Tag Archives: Asia

Asian Giant Hornet

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Asian Giant Hornet

You’ll thank your lucky stars when you don’t aggravate an Asian giant hornet.

  • Asian giant hornets are the largest extant species of hornet, and are native to the East Asian tropics.
  • ‘Asian giant hornets’ are also known as ‘yak-killer hornets’ and ‘giant sparrow bees’.
  • The scientific name of Asian giant hornets is Vespa mandarinia and it is from the family Vespidae, a family of wasps.
  • The diet of Asian giant hornets consists primarily of beetles, as well as large insects including honey bees, as well as tree sap, honey and soft fruit, however, the adults are only able to consume liquid, though they chew solid food and feed it to their larvae.
  • Asian giant hornets reach 3.5 to 5.5 centimetres (1.4 to 2.2 inches) in length and have a wingspan of 3.5 to 7.6 centimetres (1.4 to 3 inches); and they can devastate a hive of bees in six hours or less.
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Asian Giant Hornet
Image courtesy of t-mizo/Flickr
  • Asian giant hornets have a yellow to orange coloured head with a black to brown thorax, and a striped yellow/orange and black abdomen.
  • It is common for Asian giant hornets to live and nest underground, often under large tree roots abandoned by a past animal, however the hornets can dig if need be.
  • Asian giant hornets have a 6 millimetre long stinger (0.24 inch) that can painfully inject toxins that are potentially fatal if stung in succession, and they are said to cause the deaths of 60 to 100 people across Japan and China each year, with symptoms that include cardiac arrest, organ failure and anaphylaxis.
  • Asian giant hornets communicate primarily through the expulsion and trailing of scented chemicals known as ‘pheromones’, even uniquely marking food sources including hives with such a scent.
  • Asian giant hornets have a life span of three months up to one year, depending on their gender and role in the hive; and the queen will initially lay as many as 40 eggs, however as the year progresses, she will usually lay many thousands.
Bibliography:
Asian Giant Hornets, 2016, A-Z Animals, http://a-z-animals.com/animals/asian-giant-hornet/
Asian Giant Hornets, 2016, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet
Lallanilla M, Killer Hornets Terrorize China, 2013, Live Science, http://www.livescience.com/39988-killer-hornets-terrorize-china.html
Weaver C, This Hornet Will Be the Last Thing You See Before You Die, 2013, Gawker, http://gawker.com/this-hornet-will-be-the-last-thing-you-see-before-you-d-1428724767
Vespa mandarinia, 2016, Animal Diversity Web, http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Vespa_mandarinia/

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Lion City

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Lion City

Would you brave the depths to see Lion City?

  • Lion City is an ancient city that has been abandoned and submerged in the water of Quindao Lake of Zhejiang, China.
  • It is thought that construction of Lion City began in 621 AD, and the city eventually rose to economical importance, with many features built at a later stage.
  • ‘Lion City’ was named after the nearby Five Lion Mountain and is known as ‘Shī chéng’ in Chinese.
  • The enormous Xin’an Dam and hydroelectric station project initiated by the Chinese government and completed in 1959, was the cause of the Lion City flooding and submerging, as well as other cities and towns, causing a total of almost 300,000 people to be displaced.
  • In 2001, Lion City was ‘rediscovered’ by a diving club, at the invitation of the Chinese government, and further explorations have since been organised.
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Part of Lion City
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
  • Lion City is approximately 0.43 square kilometres (0.17 square miles) in area, and it is situated between 26 and 40 metres (85 to 131 feet) deep under water; and it is notable for featuring five city gates, an abnormal quantity as most ancient cities would have only four gates.
  • Most statues, sculptures and art, and other stone or wooden structures of Lion City, have been remarkably preserved, due in part to lack of exposure to air, and relatively stable water temperatures of 10 to 20 degrees Celsius (50 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit).
  • Lion City was designated a protected site in 2011 by the Zhejiang Province, which coincidentally was also the year that curiosity and awareness of the city grew, especially as new photographs of the city were released.
  • For expansion of Lion City’s increasing tourism, a submarine for casual exploration has been built, though by the end of 2015 it had not yet been used due to site preservation concerns; and a concept for an underwater tunnel has been presented, but its purpose may be purely for transporting vehicles across the lake.
  • Lion City is best visited from April to October due to warmer air and water temperatures, and even then, only experienced divers can venture, particularly due to conservation concerns and lack of underwater visibility.
Bibliography:
Graaf M, China’s Atlantis, 2014, Daily Mail Australia, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2561147/Chinas-Atlantis-How-Lion-City-purposely-flooded-make-way-power-station-remains-completely-intact-130ft-underwater-50-years.html
Galloway L, China’s Atlantis of the East, 2014, BBC Travel, http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20140711-chinas-atlantis-of-the-east
Lingren Z, The Ancient Underwater City of Thousand Islands Lake, 2013, Chinese National Geography Press, http://www.chinascenic.com/magazine/the-ancient-underwater-city-of-thousand-islands-lake-222.html
Lost Underwater Lion City: Rediscovery of China’s ‘Atlantis’, 2012, Love These Pics, http://www.lovethesepics.com/2012/06/lost-underwater-lion-city-rediscovery-of-chinas-atlantis/
Qiandao Lake, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiandao_Lake
Wang C, Dive the Ancient Ruins of Lion City in Qiandao Lake, 2015, Underwater Photography Guide, http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/dive-qiandao-lake-china

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Pokémon

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Pokémon

Gotta Catch ’em All – the Pokémon slogan.

