When a Chinese person tells you that he/she is a dragon, he/she is telling you his/her age. In China, apart from employing the solar system, they also keep their own lunar system. As China used to be an agrarian economy, which depended heavily on the cycle of the seasons and climate, astrology was well developed. Their lunar calendar, created almost 5,000 years ago, was based on a 60-year cycle of the combination of the 10 "Heavenly Stems" and 12 "Earthly Branches". The 12 Earthly Branches were governed by the twelve-year lunar cycle. Later the 12 Earthly Branches were given signs named after animals - rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. These 12 Earthly Branches have their counterpart in the West in the solar signs. They are Rat to Sagittarius; Ox to Capricorn; Tiger to Aquarius; Rabbit to Pisces; Dragon to Aries; Snake to Taums; Horse to Gemini; Sheep to Cancer; Monkey to Leo; Rooster to Virgo; Dog to Libra and Pig to Scorpio.

    Nowadays the Chinese don't usually ask people their age directly as they did before, but they still know that by using indirect way such as asking the animal sign he/she is. The recent 12 cycle goes like this: Rat 1996, Ox 1997, Tiger 1998, Rabbit 1999, Dragon 2000, Snake 2001, Horse 2002, Sheep 2003, Monkey 2004, Rooster 2005, Dog 2006, Pig 2007.

    The animal signs, with each animal's basic character type, also indicate the personality of the person born in the specific animal year, the core of the Chinese horoscopes. Discussion of the animal signs is also a favorite topic to start a conversion with the Chinese.