East Asia

East Asia or Eastern Asia is the eastern subregion of the Eurasian continent, which can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. Geographically and geopolitically, it covers about 12,000,000 km² (4,600,000 sq mi), or about 28% of the Asian continent, about 15% bigger than the area of Europe.

More than 1.5 billion people, about 38% of the population of Asia and 22% or over one fifth of all the people in the world, live in East Asia. Although the coastal and rivery areas of the region form one of the world's most populated places, the population in Mongolia and Western China, both landlocked areas, is very sparsely distributed, with Mongolia having the lowest population density of a sovereign state. The overall population density of the region is 133 inhabitants per square kilometre (340/sq mi), about three times the world average of 45/km² (120/sq mi).

Historically, many societies in East Asia have been part of the Chinese cultural sphere, and East Asian vocabulary and scripts are often derived from Classical Chinese and Chinese script. Sometimes Northeast Asia is used to denote Japan and Korea. Major religions include Buddhism (mostly Mahayana), Confucianism or Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese folk religion, Islam in China and Taiwan, Shinto in Japan, Shamanism in Korea, Mongolia and other indigenous populations of northern East Asia, and recently Christianity in South Korea. The Chinese Calendar is the root from which many other East Asian calendars are derived.

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies near the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic and volcanic activity. Southeast Asia consists of two geographic regions:

Divisions

Political

Definitions of "Southeast Asia" vary, but most definitions include the area represented by the countries (sovereign states and dependent territories) listed below. All of the states except for East Timor are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The area, together with part of South Asia, was widely known as the East Indies or simply the Indies until the 20th century. Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands are considered part of Southeast Asia though they are governed by Australia. Sovereignty issues exist over some territories in the South China Sea. Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (a disputed region or nation), are considered as part of the Southeast Asia.Papua New Guinea has stated that it might join ASEAN, and is currently an observer.

Shenzhen F.C.

Shenzhen Football Club (simplified Chinese: 深圳市足球俱乐部; traditional Chinese: 深圳市足球俱樂部; pinyin: Shēnzhènshì Zúqiú Jùlèbù) is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the China League One division under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Shenzhen, Guangdong and their home stadium is the Bao'an Stadium that has a seating capacity of 40,000. Their current majority shareholder is Wan Hongwei and the Ruby company who took over the club on 4 November 2009.

The club was founded on January 26, 1994 and was known as Shenzhen FC while they started at the bottom of the Chinese football pyramid in the third tier. After successive league title wins in the third and second tier of the professional football leagues, they were promoted to the top tier in the 1996 Chinese Jia-A League season. After only one season they were relegated, however they quickly regained promotion and started to establish themselves within the league before they won the rebranded 2004 Chinese Super League title, making them the first club to win all three divisions within the Chinese league pyramid. Since this achievement the club have struggled to match the same success and after 14 years experienced relegation to the second tier at the end of 2011 Chinese Super League season.

Points of the compass

The points of the compass are points on a compass, specifically on the compass rose, marking divisions of the four cardinal directions: North, South, East, West. The number of points may be only the 4 cardinal points, or the 8 principal points adding the intercardinal (or ordinal) directions northeast (NE), southeast (SE), southwest (SW), and northwest (NW). In meteorological usage further intermediate points are added to give the sixteen points of a wind compass. Finally, at the most complete in European tradition, are found the full thirty-two points of the mariner's compass. In ancient China 24 points of the compass were used.

In the mariner's exercise of boxing the compass, all thirty-two points of the compass are named in clockwise order. The names of intermediate points are formed by the initials of the cardinal directions and their intermediate ordinal directions, and are very handy to refer to a heading (or course or azimuth) in a general or colloquial fashion, without having to resort to computing or recalling degrees. For most applications, the minor points have been superseded by degrees measured clockwise from North.

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai (/ˈtʃjɑːŋˈmaɪ/, from Thai: เชียงใหม่  [tɕʰiəŋ màj], Lanna:ᨩ᩠ᨿᨦᩉ᩠ᨾᩲ᩵ [t͡ɕīaŋ.màj]) sometimes written as "Chiengmai" or "Chiangmai", is the largest and most culturally significant city in Northern Thailand. It is the capital of Chiang Mai Province and was a former capital of the Kingdom of Lan Na (1296–1768), which became a tributary state of the Kingdom of Chiang Mai from 1774 to 1939. It is 700 km (435 mi) north of Bangkok and is situated amongst the highest mountains in the country. The city sits astride the Ping River, a major tributary of the Chao Phraya River.

Chiang Mai means "new city" and was so named because it became the new capital of the Lan Na kingdom when it was founded in 1296, succeeding Chiang Rai, the former capital founded in 1262.

Chiang Mai gained prominence in the political sphere in May 2006, when the Chiang Mai Initiative was concluded between the ASEAN nations and the "+3" countries (China, Japan, and South Korea). Chiang Mai was one of three Thai cities contending for Thailand's bid to host the World Expo 2020 (the others were Chonburi and Ayutthaya). Ayutthaya, however, was the city ultimately chosen by the Thai Parliament to register for the international competition.