Answers

Here are the answers to the questions posted above, with an explanation of how I conceived this question.


1. Literacy in China is 90%, and while computers are not available to a large portion of the population and typing in Chinese is difficult, I believe the biggest factor limiting the number of Chinese-language Wikipedia pages is that Wikipedia has been banned in China. You can read about the details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocking_of_Wikipedia_in_mainland_China and actually the article states that currently the website are unblocked. The bans have mostly been to prevent people reading about topics controversial to the PRC government (Tiananmen Square). As a result, the website probably hasn't attracted a popular following and I'd be willing to bet that most of the articles on the site have been created by posters in Taiwan, Hong Kong or elsewhere in the world. Wikipedia's banning in China was a huge factor for me during my stay there.

2. This city is Berlin. Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech during the Cold War where he said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Joseph Stalin entered at some point after the Soviets conquered the city at the end of the European action in World War II. Adolf Hitler of course worked here. Michael Jackson dangled a baby outside the balcony of the Hotel Adlon right near the Brandenburg Gate. Lastly, Usain Bolt ran a 9.58 100m dash in the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, breaking the world record he set in Beijing. Like many great cities, many famous people will step inside it. I mean, who hasn't been to New York? But Berlin is special because so much happened there in the 20th century, and the fact that all these famous people did famous things in that city in so many different walks reflects why I find the city fascinating.

3. The owner of the kayak was evidently an Olympic hopeful who failed to qualify for the 2004 Games in Athens and set his/her sight on the 2008 Games. Now every reader of this blog will know that the 2008 Games were in Beijing. However, since Beijing was an inland city, all the sailing and kayaking events took place in Qingdao, a coastal city that was once a German colony and more commonly known on Western maps as Tsingtao. The Germans set up a brewery in the city and now Tsingtao beer is the most popular in China and I am very familiar with its taste.

4. Irish is the least spoken language of the European Union. The official languages of the EU are simply the official languages of its member nations, although this was a relatively recent policy and Irish was not accepted as an official language of the EU until January 1, 2007. Irish, a Celtic language often miscalled Gaelic, is obviously the official language in Ireland (along with English), and just about all official signs in Ireland are bilingual. Well known is city centre, which in Irish is An lar, because we would see that on the buses about 10 times a day. Irish is taught in the schools very early on and for many years. However, I found that most students only had a basic grasp on the language, even after nearly a decade of study. The official data is that Irish has 355,000 native speakers and another 1.8 million claiming to have some knowledge. Wikipedia states that Maltese had 371,000 speakers in 1975, but the country's population estimate is now 413,000 and you'd have to imagine that the vast majority of them speak Maltese. Another source I found has 500,000 for Maltese. Estonian has just over a million and no other language is really close. In fact, several unofficial languages including Catalan, Galician, Russian and even Corsican have more speakers than Irish. Since they are not official languages of any EU member state, even though some are protected languages, they are not official languages of the EU.

5. The plaque to the Forbidden City that I am referring to is on the right. I am 100% sure of the scripts, although I may not be matching them up correctly, but from left to right, they are Manchu, Tibetan, Chinese and Mongolian.

6. Victoria Coach Station is in London, Lake Victoria is the African great lake that touches Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya (although this has nothing to do with my travels), Victoria Peak is the main mountain in Hong Kong and a place I've gone just about every time I've visited, and Greater Victoria is the metropolitan area around the British Columbia capital in Western Canada.

7. Eric P. Kelly wrote The Trumpeter of Krakow while studying in the city. The legend of the trumpet call is murky which you can read about here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hejna%C5%82_mariacki . Anyways, I had forgotten about the book until I was on the train to Krakow and realized that I was going to visit the city of the book. I did hear the trumpet tune break off abruptly but it didn't seem as if most people there were even aware of it.

8. Charles Bridge in Prague was constructed on the palindromic date/time by King Charles. The construction was overseen by the legendary Peter Parler and he allegedly found the mortar to be too weak and ordered eggs to be added to it. All this was written on a sign in my hostel in Prague. A scientific study was done recently and found that the Charles Bridge mortar does in fact have an organic component.

9. The Irish and British do not "line up" - instead they "queue." On rare occasions, I would see signs ordering people to Q here, and it took me quite a bit to understand what to do.

10. The Stockholm Syndrome is a psychological response where hostages sympathize with their captors, and was named so after a bank robbery in Stockholm.