Chinese cultures have been passed down for thousands of years.Goldfish were widely mentioned in Tang Dynasty poems.Rich people kept them in the pond（池塘） at that time.
During the Song Dynasty，a ruler built a po nd in Hangzhou to raise goldfish.It marked the time when people began to raise them.However，people couldn't keep yellow goldfish because that color was a sign of the king.They had to raise orange ones，which is probably why that color is more common today.
Until the invention of the goldfish bowl in the Ming Dynasty，goldfish were always seen to live outdoors in ponds.The goldfish bowl allowed more people to keep goldfish and interested people in raising more beautiful kinds such as the"lion head"that could not live outdoors.Goldfish traveled to Japan in 1502，Europe in 1611，and the United States in the early 1800s.
The Chinese have expressed good wishes through images of animals，plants and other objects.The Chinese language has many homophones and these homophones connect images of objects with special good wishes that sound the same.The Chinese word for"fish"is a homophone of the word for"more"，so fish express wishes for"owning more".The goldfish，however，also has the word for"gold"，so goldfish images express wishes for"owning more wealth".
Goldfish competitions，which began in Beijing during the Ming Dynasty，continue in China.Even in Hong Kong，there is a busy goldfish market to meet the modern requirement of the fish and good wishes.
