We’ve arrived at the next continent on my quest to learn all the countries in the world, so I can complete the “Countries of the World”-quiz on Jetpunk: Asia.
Now, I didn’t really learn all the Asian countries as rigorously as the ones in Africa. Partly because I already knew way more countries (and where they are roughly located within the continent) to begin with, but also because with a few trials, I already almost always achieved a 100% score on the Asia quiz on Jetpunk. That said, I still sometimes forget to name Bhutan or Brunei (but funny enough, only one of them each time), confuse the location of the -stan countries and for some reason, Malaysia is almost always the last country I enter into the quiz. But I think these minor hiccups will take care of themselves, as I continue to complete the Asia quiz (nearly) every morning, as I’ve done with the African one as well.
That said, as with my last post, here is my list of interesting facts about some countries in Asia:
The Mountain “Ararat”, an important symbol for Armenia, is actually located in Türkiye.
Bangladesh was formerly known as “East Pakistan”.
Bhutan measures their success via the “Gross National Happiness”-Index instead of the GDP. They also have not a single traffic light in the whole country (what?).
Speaking of GDP, Brunei has the 9th highest GDP per capita and provides free education and healthcare for all its citizens.
Despite its ginormous size, China has only one time zone.
Georgia is considered the birthplace of wine.
The world’s largest film industry is not Hollywood, but Bollywood from India.
Indonesia consists of a whooping 17’000 and some more islands.
Iran was formerly known as “Persia”.
Iraq is considered the cradle of civilization (Mesopotamia).
The world’s oldest company exists in Japan and was founded in 578 AD. They are a construction company and mainly work on the construction but also restoration/repair of mostly cultural heritage buildings. How fitting!
The largest landlocked country on earth is Kazakhstan. You might have already known this fact if you’re a regular over on /til.
The world’s strongest currency is the Kuwaiti Dinar (from, surprise, Kuwait). One KWD is currently worth over 3 USD.
Laos is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia.
The Gobi Desert in Mongolia is the coldest desert in the world.
Myanmar’s former name is Burma.
Nepal just has the most distinctive flag design ever.
Number of rivers in Saudi Arabia: None.
Chewing gums are banned in Singapore.
In South Korea, you’re considered 1 year old at birth. Speaking of it, the country also has the lowest fertility rate in the world.
Sri Lanka was formerly known as Ceylon.
In some international contexts (like the Olympics), Taiwan is called “Chinese Taipei”.
The only Southeast Asian country that was never colonized by a European country is Thailand.
Istanbul, Türkiye, is the only city in the world that lies on two continents.
Turkmenistan is home to the “Door to Hell” (just check it out for yourself).
The only doubly landlocked country in the world is Uzbekistan. Again: This fact has been first published over on /til (you should totally check it out wink wink).
Phew, these were plenty of countries that have had a different name just 100 years back. Let’s hope I don’t have to relearn half of Asia’s countries in the future…
Do you have any more interesting facts about Asian countries that you want to share with me? Please send them my way!
See you in the next note about the next continent I’m gonna tackle: Northern/Middle America.