Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

China

A close-up shows Tianwen-1's gold body, a solar array that powers the craft, and various antennas in full with Mars as its backdrop.

China’s Mars Orbiter Takes Selfies From Outer Space

The images were snapped using a camera deployed from the spacecraft, which floated away into the vastness of the cosmos

Workers removed the sculpture from the University of Hong Kong's campus under the cover of night.

Hong Kong Removes ‘Pillar of Shame’ Honoring Tiananmen Square Victims

The move arrives amid continuing crackdowns on pro-democracy protesters in the Asian city

Chemical analysis of stalagmites in nearby underwater caves indicated that extensive flooding caused the collapse of the Liangzhu culture.

New Research

Why Did This Chinese City of Canals Collapse in the Third Millennium B.C.E.?

New research suggests Liangzhu, “China’s Venice of the Stone Age,” was abandoned due to extreme flooding

Travel by way of these ten titles.

The Best Books of 2021

The Ten Best Books About Travel of 2021

With many of our wings still clipped by Covid-19 this year, we needed to travel vicariously through these adventurous reads

Ai Weiwei's Whitewash (1995–2000), pictured here in the M+ museum's newly opened galleries, features 126 Neolithic clay jars unearthed in China.

Major Contemporary Art Museum Debuts in Hong Kong Amid Censorship Concerns

M+ promises to be a leading cultural destination, but China’s new national security law threatens its curatorial freedom

The naturally mummified remains were remarkably well preserved, with some still sporting clothing and hair.

Cool Finds

New Research Reveals Surprising Origins of Millennia-Old Mummies Found in China

Once thought to be migrants from West Asia, the deceased were actually direct descendants of a local Ice Age population, DNA analysis suggests

Chinese railroad workers near the Secret Town Trestle in Placer County, California, around 1869

Cool Finds

Artifacts Used by Chinese Transcontinental Railroad Workers Found in Utah

Researchers discovered the remains of a mid-19th century house, a centuries-old Chinese coin and other traces of the short-lived town of Terrace

Titled Avant-Garde, the monumental shaped canvas alludes to Liu as a “guard” of a socialist reality she did not condone.

The Revolutionary Portraiture of Hung Liu

For this large-scale retrospective of the Asian American artist, who died this summer, east meets west in an exquisite collision

Approximately 71 percent of modern Japanese people's ancestry comes from the newly identified Kofun period population.

New Research

DNA Analysis Rewrites Ancient History of Japan

A new study suggests the island’s modern populations trace their ancestry to three distinct groups, not two as previously proposed

Archaeologists have been excavating the palace, which served as the seat of power for the Silla dynasty, since 2014.

Remains of Likely Human Sacrifice Victim Found in Foundation of Korean Palace

The young woman died in her 20s during the fourth century C.E.

Some of the vessels contained residue from an alcoholic brew.

Cool Finds

Remains of 9,000-Year-Old Beer Found in China

The lightly fermented beverage contained rice, tubers and fungi

The couple's skeletons (left) and an artist's rendition of the pair (right)

Cool Finds

1,500-Year-Old Skeletons Found Locked in Embrace in Chinese Cemetery

The couple was probably buried during the Northern Wei period, when Buddhism was taking hold in the region

Construction of multiple telescopes has begun on Saishiteng Mountain—near the town of Lenghu in the Qinghai province of China. The site could be China’s first major observatory, on par with those in Hawaii, Chile, and the Canary Islands.

Future of Space Exploration

Why the Tibetan Plateau Might Be the Ideal Spot for the Telescope of the Future

A team in China has identified a location that could give the Eastern Hemisphere its first major observatory

Radiocarbon dating suggests the workshop began minting operations between 640 and 550 B.C.E.

Cool Finds

World’s Oldest Known Coin Mint Found in China

The 2,600-year-old site produced highly standardized “spade money,” possibly on government orders

Tea Time, Hongkew, Shanghai, China, April 1946

Europe’s Jews Found Refuge in Shanghai During the Holocaust

A new exhibition in Illinois centers the stories of the 20,000 Jewish refugees who fled to the Chinese city

Researchers say that wild plants that gave rise to today’s three lineages of cannabis grew in present-day China.

New Study Suggests Cannabis’ Wild Ancestors Likely Came from China

The analysis identifies East Asia as a potential source of genetic diversity for the growing market for medical and recreational marijuana

A researcher looks at Artemisia annua seedlings. The plant contains malaria-fighting compounds.

World Health Organization Certifies China as Malaria-Free

In the 1940s, the country recorded 30 million cases of malaria each year

A Chinese mountain cat photographed in a field of grass.

New Research

Elusive Chinese Mountain Cats Aren’t Domestic Cats’ Ancestors

Past genetic studies on feline domestication hadn’t included this wildcat native to the Tibetan Plateau

Based on the size of the skull, the research team also found that the rhino had a long thick neck, a short trunk similar to that of a modern-day tapir, and a deeper nasal cavity.

This Prehistoric Giant Rhino Was ‘Taller Than a Giraffe’

The prehistoric mammal had a 3.8-foot-long head and stood at about 16 feet tall

An aerial photo taken on June 5, 2021 shows the herd of Asian elephants in the Jinning District of Kunming, a populous city located in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

A Herd of 15 Elephants Is Wandering North Across China—and Nobody Knows Why

Experts are unsure why the group began its journey, which now spans more than 300 miles, or where it will end

Page 8 of 15