China has a marked continental monsoonal climate characterized by great variety. Most parts are in the northern temperate zone while the southern areas are in the tropical or subtropical zone and northern areas in the frigid zone.
Most parts of China have clear division between seasons. In winter, northerly winds from high latitude areas keep the northern part cold and dry, while in summer, monsoons from southern coastal areas bring warm and moisture. In addition, the climate also varies with the extensive territory and various topography from region to region.
In north China, such as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, summer is dry and sweltering while winter is formidably cold. Sandstorms sometimes occur in April in this area, especially in the Inner Mongolia and Beijing area.
On the Tibet-Qinghai plateau (about 4,000m above sea level), winter is long and extremely cold while summer is short and moderately warm. There is little precipitation in this area and the temperature fluctuation is great between day and night.
In central China (the valley along where the Yangtze River travel), summer is long, hot and humid while winter is short and cold. In the areas south of the Yangtze River, temperature rarely falls below freezing. In the far south, areas around Guangzhou, the summer is long, humid and hot while the winter is short and comfortable,a paradise considered by many northerners. The rainy season runs from May through August and typhoons frequently occur in the southeast coast between July and September.
The renminbi (simplified Chinese: 人民币; traditional Chinese: 人民幣; pinyin: rénmínbì; literally "people's currency") is the currency of the People's Republic of China (PRC)., whose principal unit is the yuan (simplified Chinese: 元 or 圆; traditional Chinese: 圓; pinyin: yuán; Wade-Giles: yüan), subdivided into 10 jiao (角), each of 10 fen (分).The renminbi is issued by the People's Bank of China, the monetary authority of the PRC.The ISO 4217 abbreviation is CNY, although also commonly abbreviated as "RMB". The Latinised symbol is ¥.
The geography of China stretches some 5,026 kilometers across the East Asian landmass bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam in a changing configuration of broad plains, expansive deserts, and lofty mountain ranges, including vast areas of inhospitable terrain. The eastern half of the country, its seacoast fringed with offshore islands, is a region of fertile lowlands, foothills and mountains, deserts, steppes, and subtropical areas. The western half of China is a region of sunken basins, rolling plateaus, and towering massifs, including a portion of the highest tableland on earth.The vastness of the country and the barrenness of the western hinterland have important implications for defense strategy. In spite of many good harbors along the approximately 18,000-kilometer coastline, the nation has traditionally oriented itself not toward the sea but inland, developing as an imperial power whose center lay in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River on the northern plains. China also has the Tibetan Plateau to the south. The Tibetan Plateau is a very large plateau with high altitudes. To the north of the Tibet Plateau lies the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts, which stretch from the extreme northwest eastward through Mongolia.China is one of the world's largest countries in total area, almost the exact same size as the United States yet smaller than both Russia and Canada. Whether China or the United States is the third largest country in the world in total area is related to (a) the validity of claims by the PRC on territories such as Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract (both territories also claimed by India), and (b) how the total size of the United States is calculated: The CIA's The World Factbook gives 9,826,630 km²,the United Nations Statistics Division gives 9,629,091 km², and the Encyclopedia Britannica gives 9,522,055 km². Figures for the size of China differ slightly depending on where one draws a number of ill-defined boundaries. The official figure by the People's Republic of China is 9.6 million square kilometers. The Republic of China based in Taiwan puts this figure at 11 million square kilometers, but this includes Mongolia, an independent sovereign state. China's contour is reasonably comparable to that of the United States and lies largely at the same latitudes. The total area is estimated to be 9,596,960 km², with land accounting for 9,326,410 km² and water for 270,550 km² (around 3 percent).
