side, Shinjuku high-rise complex and
its surroundings that never sleep, Asakusa with reminiscences of the traditional Edo(former name of Tokyo), and Shibuya that starts the trend for the young people as well as unique areas including
the computer town Akihabara where electric shops are densely competing and attracting many shoppers from Japan and overseas and the Tsukiji open-air wholesale food market that serves all consumers in Japan.
Two countries, China and Japan are very good place to travel when we go abroad, because they are not far from our country, have many kinds of food, and have various attractions. Like the preceding, we are able to know much about these countries. However, as the old saying goes, "Look before you leap". We have to learn more about countries' information before going to trip.