The one everybody digs a hole to.

The second most populated country in the world (neck-and-neck with India), the third largest in area after Russia and Canada, and an economic, industrial and cultural powerhouse, China (Chinese: 中国, Zhōngguó), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC) (Chinese: 中华人民共和国, Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó) is a major country in Asia.

China is one of the world's oldest civilizations — having been one of only six to have formed independently (meaning not having an already-established civilization give them the idea of civilization creation), one of only five to have developed a writing system independently (the only one still in use today!), and has the longest continuous history of any country in the world. The main "centers" of Chinese civilization in modern Sinology are considered to be the Yellow River, Liao River, and Yangtze River. This is in contrast to the old theory that Chinese civilization began solely at the Yellow River and radiated outwards, although the Yellow River region would remain by far the most important area in Chinese history.

The proto-Sino-Tibetan people likely originated at the middle Yellow River of northern China and split around 6,000–8,000 years ago into the proto-Tibeto-Burman and proto-Sinitic branches. The proto-Tibeto-Burmans headed westwards while the proto-Sinitics remained in northern China. The proto-Sinitic tribes that lived by the Yellow River underwent extensive cultural and technological advancements largely due to the unpredictability of the river on which they depended on. The early Sinitic-speaking agricultural tribes from the Yangshao culture eventually formed a confederacy with the Liao River people from the Hongshan culture to their north. The two river cultures had interacted with each other extensively before the people of the Hongshan culture made a southward migration to the Yellow River likely due to climate change.

Chinese culture was more strongly influenced by the Yangshao people in terms of language, silk production, millet agriculture, and pottery making, but with the religious practices of the Hongshan people. Thus, early Chinese religion was shamanistic. Shamanism would lose its importance after the Shang Dynasty, but the grand religious ceremonies and rituals of the Xia such as dragon worship and feng shui would remain. Combined, the Yangshao and Hongshan became known as the Huaxia. With the Hua in the name meaning "illustrious" in reference to their elaborate clothing (the Yangshao people were involved in silk production) and the "Xia" meaning "grand" in reference to their ceremonial etiquette (the Hongshan people had complicated religious rituals).

The Huaxia began to conquer surrounding territories and absorb foreign populations which allowed for their expansion. The Huaxia would go on to form empires with the Qin Dynasty being the first unified Chinese empire. The Han Dynasty is considered one of the early great eras of Chinese civilization. Eventually, the Huaxia would go on to call themselves "Han people" and are today known as the "Han Chinese" in English. It is worth nothing that the concept of "Han Chinese" is actually Newer Than They Think. During the mid to late imperial era, the word "Han" was largely utilized as an exonym by foreign powers (often in the form of the slur "Han'er") to describe a collection of diverse Sinitic-speaking groups that operated under the same civilisational system. Think of it like "Berber", but in a more hierarchical society - most of the people who would become "Han Chinese" grouped themselves locally by region, but considered themselves as subjects of the Emperor. It was not until the 19th century did the idea of "Han nationalism" emerge, largely in response to centuries of Manchu rule and European colonialism.^note Dr Sun Yat-sen had even called the Chinese a "heap of loose sand...[with] only family and clan solidarity" as part of the reason for China's dysfunction at the end of the imperial era. Additionally, European ethnography routinely split up Han groups by province or dialect groups, such as among the Southeast Asian diaspora where they would be divided into "Cantonese", "Hokkien", "Hakka", "Teochew" etc. but collectively called the people who shared this civilisational identity as "the Chinese", similar to how they would collectively identify all Hindu-cultured South Asians as "the Hindu". It was not until the formal classifications of China's 56 ethnic groups under Mao Zedong's government to create a unified state did "Han" become an official concept.^note Han was not the only group that was officially designated into a collective under the classification system. Other groups that were brought under similar umbrellas included the Yi (which blended all Lolo-speaking groups of Sichuan and Yunnan with the Nuosu as the standard-bearer), the Dai (which included the two Southeast Asian influenced Tai speaking groups in China, the Lue and the Shan), the Miao (which included all Hmong speaking groups), and the even the Mongols (which officially lumped in groups such as the Tuvans and the Buryats). Regardless, over thousands of years, the people who would be known as Han Chinese brought their culture out of their homeland as they continuously expanded - primarily in a southward direction where they assimilated the native inhabitants of the Yangtze and Pearl River. A portion of these people even reached as far as central Vietnam and forming dyansties in Vietnam that would rule for over a thousand years.