The oldest records about China date back to the period of ruler Fu Si, who lived in 30th centuries BC. Supposedly gods inspired him to write the holy book of ancient China "Itzin" from which originated the theory that Universe arose and developes due to alternation of Ing and Yang. Historical sources do not mention any rulers of China preceeding to Shang dynasty (1766-1122 BC). Shang rulers were subdued by Zhou dynasty, who built their capital nearby the modern Xian. Later, aproximately in 750 BC, they had to escape from barbarians who invaded the country and new capital was founded near the present day Liaoyan, In the early period of ruling power was concentrated in the hands of Emperor. Later local rulers managed to create soveraign fiefdoms. From 770 BC these rulers were constantly involved in wars with each other and the whole period from 476 till 221 BC was called The period of Warring States. At the same time China was attacked by barbarians from the north and north-east. It was decided to build gigantic walls for defence of territory. Finally the central power was concentrated in the hands of prince Qin, whose army overthrew the Zhou ruler.
New Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi ( First Emperor) became the founder of Qin dynasty in 221 BC. He was one of the most famous Emperors in the history of China and the first one who united Chinese Empire. After the death of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi in 210 governors of two provinces started the struggle for power. The winner Liu Ban founded new Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). During the rule of Han dynasty territory of China expanded.
The Silk Road originated in the 2nd century BC from a desire for military and political purpose instead of for trade. In order to seek allies to against Xiongnu repeated invasion, a court official named Zhang Qian was sent by Han Wudi to the Western Regions. However, on the way to the Western Regions, the Xiongnu captured Zhang and detained him for ten years. Escaped from Xiongnu's detention, Zhang Qian continued his journal to the Central Asia. While at that time, the local rulers were satisfied with their status and refused to ally with Han Empire. Although the mission failed in its original purpose, the information Zhang Qian conveyed to China about Central Asia, and vice versa, made people in each area desire goods produced in the other.
While when the Silk Road was first established, silk was not the chief commodity. Han dynasty made very little profit from it until the Romans became fanatic about silk that the large profits came in. During the Tang dynasty, thirty percent of the trade on the Silk Road was accounted for silk.
The fall of the Han dynasty in the early 3rd century once caused Silk Road trade to decline. However, the rise of the Tang dynasty in the 7th century revived this commerce and by mid 8th century the route reached its height.
At the same time, with the spread of various religions in the world, more and more missionaries reached the east via this road. With the Silk Road acting as an information superhighway, the exchange of ideas grew to a larger scale than ever before. And as a result, the Tang dynasty fortunately experienced the best flourishing period of the Silk Road.
The fall of the Tang in the early 10th century gave a deathblow to the trade on the Silk Road. The trade on the road declined sharply till in the 13th century, when the conquests of the Mongols ushered in an era of frequent and extended contacts between the East and the West. This increased contact created a demand for Asian goods in Europe, a demand that eventually inspired the search for a sea route to Asia.
The discovery of a sea route from Europe to Asia in the late 15th century dealt a damaging blow to the Silk Road trade again. Since then, the prosperous Silk Road was on its downhill.
After the fall of Han dynasty three kingdoms commenced strife for domination - Wei, Shou and Wu. In short period 16 provinces joined the war. In 581 the founder of Sui dynasty took hold of the power and made efforts to unite the Empire. The activity started from Great Canal, which connected lower part of Yantze with middle flow of Huang He.
After the fall of Sui dynasty, during the Tang epoch, the history of China reached its heyday.
Just in this period China became the strongest state of the world and constituted the main power in Asia. The population of Xian, the capital of empire, exceeded million. The art and culture flourished: the development of classic painting, music, dance and opera, production of finest pottery, discovery of secrets of semi-transparent white porcelain happened in this period. Confucian ethics and Buddhism dominated in all fields and progress was observed in science - mainly in astronomy and geography.
