Ancient China

Ancient China

The year is 3500 B.C. and I live in the north-western part of China. I love my home! I have an older sister, an older brother, a mom, and a dad. I live near the mountains. These are not just any mountains, these are the Himalayas! They are one of the largest mountain ranges in the world! Even though I live near the mountains, it is hot. The snow from the mountains melts and forms the rivers I live by: the Yellow River and the Yangzi River.

In some parts of where I live, there are deserts. That is also another reason why it is so hot. In the winter, however, the temperature can drop to as low as 50 degrees C! It can be really cold in the winter! China’s lowest point of land is the Turfan Depression. It is called one of China’s furnaces because it is so hot! South of where I live is wet and tropical. It also has a lot of rainforests there. That’s why I like visiting there. It is so beautiful!

My father is a type of artist. He works with the minerals of our Earth. Some of them are jade, bronze, and even silk. Silk is very rare in my country. We don’t want anybody to know because it is very hard to make it of high quality and it is expensive. My father can make all kinds of things! He makes belts for my sister, my mom, and I, and weapons for my brother and him. My brother is going to be like my dad one day. He will make things like these, then sell them.

The religion in my country may be weird to you, but not to me. In my country we believe in something called the afterlife. An after life is the life you have after you die. When someone dies we put all kinds of things in their tombs, such as: jewelry, weapons, and some of their own things. I believe in a special relation between the living and the dead. My people believe that our ancestors are in the spirit world, living with the gods. Our ancestors persuade the gods to bring good or bad luck to people. Sometimes we hold ceremonies or rituals to persuade or ancestors to bring good luck.
Our writing system is very different from the English language. I use logograms instead of letters. Unlike letters, logograms represent words and meanings. Logograms are basically just different line strokes. Many archeologists have found bones from people in the Shang dynasty with this writing on them. This writing has not changed for thousands and thousands of years