Jamie Frater - Listverse.coms Astounding Bathroom Reader: Loads of Top Ten Lists About Dolphin Superpowers, Deadly Competitions, Pranks Gone Wrong and Much More Incredible Trivia

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ISBN: 978-1-61243-458-2

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Cover design: Jake Flaherty

Production: Lindsay Tamura

Cover photos: head Morphart Creation/shutterstock.com; dolphin Hein Nouwens/shutterstock.com; stockade Morphart Creation/shutterstock.com; spider Morphart Creation/shutterstock.com; toilet Hein Nouwens/shutterstock.com

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CONTENTS

By Andrew Handley

10 UNIVERSAL BIRTHDAY

Fact: Vietnamese New Year Is Everybodys Birthday

Vietnamese New Year, or Tet, occurs annually sometime in late winter and lasts for several days. It begins on the first day of the Lunar calendar, which is usually sometime in early February or late January.

Among many other Tet traditions, the new year is also considered a birthday celebration. Along with Koreans, Vietnamese measure age by the number of Lunar new years they have lived through, so a baby will officially turn one on his first Tet, even if he was only born a few days before the event takes place.

9 THAILANDS WATER GUN FESTIVAL

Speaking of New Years traditions, the Thai New Year is celebrated from the 13th through the 15th of April. Known as the Songkran festival, which is Thai for astrological passage, the main attraction is being sprayed in the face by a mixture of water and flour or talc powder.

Originally the celebration had spiritual connotationswater was poured over statues of Buddhas, and then people would collect the water that dripped off and pour it over their loved ones for good luck. These days, its just a free-for-all with water guns for sale on every corner and people standing beside the streets down anybody who passes.

8 LARGEST SHOPPING MALL

Fact: The Worlds Largest Shopping Mall Is A Ghost Town

In 2005, Chinese billionaire Alex Hu Guirong began building the worlds largest shopping mall in Dongguan, China. At seven million square feet, the New South China Mall had room for up to 2,350 shopsnot to mention the full-size indoor roller coaster, the 1.3 mile long canal (complete with gondolas), and the 82 foot replica of the Arc de Triomphe.

There was only one problemnobody wanted to put a store in it. From 2005 until the present, only about one percent of the mall has ever been usedever. The other 6,930,300 square feet just is gathering dust under cloth covers, and the only people who really work there are the security guards who keep squatters away.

There are a few reasons why the mall flopped so hard, and one of them is the locationDongguan only has a population of 10 million, most of them poor-ish factory workers, and it can take a few hours to even get there.

7 MERRY CHRISTMAS

Fact: North Koreans Celebrate Their Own Version Of Christmas

In North Korea, the citizens dont celebrate Christmas. Christmas is still a thing in North Korea, its just closer to an act of war than a celebration. So instead of embarking on Christmas festivities, North Koreans will instead celebrate the birth of Kim Jong Ils mother, who was born on December 24th.

The North Korean government has a long history of keeping a tight hold over the religious groups within their bordersthey famously tortured a woman in 2002 for smuggling Christians out of the country. Since then they have continued to demonize and censor as much Western influence as possibleincluding placing a series of patriotic holidays around Christmas. Besides the birth of Kim Jongs mother, North Koreans celebrate Constitution Day on December 27th, and on New Years they hold marches to the view resting place of Kim Il Sungs (the guy who started the Korean War) embalmed body.

6 CHINA ONLY HAS ONE TIME ZONE

China is roughly 3,200 miles (5,200 km) wide, which is large enough to cover about 5 separate time zones (the U.S. has 4). Despite that, China has had only one national time zone since the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

The reason for doing it that way was mostly politicalChina is a big freaking place, and after 20 years of civil war the Peoples Republic of China wanted to give everybody a sense of unity. Unfortunately, that meant that while Beijing was seeing the sun rise at 6 AM, western areas like Xinjiang wouldnt see dawn for two more hours.

This system is still in place today, although Xinjiang has put their foot down and created their own unofficial time zone, which is two hours behind China Standard Time. The Chinese government doesnt recognize it.

5 ITS ILLEGAL TO BE FAT IN JAPAN

Japan is currently considered the skinniest industrialized nation in the world, and theres a very good reason for thatits against the law to be fat. Japanese law dictates that a male over the age of 40 cant have a waistline larger than 33.5 inches (85 cm). Women are given a little more leeway with 35.4 inches (90 cm).

Why? The official reasoning is that, well, slim people are healthier, and its an effort to combat high cholesterol and high blood pressure. People who are over the legal waist size have to go through counseling and government-approved diets, and companies who have a large number of overweight employees have to pay a fine, which goes towards healthcare for seniors.

4 WORLD POPULATION

Fact: China and India Are A Third Of The Worlds Population

Its well known that China has a large population, but the actual size of it is staggering. The Sichuan province alone has a population larger than Greece, Portugal, Holland, Guatemala, Austria, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada combinedand its only the fourth largest province in the country.

In fact, India and China combined make up more than a third of the worlds entire population2.5 billion people as of 2012. And all those people fit into an area barely larger than the United States.

3 BABY TOSSING FOR GOOD LUCK

At a shrine in the mountains of Solapur, India, newborns are brought to partake in a ritual that is supposed to provide the child with good luck, courage, and health. Babies are carried to the top of a 50 foot tower and then dropped off the edgeinto a stretched sheet held by monks at the bottom of the tower.