Home to 4.5 billion people, Asia is the largest, most populous continent on Earth.
In this episode of Curiosity Ignite, we’ll bring you through the journey of every country in Asia,
starting with Afghanistan, the first Asian country on the Alphabetical list.
In Afghanistan, New Year’s Day is celebrated in March. While the majority of the world’s
population welcomes the new year on January 1, Afghans would wait until the spring equinox,
the moment when the sun crosses the equator, usually between March 19 to 21.
Bordering Afghanistan is Pakistan, home to the world’s second tallest mountain called K2,
which is a rather short name for such a tall mountain.
The tallest mountain, Mount Everest, however, is located in Nepal, the only country in the world
to have a national flag that is not a square or a rectangle. Nepal and Bhutan are sandwiched by
India and China, the two largest countries in the world in terms of population. Close to 3
billion people or 36% of the world’s population live to the North and South of Nepal and Bhutan.
Despite having thousands of kilometers of paved roads,
Bhutan does not have a single traffic light. The only traffic light in Bhutan
was removed after less than 24 hours of it being installed due to public outcry.
India, to the south of Bhutan, is the second-most populous country in the world,
with 1.3 billion people calling it home.
There are more people living in India than the entire western hemisphere combined.
Meanwhile, China, the most populous country in the world, only has one official time zone,
UTC+8, despite having a land area that is similar to the United States.
This means that people in certain parts of Eastern China experience sunrise as late as 10 am.
Another country with an interesting time zone is Myanmar. At UTC+6:30, Myanmar is one of the very
few countries in the world to have its time offset by a thirty minutes interval from the
Coordinated Universal Time. Myanmar is also the only country in Asia to use the imperial system.
Speaking of system, the postal system in Dubai, the most populous city in the United
Arab Emirates, is rather interesting. It has no address system, no zip codes, and no area code.
In order to receive a package, one has to collect it at a post office using P.O. box numbers.
Within the United Arab Emirates is this fascinating territory.
Nahwa, a UAE territory, is a counter-enclave within the Omani territory of Madha,
which is itself an exclave of Oman and an enclave within the UAE.
UAE, along with Oman, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia,
are among the few countries in the world with no permanent rivers.
Qatar, on the other hand, takes it one step further. Qatar is one of only two
countries in the world without rivers and forests. What they have, however,
is wealth. Qatar is among the world’s wealthiest country in terms of Nominal GDP per capita.
The other Asian country rubbing shoulders on top of the wealth list is Singapore,
a country where chewing gum is banned.
Singapore used to be a part of Malaysia, a country where you can find the world’s largest roundabout.
Located near the Prime Minister’s office, this roundabout measures over 3.5km in diameter.
Surrounded by the largest state in Malaysia is Brunei,
a country divided and separated into two main regions. Commuters traveling between the two
territories have to pass through four immigration checkpoints, but to solve this issue, Brunei
recently contracted to build the longest bridge in South East Asia, costing 1.2 billion dollars.
Another interesting bridge is the King Fahd Causeway bridge that links Saudi Arabia and
Bahrain. Due to the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia that existed up until 2018,
it was the only bridge in the world where women could drive on it from Bahrain,
but they would be breaking the law if they exited into Saudi Arabia at the other end.
Similar to Bahrain is Indonesia, an archipelagic country. Consisting of over 17,000 islands,
Indonesia is the world’s largest island country. Although only 0.7% of its population
of 270 million practices Buddhism, Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Buddhist temple.
In contrast, Buddhism is practiced by more than 97% of the Cambodian population.
Famous for their Angkor Wat monument,
Cambodia is one of the very few countries in the world to have a building on its flag.
Bordering Cambodia is Thailand. Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, holds the record for
the world’s longest place name. The official name for Bangkok is so long and difficult to
pronounce that I am not even going to attempt it. Instead, I’ll have someone from Thailand say it.
Maldives, similar to Thailand, is a popular tourist destination. Maldives is the lowest nation
in the world, literally, with an average ground elevation of only 1.5 meters above sea level.
The highest point you can set foot on in The Maldives is 2.4 meters above sea level.
Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, is also
incredibly low. Baku sits 28 meters below sea level, making it the lowest
lying national capital and the largest city in the world to be located below sea level.
The lowest land elevation on Earth, however, is 430 meters below sea level and can be found on the
surface and shores of the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is surrounded by Jordan, Israel, and Palestine.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, on the other hand, are extremely mountainous.