At the end of 9th century the neighbouring tribes started invading the territory of China, also internal rebellions broke out. In 907 the dynasty fell and very soon was replaced by five others. This instable period of Chinese history was marked by invention of paper money and the primitive printing-press. In the beginning of 13th century Genghis Khan conquered part of China to the north from Huan He. Sung dynasty was rooted in 1279 when Hubilai conquered the whole of China and became Emperor. He founded the mongol Yuang dinasty and the capital was moved to Khanbalik, modern Peking. At that time China was the part of huge Empire stretching from Europe and Persia in the west till plains and stepps of Siberia in the north. In 14th century the mongols were driven from China and replaced by Ming dynasty. Ming Emperors ruled till 17th century which was marked by development of architecture and marine expeditions to Yava, Sri-Lanka and even Persian Gulf and Africa. In 1644 China was conquered by Manchus and the following 150 years were the period of stability and peace, but in the beginning of 19th century Opium War was initiated by Britain and the British troops occupied Shanghai and Nankin and later Hong Kong. In 1894 the war with Japan started and China lost Korea, Taiwan and Pescador islands. Qing dynasty of Manchus was uprooted in 1911 by revolutionary movement of Sun Yatsen and in 1912 China was declared as Constitutional Republic.In 1916 Japan invaded China and power passed to Japanese. In 1917 China took part in World War I. In 1925 Sun Yatsen died and national government was headed by Chan Kaishi who ruled the country for ten years. Japan conquered Manchuria in 1933 and querilla war commenced. In 1935 Mao Zedong became the leader of communist party. In 1945 after Japanese capitulation the civil war broke out which ended in 1949 by creation of People's Republic of China which was headed by Mao Zedong. The period of Mao's rule was that of experiments in economy, agriculture and social life. In 1976 Mao Zedong died and Den Siaoping became the leader of communist party. China started developing with programm of "four modernisations", i.e. industry, agriculture, scince and defence. In 1989 during dispersal of students' demonstrations troops were involved. Hundreds of people died, thousends were arrested. Zhao Tziang was removed from governing. Since 1994 when the official control of money exchange was abolished, China's economy is developing intensively.
Three Major Holidays
In China, there are three most important holidays: May Holiday (May 1 to May 7), National Holiday (October 1 to October 7), and Spring Festival (Date varies, but normally be late Jan or early Feb, and lasting for 7 days).
The public holiday is actually only 3 days for each of the three holidays, but people switched and put the previous weekend and the next weekend together to make it up to 7 continous holidays, and fixed the date to be May 1 to May 7, Oct 1 to Oct 7. For the Spring Festival, since it is the 1st day of the first month to the 7th day of the first month, and there is no fixed date.
New Years Day
Besides the 9 days, the New Year's Day is also public holiday - one day off.
Others
There are other public holidays but only for some people.
March 8th is international women's day. All women take half day off (afternoon).
May 4th is the Youth Day, and young people (middle school?) take one day off.
June 1st is the International Children's Day. Chidren take 1 day off.
So in conclusion, there is 10 public holidays per year in China.
As recently as 1950, China's population was a mere 563 million. The population grew dramatically through the following decades to one billion in the early 1980s.China's total fertility rate is 1.7, which means that, on average, each woman gives birth to 1.7 children throughout her life. The necessary total fertility rate for a stable population is 2.1; nonetheless, China's population is expected to grow over the next few decades. This can be attributed to immigration and a decrease in infant mortality and a decrease in death rate as national health improves.By the late 2010s, China's population is expected to reach 1.4 billion. Around 2030, China's population is anticipated to peak and then slowly start dropping.In the next few decades, India, the world's second most populous country is expected to surpass China in population. By 2040, India's population is expected to be 1.52 billion; that same year, China's will be 1.45 billion and India will become the world's most populous country. As of 2005, India has a total fertility rate of 2.8, well above replacement value, so it is growing much more quickly than China.
Capitale: Pechino (Beijing)
Popolazione: 1.314.622.000 (2006)
Superficie: 9.600.000 kmq
Fuso orario: + 7 ore rispetto all’Italia ;+ 6 ore quando in Italia vige l’ora legale.
Lingue : il mandarino. Nell’area di Canton si parla il cantonese. Diffusi nelle varie province i dialetti locali. La conoscenza dell’inglese, seppure in crescita, e’ limitata ad alcune zone dei grandi centri urbani.
Religione: ampiamente diffuso l’ateismo. Le principali religioni sono quella buddista e la taoista. Sono altresì presenti significative minoranze cristiane e islamiche.
Moneta: Yuan/RMB.
Prefisso telefonico dall’Italia: 0086 (aggiungere 10 per Pechino; 21 per Shanghai; 20 per Canton).
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