CHINA

The People's Republic of China (PRC)

 commonly known as China, its capital city is Beijing
 Largest City - Shanghai
 is the most populous state in the world
 with over 1.3 billion people
 located in East Asia
 9.6 million square kilometres (3.7 million square miles)
 PRC is the world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area
 governed by the Communist Party of China (CPC)
 Official Language : Standard Mandarin
 Currency: Chinese yuan (¥)
 Current President: Hu Jintao
 National Heroes: Modern -Mao Zedong ,Yang Liwei ,Fei Junlong
 National Costume: Hanfu, Cheongsam, Changshan
 National Fruit: Kiwifruit
 National Anthem: “March of the Volunteers”
 National Sport: Table tennis
 Religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam
• The PRC exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly administered municipalities
(Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two highly autonomous special administrative regions (SARs) - Hong
Kong and Macau.

In 1949, when major combat ended in the Chinese Civil War, two political entities emerged having the term "China" in their names:
• The People's Republic of China (PRC), established in 1949, commonly known as China, has control over mainland
China and the largely self-governing territories of Hong Kong (since 1997) and Macau (since 1999).
• The Republic of China (ROC) established in 1912 in mainland China, now commonly known as Taiwan, has control over
the islands of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu.
Etymology
• English names
 word "China" is derived from Cin (‫)چین‬, a Persian name for China popularized in Europe by Marco Polo.
 Hindu scriptures Mahābhārata (5th century BC ) and Laws of Manu (2nd century BC), the word Cīna is used to refer to a
country of "yellow-colored" barbarians located in the Tibeto-Burman borderlands east of India.
• Chinese names
 The official name of China changed with each dynasty. The common name is Zhōngguó. This translates traditionally as
"Middle Kingdom," or as "central country."
Geography and Climate
 ranges from mostly plateaus and mountains in the west to lower lands in the east
 Principal rivers flow from west to east, including the Yangtze (central), the Huang He (Yellow river, north-central), and the
Amur (northeast), and sometimes toward the south (including the Pearl River, Mekong River, and Brahmaputra), with most
Chinese rivers emptying into the Pacific Ocean.
 climate of China varies greatly
 northern zone (containing Beijing) has summer daytime temperatures of more than 30 degrees Celsius and winters of Arctic
severity
 The central zone (containing Shanghai) has a temperate continental climate with very hot summers and cold winters
 The southern zone (containing Guangzhou) has a subtropical climate with very hot summers and mild winters.
 dust storms have become usual in the spring in China
 Water, erosion, and pollution control have become important issues in China's relations with other countries.
Wildlife
 One of seventeen megadiverse countries, lies in two of the world's major ecozones, the Palearctic and the Indomalaya.
• Palearctic zone - are found such mammals as the horse, camel, tapir, and jerboa
• Indomalaya region are the Leopard Cat, bamboo rat, treeshrew, and various species of monkeys and apes
• The famous giant panda is found only in a limited area along the Chang Jiang.
History
 Ancient China was one of the earliest centers of human civilization
 one of the few to invent writing, the others being Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, etc.
Prehistory
 earliest hominids in China date from 250,000 to 2.24 million years ago
  A cave in Zhoukoudian has fossils dated at somewhere between 300,000 to 780,000 years
 The earliest evidence of a fully modern human in China comes from Liujiang County, Guangxi, where a cranium has been
found and dated at approximately 67,000 years old.

Dynastic Rule
Ancient
3 Sovereigns and 5 Emperors
Xia Dynasty 2100–1600 BCE
 first dynasty
 was considered mythical until scientific excavations found early bronze-age sites at Erlitou in Henan Province in 1959
Shang Dynasty 1600–1046 BCE
 The first Chinese dynasty that left historical records
 settled along the Yellow River in eastern China from the 17th to the 11th century BC
 The Oracle bone script of the Shang Dynasty represent the oldest forms of Chinese writing found
 direct ancestor of modern Chinese characters used throughout East Asia
Zhou Dynasty 1045–256 BCE
*Western Zhou *Eastern Zhou
Spring and Autumn Period
Warring States Period
 12th to the 5th century BC, until their centralized authority was slowly eroded by feudal warlords
Imperial
Qin Dynasty 221 BCE–206 BCE
 Established the first unified Chinese state
 by Qin Shi Huang, who proclaimed himself as the "First Emperor"
 forced standardization of the Chinese language and measurements
Han Dynasty 206 BCE–220 CE
*Western Han *Xin Dynasty *Eastern Han
 expanded the empire's territory considerably with military campaigns reaching Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia and Central Asia
 helped establish the Silk Road in Central Asia

Three Kingdoms 220–280 *Wei, Shu & Wu

 period of disunion followed
Wu - opened diplomatic relations with Japan, introducing the Chinese writing system there
Sui Dynasty 581–618
 China was reunited
 was short-lived after a failure in the Goguryeo-Sui Wars (598–614) weakened it
10th–11th century Longquan celadon porcelain pieces from Zhejiang province, during the Song Dynasty
 Under the succeeding Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese technology and culture reached its zenith

Song Dynasty 960–1279

 first government in world history to issue paper money
 first Chinese polity to establish a permanent standing navy
 was a culturally rich period for philosophy and the arts.
Yuan Dynasty 1271–1368
 By the Mongol leader and fifth Khagan of the Mongol Empire Kublai Khanfter
 1300 census reported roughly 60 million people
 A peasant named Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Mongols in 1368 and founded the Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty 1368–1644
 golden age, with one of the strongest navies in the world
 a rich and prosperous economy
 flourishing of the arts and culture
 during this period that Zheng He led explorations throughout the world, possibly reaching America
 The last Ming Emperor Chongzhen committed suicide when the city fell
Qing Dynasty 1644–1911
 early 20th century, mass civil disorder had begun
 The 38-year-old Emperor Guangxu died under house arrest on 14 November 1908
 In another coup de'tat, Yuan Shikai overthrew the last Qing emperor ending two thousand years of imperial rule in China

Politics
 one of the last five Communist states (along with Vietnam, North Korea, Laos, and Cuba)
 The country is ruled by the Communist Party of China (CPC), whose power is enshrined in China's constitution
 • Population Policy
 one child per family, with exceptions for ethnic minorities and flexibility in rural
 China will maintain its one-child policy until at least the year 2020
Military
 With 2.3 million active troops, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the largest military in the world
 PLA consists of an army, navy, air force, and strategic nuclear force
 The official announced budget of the PLA for 2009 was $70 billion

Economy
 GDP (PPP) 2009 estimate - Total $8.765 trillion (2nd) - Per capita $6,567 (99th)

Culture
 Imperial Examinations, calligraphy, Confucianism, Chinese art and Literature, Beijing Opera, Sexism, family structure and
obedience to the state, bowing