By: Lauren Squitieri and Jenna Lavan ! Chinese Inventions!

When you look at stuff, did you know that half of it was invented in China? But guess what. They’re Chinese inventions! Chinese people invented lots of things like fireworks, paper, printing, wheelbarrows, the abacus, compass, water clock, saddles, silk, gunpowder, and much more.

Kites! The Chinese invented kites that were lots of different kinds. No more of the plain old boring triangle kites. Now most of the kites in China are… dragons, hawks, sheep, rooster pig, dog, monkey, rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, snake and horse. The Chinese made most of those kites because those are the animals of the lunar calendar. It takes a long time for people to make these wonderful kites. It takes them a long time because these kites are important in the Chinese culture. That’s why people put pride and time into the kites they make. The Chinese invented the kites because they’re the people who had the materials: silk, bamboo, and paper.

I scream! You scream! We all scream for ice cream! Did you know that back when the Chinese invented ice cream, “Iced tea” was not as appetizing as it is now. Originally, ice cream was made for the emperor with buffalo or goat milk to form yogurt. Then they topped it off with camphor a bug repellent! EIWWWWWWW!!! Which one do you think is better; Mr. softy or… ice cream from long ago? I would obviously pick Mr. Softy! Imagine that there were no freezers back then and you had to climb a mountain for snow for your ice cream. People would then top off their ice cream with berries. Ice Cream!

Pop, pop, boom! On the Fourth of July fireworks shooting across the sky blue, green, yellow, red, purple, and pink “I wonder how they made this?“ You would say this when you are three. But guess what? Fireworks were invented in China! It all started when someone put gunpowder inside hollow bamboo. It started to explode but the bamboo made the explosion shoot out in one direction. That’s how they invented fireworks.

After a long time, for the festivals they attached the bamboo stick to arrows with gunpowder in it. Later they discovered that gunpowder would explode if there were any air that was touching it. They called this weapon “Arrows of Flying Fire. I thought that it was really cool that Chinese people used fireworks for war weapons. The emperor thought the Arrow of Flying Fire would hit their enemies. Someone instead got scared. So then, instead of an “Arrow of Flying Fire” they put the fireworks into rockets that could actually hit something. I think that fireworks are prettier when they are are in festivals, not wars or weapons!