  • Pokémon is a major video gaming franchise published by Nintendo and produced by Game Freak, of which the main series has been and is released on Nintendo’s handheld consoles; and the game developers, Game Freak, nearly became bankrupt due to the lengthy production of the first games.
  • Pokémon follows a role-playing game format were the player is depicted as a human, named a ‘trainer’, that travels the land to find, capture, battle, train, evolve, and trade the fictional creatures named “Pokémon”.
  • The term “Pokémon” is a contraction, derived from the Japanese name “Poketto Monsutā”, meaning “Pocket Monsters”, and during early development the game was known as “Capsule Monsters”.
  • The idea for Pokémon was created by video game designer Satoshi Tajiri, from Japan, however he was unsuccessful in marketing it to Nintendo for development, until Shigeru Miyamoto, also a Japanese video game designer, identified its potential and initiated its development around 1990.
  • Pokémon was inspired by the hobby of insect collecting and the aspiration for the creator to introduce the new generation to an equally pleasurable hobby involving creatures, in a quickly industrialising Japan.

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Pokémon Logo
Image courtesy of The Pokémon Company
  • Pokémon has been adapted from the handheld games into multiple spin-off versions, including a unique and anticipated massive multiplayer location-based game, and it has been adapted into film, anime, manga, trading cards, figurines and more.
  • The first Pokémon game was released in early 1996, exclusive to Japan as a Red version and Green version for the Game Boy handheld device, and it originally experienced average sales until the Japanese magazine CoroCoro began a competition allowing a small number of people to obtain a previously unknown bonus character, which subsequently boosted sales and general popularity.
  • The general aesthetics of the first Pokémon versions were below average, however these aesthetics were pleasingly enhanced in the similar Blue version, which had a limited release in 1996, and in the sequels Gold and Silver, both released commercially in 1999 in Japan.
  • Pokémon risked changes to its visuals on its importation to America to better cater for its audience, but it was eventually released faithful to the originals under the Red and Blue versions in 1998.
  • As of the end of 2015, the Pokémon franchise consisted of 721 known individual Pokémon species across six generations, and a total of twenty-four main-series games.
Bibliography:
20 Years of Pokémon, 2016, Nintendo/Creatures Inc., http://www.pokemon20.com/lite/timeline.html
History of Pokémon, 2016, Bulbapedia, http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/History_of_Pok%C3%A9mon
Pokémon, 2016, Bulbapedia, http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon
Pokémon, 2016, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon

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Shanghai Tower

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Shanghai Tower

Shanghai Tower is nothing short of spectacular.

  • Shanghai Tower is a skyscraper of an extreme height, located in China’s Shanghai, Asia, in the Pudong district, situated on what was once a golf driving range.
  • Shanghai Tower reaches a height of 632 metres (2,073 feet), and in 2015 it had the status of being the second tallest tower on earth and the tallest in China and Asia.
  • The 133 floors of Shanghai Tower, five of which are underground, include a total area of 420,000 square metres (4,520,842 square feet).
  • The construction of Shanghai Tower commenced in late 2008, and was completed in late 2015, and it was built as the last and tallest of a group of three Chinese skyscrapers situated in Shanghai, which began early development in 1993.
  • Gensler, an American architect company, in cooperation with Jun Xia, a Chinese architect, were the creators of the design of Shanghai Tower.
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Shanghai Tower as of May 2015
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
  • Shanghai Tower twists at an incline of 120 degrees, and the exterior is double-layered, which provides a buffer zone to the building, helping to insulate it, and as a result is said to save millions of dollars in energy related costs over a period of time.
  • The curvature of Shanghai Tower allowed for 25% less steel material to be used in construction than typically required, reducing the cost by millions, and it reduces the impact of wind on the tower by 24%.
  • A variety of government financing, loans and shareholder investment contributed to the financing of Shanghai Tower, which reached a total cost of approximately 2.4 billion USD.
  • Shanghai Tower can generate its own energy through wind turbines on the top levels, and it exploits the earth’s heat for use in cooling and heating components.
  • Up to 16,000 individuals can inhabit Shanghai Tower, with more than 25 floors designated specifically as hotel accommodation, while other floors include office space; and there are eight atriums, known as ‘sky lobbies’, which contain eateries, gardens and shops, that promote community behaviour in the building.
Bibliography:
Hewitt D, A Look At The Shanghai Tower, The Newest And Tallest Symbol Of China’s Rise [PHOTOS], 2015, International Business Times, http://www.ibtimes.com/look-shanghai-tower-newest-tallest-symbol-chinas-rise-photos-1944507
Shanghai Tower, 2016, The Skyscraper Center, http://skyscrapercenter.com/building/shanghai-tower/56
Shanghai Tower, 2016, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Tower

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Japanese Spider Crab

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Japanese Spider Crab

You may only spot a Japanese spider crab if you look up!

