China
---Names---
A bit about feminine names
http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi/2342.txt
A little bit more about feminine names
http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi/2527.txt
Chinese Surnames
http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~chinesesurname/
Han naming practices
http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi/2346.txt
Information on masculine names
http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi/2346.txt
---Clothes---
Chinese Clothing - Five Thousand Years' History
http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/yanglu/ecc_culture_clothing.htm
Clothes of Joseon and the Ming Dynasty
http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?/topic/11120-clothes-of-joseon-and-the-ming-dynasty/
Costume in the Ming Dynasty
http://www.chinaculture.org/library/2008-01/28/content_28364.htm
Costume in the Yuan Dynasty
http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_chinaway/2003-09/24/content_28414.htm
Grace and Beauty in Tang Dynasty Era Costume
http://www.pureinsight.org/node/1026
History of Ancient Traditional Clothing
http://news.tootoo.com/China_Window/Folk_Culture/Traditional_Apparel/20071026/44671.html
Ming Dynasty Clothing and Hat for Men
http://www.china-cart.com/d.asp?a=Ming+Dynasty+Clothing+and+Hat+for+Men&d=17159
Sung Dynasty Costume Dump
http://chinesecostumes.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/sung-dynasty-costume-dump/
Yuan Dynasty Dressing and clothing
http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?/topic/24242-yuan-dynasty-dressing-and-clothing/
Zhi Sun dresses
http://learnyaun.blogspot.com/2010/02/clothes.html
---History---
Tang Dynasty
brief history
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/china/history/tang2.htm
Concise Political History of China
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/chinhist.html
History of the Ming Dynasty
http://www.hceis.com/chinabasic/history/ming%20dynasty%20history.htm
History of the Yuan Dynasty
http://www.hceis.com/chinabasic/history/yuan%20dynasty%20history.htm
Sung Dynasty Culture
http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/essays/sung-china.htm
The Mongolian Empire: The Yuan
http://public.wsu.edu/~dee/CHEMPIRE/YUAN.HTM
The Song (Sung) Dynasty
http://www.bcps.org/offices/LIS/models/chinahist/song.html
---Language---
Chinese Character Dictionary
http://www.mandarintools.com/chardict.html
Chinese Script and Language
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/chinese.htm
Chinese Tools
This looks like a good one - audio for all lessons!
http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese
Evolution of Chinese Characters
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/chinese_evolution.htm
Learn Chinese
http://www.learnalanguage.com/learn-chinese/
Mandarin Wordlists
On Memrise - GREAT vocabulary builder
http://www.memrise.com/topic/mandarin/
On-line Chinese Tools
http://www.mandarintools.com/
Pinyin Tones
Pinyin is the latinized method of spelling the words - until you have begun learning the kanji, this will be your primary source of gaining vocabulary. Depending on where you look there will be diacritic marks over the letters or numbers at the end of the word to indicate tone. The video above shows the pronunciations for the diacritic marks - quite simple once you hear it in use a few times. The numbers indicate which of the marks is used - they are always given in the same order from what I have seen so memorizing the order will help quite a bit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laXqwR9hfJo
Zhongwen - Dictionary and genealogy of words
http://www.zhongwen.com/
---Arts & Misc---
Art and Culture of the Sung Dynasty
http://www.npm.gov.tw/exhbition/song/english/cson0003.htm
The Golden Era of Chinese Painting - Sung Dynasty
http://www.art-virtue.com/painting/history/sung/sung.htm
Sung Dynasty Ceramics
http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/ceramics/early-chinese-ceramics-sung.cfm
Chinese Embroidery
http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/culture/embroidery.htm
House Architecture
http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/home/3intrhme.htm
Sung Dynasty Coins
http://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/china/china5.htm
Sung Dynasty Literature
http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/wen/sung.html
Imperial Food in the Ming Dynasty
http://www.china.org.cn/english/imperial/26109.htm