Over 90% percent of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan’s surface are mountains.
In fact, the lowest point in the entire country of Tajikistan is 320 meters above sea level.
Bordering both these countries is Uzbekistan, one of the only two doubly landlocked countries in the
world. Uzbekistan is surrounded by five countries, all of which are landlocked countries whose name
ends with ‘tan’: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan, the world's largest landlocked country, houses the
spaceport that launched Vostok 1, the rocket that transported the first man into space.
Ashgabat, the capital city of Turkmenistan, has been recognized by Guinness World Records
as having the world's highest density of buildings made from white marble.
Visiting this country, however, is a challenge as visas to Turkmenistan
are extremely hard and expensive to obtain, and tourists are not allowed
to explore the country on their own. They have to be accompanied by an approved guide at all times.
Another country rarely visited is North Korea,
a country where you can find the world’s largest stadium by seating capacity.
The other more open Korea is South Korea. For South Korea, they have a rather interesting
way of counting someone’s age. South Koreans are considered a year old the moment they are born,
so if someone is born on 31st December, they will be considered two years old the very next day.
The country sheltering South Korea from the vastness of the Pacific Ocean is Japan,
the country where Fortune Cookie originated from.
Speaking of fortune, something that costs a fortune is the Kuwaiti Dinar. At 3.3
US dollar per Kuwaiti Dinar, Kuwait has the world’s strongest currency.
This is in stark contrast with the nearby countries of Iraq and Iran,
where one U.S Dollar will give you 1,190 Iraqi Dinar and 42,105 Iranian Rial.
Bringing the US dollar over to Vietnam will also give you a lot of Vietnamese
Dong. Something else Vietnam has a lot of is the number of people with Nguyen
as their last name. More than 40% of Vietnamese share the same last name.
Laos, a communist state similar to Vietnam, is the only landlocked country in South East Asia.
Despite being landlocked, Laos has thousands of islands located within its southern territory.
The only other South East Asian country not yet mentioned is Timor-Leste,
the only country in Asia that is located entirely in the Southern Hemisphere.
All the way up north to the Northernmost Point in the entire continent of Asia is Rudolf Island,
an uninhabited Russian territory that is almost completely glaciated. The easternmost point is
also in Russia, an unsurprising fact since Russia is the largest country in the world by land area.
While Moscow, the capital city of Russia, can be extremely cold, the title of the
coldest capital city in the world goes to Ulaanbaatar, a Mongolian city south of Russia.
Turkey, similar to Russia, is a transcontinental country. The
county is located in both Asia and Europe. The Europe Asia border cuts right through Istanbul,
the capital of Turkey, making Istanbul the only transcontinental capital city in the world.
Cyprus, to the south, is an island country that is geographically located in Asia,
but it is often considered to be culturally and politically a part of Europe.
It is even a part of the European Union since 2004. Another political
membership Cyprus has is the commonwealth, a similarity they share with Bangladesh.
In Bangladesh, you can find Bazar Beach, the longest natural sea beach in the world,
running 150 kilometers in length. Apart from the longest beach,
Bangladesh is also home to the largest bay and the largest river delta in the world.
While the prime minister of Bangladesh is a woman,
the first country in the world to democratically elect a female as a prime minister is Sri Lanka.
Another country to have a female as the head of state is the Republic of China,
more commonly known as Taiwan. Taiwan has a population of close to 25 million,
90% of which live on the west coast due to the mountainous east.
Over at the mountains in the Syunik Province of landlocked Armenia
is the site of the world’s longest double-tracked cable car. Recorded in
the Guinness Book of Records, the Wings of Tatev spans over 5.7 kilometers in length.
The North of Armenia is Georgia, home to the deepest known cave on Earth.
The cave has a depth of a whopping 2,212 meters.
A country that is seven times smaller than Georgia
and coincidently the 7th smallest in Asia is Lebanon. It is estimated that
twice as many Lebanese live outside of Lebanon than within its territory.
Bordering Lebanon is Syria. Damascus, the capital city of Syria,
is widely believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the
world, with evidence of habitation dating back at least 11,000 years.
Syria is the 50th and final Asian country to be covered by this video.
If you are hungry for more, you can head over to my previous video,
where I covered every single country in Europe, starting with Albania.
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and I’ll see you in the next video.