China 1 China People's Republic of China 中 华 人 民 共 和 国 Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó Anthem: "March of the Volunteers" 《 义 勇 军 进 行 曲 》 (Pinyin: Yìyǒngjūn Jìnxíngqǔ) Area controlled by the People's Republic of China is in dark green. Claimed but uncontrolled regions are in light green. Capital Beijing (Peking) 39°55′N 116°23′E [1][2] Largest city Shanghai [3] Official languages Standard Chinese Recognised regional languages Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur, Zhuang, and various others Official written language Vernacular Chinese [3] Official script Simplified Chinese [4] Ethnic groups 91.51% Han; 55 recognised minorities Demonym Chinese Government Presidential republic, single-party state[note 1] - CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping - President Hu Jintao - Premier Wen Jiabao China 2 - Congress Chairman Wu Bangguo - Conference Chairman Jia Qinglin Legislature National People's Congress Establishment - Unification of China under the Qin Dynasty 221 BC - Republic established 1 January 1912 - People's Republic proclaimed 1 October 1949 Area 2 [note 2] - Total 9,706,961 km (3rd/4th) 3,747,879 sq mi - Water (%) 2.8 Population [4] - 2011 estimate 1,347,350,000 (1st) [5] - 2010 census 1,339,724,852 (1st) - Density 139.6/km2 (81st) 363.3/sq mi GDP (PPP) 2011 estimate [6] - Total $11.299 trillion (2nd) [6] - Per capita $8,382 (91st) GDP (nominal) 2011 estimate [6] - Total $7.298 trillion (2nd) [6] - Per capita $5,413 (90th) [7] Gini (2009) 48 HDI [8] (2011) 0.663 (medium) (101th) Currency Renminbi (yuan) (¥) (CNY) Time zone China Standard Time (UTC+8) Date formats yyyy-mm-dd or yyyy年m月d日 (CE; CE-1949) Drives on the right, except for Hong Kong & Macau Calling code +86 ISO 3166 code CN Internet TLD [9] .cn .中 國 .中 国 [10][11] 1. Since the 1980s, simple characterizations of the political structure are no longer possible. [12] 2. The area given is the United Nations official figure for the mainland. It also excludes the Trans-Karakoram Tract 5,800 km2 (2,200 sq mi), Aksai Chin 37,244 km2 (14,380 sq mi) and other territories in dispute with India. The total area of China is listed as [13] 9,572,900 km2 (3,696,100 sq mi) by Encyclopædia Britannica. See Territorial changes of the People's Republic of China for further information. China 3 i China ( /ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中 国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. The PRC is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China with its seat of government in the capital city of Beijing.[14][15] It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau).[16] The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, China is the world's second-largest country by land area,[17] and the third- or fourth-largest by total area, depending on the definition of total area.[18] China's landscape is vast and diverse, with forest steppes and the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts occupying the arid north and northwest near Mongolia and Central Asia, and subtropical forests being prevalent in the wetter south near Southeast Asia. The terrain of western China is rugged and elevated, with the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separating China from South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third- and sixth-longest in the world, have their sources in the Tibetan Plateau and continue to the densely populated eastern seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometres (9,000 mi) long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East and South China Seas. The nation of China has had numerous historical incarnations. The ancient Chinese civilization—one of the world's earliest—flourished in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain.[19] China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies, known as dynasties, beginning with the semi-mythological Xia of the Yellow River basin (approx. 2000 BC) and ending with the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Since 221 BC, when the Qin Dynasty first conquered several states to form a Chinese empire, the country has expanded, fractured and been reformed numerous times. The Republic of China, founded in 1911 after the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949. In 1945, the ROC acquired Taiwan from the Empire of Japan following World War II. In the 1946–1949 phase of the Chinese Civil War, the Communist Party defeated the nationalist Kuomintang in mainland China and established the People's Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, while the Kuomintang relocated the ROC government to Taipei. The ROC's jurisdiction is now limited to Taiwan and several outlying islands, including Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu, and it has received limited diplomatic recognition. Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, China has become the world's fastest-growing major economy.[20] As of 2012, it is the world's second-largest economy, after the United States, by both nominal total GDP and purchasing power parity (PPP),[21] and is also the world's largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army, with the second-largest defense budget. The PRC has been a United Nations member since 1971, when it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the BCIM and the G-20. China has been characterized as a potential superpower by a number of academics,[22] military analysts,[23][24] and public policy and economics analysts.[25][26] Etymology China 4 China Chinese name Simplified Chinese: 中 国 Traditional Chinese: 中 國 [27][28] Literal meaning: Middle Kingdom Transliterations Gan - Romanization: Tung-koe̍t Kejia - Romanization: Dung24 Gued2 Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōngguó - Tongyong Pinyin: Jhongguó - Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo - Postal Map: Chungkuo - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Jong'gwo - Bopomofo ㄓ ㄨ ㄥ ㄍ ㄨ ㄛˊ ﺟْﻮ ﻗُﻮَﻉ Xiao'erjing - Min - Hokkien POJ: Tiong-kok - Min Dong BUC: Dṳ̆ng-guók Wu 平 入 - Romanization: Tson koh Yue - Jyutping: Zung1 gwok3 - Yale Romanization: Jūnggwok People's Republic of China Alternative Chinese name Simplified Chinese: 中 华 人 民 共 和 国 Traditional Chinese: 中 華 人 民 共 和 國 China 5 Transliterations Gan - Romanization: Chungfa Ninmin Khungfokoet Hakka - Romanization: Dung24 fa11 ngin11 min11 kiung55 fo11 gued2 Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó - Bopomofo ㄓ ㄨ ㄥ ㄏ ㄨ ㄚˊ ㄖ ㄣˊ ㄇ ㄧ ㄣˊ ㄍ ㄨ ㄥˋ ㄏ ㄜˊ ㄍ ㄨ ㄛˊ ﺟْﻮ ﺧُﻮَ ﮊٌ ﻡٍ ﻗْﻮ ﺡْ ﻗُﻮَﻉ Xiao'erjing - Min - Hokkien POJ: Tiong-hôa jîn-bîn kiōng-hô-kok - Min Dong BUC: Dṳ̆ng-huà Ìng-mìng Gê̤ṳng-huò-guók Wu 平 平 平 平 去 平 入 - Romanization: Tson gho zin min gon ghu koh Yue - Jyutping: Zung1 waa4 jan4 man4 gung6 wo4 gwok3 - Yale Romanization: Jūngwàh Yàhnmàhn Guhngwòhgwok Mongolian name Mongolian: Transliterations - SASM/GNC Bügüde nayiramdaqu dumdadu arad ulus Tibetan name Tibetan: ཀྲུང་ཧྭ་མི་དམངས་སྤྱི མཐུན་རྒྱལ་ཁབ Transliterations - Wylie: krung hwa mi dmangs spyi mthun rgyal khab - Zangwen Pinyin: Zhunghua Mimang Jitun Gyalkab Uyghur name ﺟﯘﯕﺨﯘﺍ ﺧەﻟﻖ ﺟﯘﻣﮭﯘﺭﯨﻴﯩﺖ :Uyghur China 6 Transliterations - Latin Yëziqi: Jungxua Xelq Jumhuriyiti - Yengi Yezik̡: Junghua Həlk̡ Jumh̡uriyiti - SASM/GNC: Junghua Hälk̂ Jumĥuriyiti - Siril Yëziqi: Җуңхуа Хәлқ Җумһурийити Zhuang name Zhuang: Cunghvaz Yinzminz Gunghozgoz [29] which is from Sanskrit Cīna (चीन). It is first recorded in 1516 ,(ﭼﯿﻦ) The word "China" is derived from Persian Cin in the journal of Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa.[30] It appears in English in a translation published in 1555.[31] The Sanskrit word was used to refer to China as early as AD 150.[32] There are various scholarly theories regarding the origin of this word. The traditional theory, proposed in the 17th century by Martino Martini, is that "China" is derived from "Qin" (秦), the westernmost of the Chinese kingdoms during the Zhou Dynasty, or from the succeeding Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC).[33] The word Cīna is used in two Hindu scriptures – the Mahābhārata of the 5th century BC and the Laws of Manu of the 2nd century BC – to refer to a country located in the Tibetan-Burman borderlands east of India.[34][35] In China, common names for the country include Zhōngguó (Chinese: 中 国; literally "the Middle State(s)") and Zhōnghuá (Chinese: 中 华), although the country's official name has been changed numerous times by successive dynasties and modern governments. The term Zhongguo appeared in various ancient texts, such as the Classic of History of the 6th century BC,[36] and in pre-imperial times it was often used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia from the barbarians. The term, which can be either singular or plural, referred to the group of states in the central plain. It was only in the nineteenth century that the term emerged as the formal name of the country. The Chinese were not unique in regarding their country as "central", since other civilizations had the same view.[37] History Prehistory Archaeological evidence suggests that early hominids inhabited China between 250,000 and 2.24 million years ago.[38] A cave in Zhoukoudian (near present-day Beijing) exhibits fossils dated at between 300,000 and 780,000 BC.[39][40][41] The fossils are of Peking Man, an example of Homo erectus who used fire.