  • Japanese spider crabs are large crabs native to Japan’s coastal ocean habitats.
  • The scientific name of a Japanese spider crab is Macrocheira kaempferi and it is from the family Inachidae, a family of crabs.
  • The leg span of Japanese spider crabs can reach up to 3.8 metres (12.5 feet) – a length greater than any extant anthropod, and the older crabs generally have longer legs than the younger ones.
  • Japanese spider crabs are the second heaviest extant anthropod, at 19 kilograms (42 pounds) in weight, and it is believed that they can live up to 100 years.
  • Japanese spider crabs live in the caverns and rock hollows of the ocean, between 50 metres (164 feet) and up to a maximum of 600 metres (1969 feet) deep.

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  • The diet of Japanese spider crabs consists primarily of aquatic flora and small marine animals, including molluscs and other invertebrates, but they also consume deceased matter.
  • Japanese folk catch and eat Japanese spider crab, however this is rare in spring months, as the catching of the crabs during breeding season is illegal, which enables the crabs to successfully reproduce.
  • Information of the Japanese spider crab was first collected by German botanist Phillip von Siebold, which was then provided to Dutch Coenradd Temminck, a zoologist, who gave a descriptive analysis in 1836.
  • Japanese spider crabs are coloured a combination of white and orange – white being its base colour, which is splattered with a pattern of orange to red.
  • A female Japanese spider crab can release eggs numbering up to 1.5 million in one breeding season, and they hatch into minuscule larvae, floating helplessly like plankton and growing over a period of 7.5 to 10.5 weeks, however most eggs or larvae will not survive.

 

Bibliography:
Giant Japanese Spider Crab, 2016, Tennessee Aquarium, http://www.tnaqua.org/our-animals/invertebrates/giant-japanese-spider-crab
Japanese Spider Crab, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_spider_crab
Macrocheira Kaempferi, 2011, Animal Diversity Web, http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Macrocheira_kaempferi/

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Hashima Island

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Hashima Island

Hashima Island is a mining ghost town… with a twist.

  • Hashima Island is a small deserted, Japanese island that is found near the large southern island of Kyushu, in the Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan, Asia.
  • Hashima Island covers an area of 0.063 square kilometres (0.024 square miles) or 6.3 hectares (15.6 acres), and measures approximately 480 metres (525 yards) in length and 150 meters (164 yards) wide; and the island is surrounded and protected by a high sea wall made of concrete, construction of which finished in 1907.
  • ‘Hashima Island’ is also known as ‘Gunkanjima’, translated from Japanese as ‘Battleship Island’, referring to the similar appearance of the island to a battleship, in part due to its sea wall, and the island is also sometimes referred to as ‘Ghost Island’.
  • In the early 1800s, coal was found on the uninhabited Hashima Island, and in 1887, a mine was constructed to extract the resource, however, it was only three years later, in 1890, that it was purchased by Mitsubishi, though mining continued until 1974.
  • The UNESCO World Heritage Convention designated Hashima Island as part of the Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining World Heritage Site in 2015, due to its infrastructure and industrial significance for Japan.
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Hashima Island
Image courtesy of Japanexperterna/Flickr
  • Once a developed underwater coal mine, Hashima Island was abandoned when the demand for coal waned in the late 1960s to the early 1970s, and the mine and island closed early 1974.
  • The number of residents living on Hashima Island in 1959 was 5259 individuals, the greatest number in its history, and its population density broke records, with 1,391 people per hectare (563 per acre) in the residential area, or 835 people per hectare (338 per acre) taking into account the whole island.
  • Hashima Island once contained buildings up to nine storeys high, and the community had a hospital, two schools, shops, a temple and shrine, restaurants and other facilities, most of which now sit in ruins.
  • Between the 1930s and 1940s, Korean and Chinese folk that had been conscripted, or captured by the Japanese during World War II, were forced to work on Hashima Island due to labour shortages.
  • Early in the 21st century, Hashima Island became more prominently known due to media attention, and this led to restoration of some areas for the safety of tourists, before it was opened to visitors in 2009; and in 2013, some of the streets and buildings were recorded in a 360° panorama by Google, allowing for virtual exploring.
Bibliography:
Burke-Gaffney, Hashima – Ghost Island, 2002, Cabinet Magazine, http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/7/hashima.php
Gunkanjima, 2016, Japan Guide, http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4414.html
Gunkajima Island, 2015, Atlas Obscura, http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gubkanjima-island
Hashima Island, 2016, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashima_Island

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