Today there is a genetic cline in China — Northern Han Chinese have highly uniform paternal and maternal lines, and form a very close genetic cluster, being a generally homogeneous group that formed about 3000 years ago and interbred substantially in the plains regions during historical times. Despite this, a west to east cline still exists: Northwestern Han tend to cluster more closely to Tibetans and related Tibeto-Burman groups, while Northeastern Han shift towards a Korean and Japanese direction. In contrast, Southern Han Chinese are much more diverse. The bulk part of Southeastern Han genetics came about at the end of the Neolithic, by a southward movement of millet farmers of the Yellow River and of the rice farmers of the Yangtze River who had dispersed their agricultural technology across East Asia, just prior the formation of Chinese identity. The rest of their lineage, in particular the maternal ancestry, came from Austroasiatic and Austronesian populations. As a result, the Southeastern Han trace the greatest portion of their origin to the indigenous "yue" people recounted in Chinese history - people who had always been somewhat similar to the original Han Chinese - that have been since assimilated, and are generally more similar to local Hmong-Mien and Kra-Dai speaking groups, such as the Dong, the Miao, the Yao and the She, than they are to their northern counterparts. However, in regions such as the southwestern frontier, which were brought into the fold later in history, and after the population of the Central Plains had boomed substantially, an extensive practise of intermarriage between Han men and non-Han women took place.

Chinese prehistory is still largely a mystery due to it being centered around the Yellow River, which was a poor region for archaeological preservation. The details are still hotly debated today. Even what is "common knowledge" now may be outdated in the next few years.

What is far better recorded is the period known as Imperial China, starting from the Qin, China would have a dynastic imperial system of governance for the next 2000 years. The Chinese state would constantly alternate between periods of extreme chaos and peaceful golden eras as it fractured and reunited over time. China was the dominant cultural powerhouse of East Asia for most of its existence. Although ironically, the best known Chinese eras to Westerners were the foreign dynasties of the Yuan and Qing due to Marco Polo's adventures in Yuan China and because China was being brutally colonized by Western powers and Japan in the Qing — these were the periods when China was arguably at it's "least Chinese" and it contributed to the poor understanding the West had of the nation. Even today the West is largely ignorant of Chinese history with its preference to undervalue Chinese studies due to the bad blood that generated between China and the West starting from the late Qing.

In 2003, China became the third nation to have sent a man into space with its own rockets. The President and Vice President of the People's Republic of China serve for five year terms with no term limits; this, plus the lack of political opposition, basically allows them to serve for life. However, true authority lies with the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China^note The Chairman's and Vice Chairman's seats were abolished, hence why the General Secretary now holds the highest authority in the party. while top military command goes to Chairman of the Central Military Commission, a role usually also hold by the General Secretary who's usually elected as the President (still known as the State Chairman in Chinese). Basically one has to hold these three positions to gain full power of the head of government of China. The General Secretary is secretly decided by the Communist Party.

Chinese Culture

• Chinese Language
  • Chinese Dialects and Accents
  • Chinese Names
    • Why Mao Changed His Name (transliteration)
  • Chinese Sibling Terminology
  • Four Is Death
  • Green Is Blue
• Chinese Mythology
  • Asian Lion Dogs
  • Chinese Vampire
• Dragon/Phoenix Juxtaposition
  • Eastern Zodiac
  • The Four Gods
  • The Four Perils
  • Our Yaoguai Are Different
  • Qixi
• Chinese Religions
  • Chinese Funerary Customs
  • Buddhism
  • Confucius
  • Taoism
    • Ba Gua
    • Lao Zi
• Chinese Tabletop games
  • Mahjong
  • Weiqi
  • Xiangqi
• Chinese with Chopper Support (The People's Liberation Army)
  • The Dragon's Teeth (Chinese Nuclear Weapons)
• Dragon and Lion Dance
• Peking Opera
• Qipao
• Tea and Tea Culture
• Wuxia
  • Fighting Panda

Chinese Geography

• The Thirty-Three Divisions (or thirty-four divisions)
  • Beijing (北京/Peking)
  • Hong Kong
    • Kowloon Walled City
  • Macau
  • Manchuria
  • Shanghai
  • Tibet
  • Taiwan (Governed by the ROC instead of the PRC)
  • Xinjiang

Chinese History

• Imperial China
  • Dynasties from Shang to Qing (Pre-1912)
    • List of Significant People in Imperial China
    • Three Kingdoms – Shu, Wei, Wu (Three Kingdoms era)
    • The Opium Wars
    • First Sino-Japanese War (during Qing dynasty)
• No More Emperors (Republic of China, WWII and Civil War; ca 1912–1949)
  • Second Sino-Japanese War
  • Chinese Civil War
• Red China (post-1949)
  • Cultural Revolution
  • The Sino Indian Conflict
  • To Get Rich Is Glorious (Post-Mao China)

Works from China

• Chinese Media

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• Capital: Beijing (北京, Běijīng in pinyin)
• Largest city: Shanghai (上海)
• Population: 1,419,936,142 (including Hong Kong and Macau, excluding Taiwan, same below)
• Area: 9,596,961 km (3,705,407 sq mi) (3rd/4th)
• Government: Unitary Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist republic
• Currency: Renminbi (元/¥) (CNY)
• ISO-3166-1 Code: CN
• Country calling code: 86
• Highest point: Mount Everest (8,849 m/29,032 ft)^note shared with Nepal
• Lowest point: Ayding Lake (−154 m/−505 ft)