Chuiwan (Chinese Golf)
Chuiwan was a game similar in practice to the Scottish invented game of golf. It was first recorded being playing in china during the Song dynasty, and was popular amoungst both men and women of the time. It would remain in popularity during the Mongol Yuan dynasty, and remained a favorite pas time for urban men of the Ming dynasty that followed. It was for china in much the same way the Europe seemed to love tennis during the renaissance. It was played on flat or sloping grass, and players would strike their ball off a stand with a club to start the game, just like one would tee off in a modern golf game.
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Kites & Kite Flying
Another Chinese pass time came in the form of kite flying, the Chinese are the first to be documented as inventing and flying kites. The first kites were dated back as far as the Wei dynasty of (386-534) but the kites used in these earlier time severed only a military purpose, as they were used to single messages to far off people. The act of kite flying would not become a fun pass time until the Tang dynasty, and remained as a popular pass time throughout the Ming dynasty.
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Playing Cards
The game of playing cards is a Chinese invention, while who created it and when is disputed, the origins are believed to come from the early practice of reading medium cards. The idea of the card comes from the evolution of Chinese printing, while the practice of placing images on the backs of the card and the suits themselves comes from characters taken from popular Chinese novels. A type of early modern media marketing. Playing cards would become popular in china during the mid-Tang dynasty, while their popularity would later carryover to the Ming dynasty and spread to Europe in the 14th century via Chinese trade routes.
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Dominoes
While the Chinese were busy playing cards they also created the domino. This while the game of dominoes and their use in gambling was prominent during the Ming dynasty, their exact time of invention is disputed. Some documentation would place their emergence into china in 1112, when they were supposedly given to the imperial court as a gift. While other scholars place their emergence later to around the time of the Yuan dynasty in 1262-1368. The Chinese domino set contains thirty two pieces with no blank sides, while the western set contains twenty eight dominoes. It is said that the oldest mention of dominoes in Europe comes from Italy, and it is speculated the Italian traders of missionaries traveled to china and back to Europe with a set of dominoes. Which would through the years be altered and result in the modern game of dominoes.
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restaurant Menus
During the time of the Song dynasty (960-12790), urban shopkeepers, and other such people with little time head back home and eat, had to go out and find places to eat. Such as temples, taverns, inns, tea houses and theaters. As travel and trade in china grew so did the demand for variety in the food served by its restaurants, so to accommodate the new demand and allow their customers to try new foods the restaurant owns create what would become the modern menu.
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