China, 1908 and 2008

In the year 1908, there arose in a newspaper three questions concerning the Olympic games: When can China have its own atheletes to participate in the Olympic games? When can China win the first gold medal in the Olympic games? When can China hold the Olympic games? There has always been  full of inconceivable coincidences in the history, and today, after 100 years from 1908, the Chinese nation provides people with a satisfactory answer sheet for these three questions. ( translated from Chinese)

a large-size picture in the openning ceremony of Beijing Olympic games, representing  China's culture and its unique art.

11月14日 光绪皇帝病逝于瀛台涵元殿，寿38岁。
15日 慈禧太后叶赫那拉氏亦病死，寿73岁。

1908, November 14th, the emperor Guangxu died at an age of 38. The next day, the Empress Dowager also died.

Guangxu died on 14 November 1908, a day before Empress Dowager Cixi. He died relatively young, at age 38. There are several theories about Guangxu's death, none of which are completely accepted by historians. Most suspect was the claim that Guangxu was poisoned by Cixi because she was afraid of Guangxu reversing her policies after her death, and wanted to prevent this from happening. The fact that the two died two days apart only furthers the circumstantial evidence behind this claim. Another possibility is that Guangxu was poisoned by Yuan Shikai, who knew that if Guangxu were to ever come into power again, he (Yuan Shikai) would likely executed for treason. As there are no reliable sources to prove either theory, the real cause of Guangxu's death remains a mystery until this day. Official court documents and doctors' records suggest that Guangxu did, in fact, die from natural causes. The Emperor had been ill for a long time prior, and the records suggest that the Emperor's condition began to worsen several days before his death, although the illness could be cause by poison, administered in small doses over a long period of time.——Wikipedia

The Guangxu Emperor (光緒帝) (14 August 1871–14 November 1908), born Zaitian (載湉), was the tenth emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor, to rule over China proper. His reign lasted from 1875 to 1908, but in practice he ruled, under Empress Dowager Cixi's influence, from 1889 to 1898. He initiated the Hundred Days' Reform, but was abruptly stopped when Cixi launched a coup in 1898, after which he was put under house arrest until his death. His reign name means "The Glorious Succession". (from Wikipedia )

1908, China still being under the reign of the Manchu dynasty, people must keep their "pigtails" , otherwise they were supposed to be executed ( am I right? it's a serious matter if one cuts his queue off ) and look how did a Chinaman then look like :

it's rather intriguing to notice that though this kind of hairstyle has extinguished since about 100 years ago, we are still quite familiar with it due to the contribution of the TV series telling the anecdotes of a certain Manchu emperor or empress, so popular that almost all the 11 Manchu emperors have been showed on TV

1908, the Chinese people never expected China to make a spacewalk in the space, but it does achieve it today.  The Empress Dowager in all her life firmly sticked to the belief that a boat made of iron and bronze is by no means able to appear in the river. She must be taken aback if she can live to today to see a cylinder made of iron and bronze be sent into the space.

However…

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