Portal:China
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China (simplified Chinese: 中国; traditional Chinese: 中國; literally "the Middle Kingdom") is a cultural region, a civilisation, and a country in East Asia, that is home to one-fifth of the world's population.
China is the world's oldest continuous civilization, consisting of states and cultures dating back more than 5,000 years. Its history has been largely characterized by repeated divisions and reunifications amid alternating periods of peace and war, and violent imperial dynastic change. The country's territory expanded outwards from a core area in the North China Plain, and varied according to its changing fortunes to include regions of East, Northeast, and Central Asia. For centuries, Imperial China was also one of the world's most technologically advanced civilizations, and East Asia's dominant cultural influence, with Chinese religion, customs, and writing systems being adopted to varying degrees by neighbors such as Japan, Korea and Vietnam, and having an impact lasting to the present day.
China also has the world's longest continuously used written language system, the Chinese language, and is the source of many major inventions, such as the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China: paper, the compass, gunpowder, and the printing press. Its landscape is diverse with forest steppes and deserts in the dry north near Mongolia and Russia's Siberia, and subtropical forests in the south close to Vietnam, Laos, and Burma. The terrain in the west is rugged and high altitude, with the Himalayas and the Tian Shan mountain ranges forming China's natural borders with India and Central Asia, while in contrast, China's eastern seaboard is low-lying and has a 14,500-kilometre long coastline bounded on the southeast by the South China Sea, and on the east by the East China Sea.
Since 1949, and as a result of the stalemate of the Chinese Civil War, two political entities have been using the name "China": the People's Republic of China, which is often what is meant by the term China, and the Republic of China, which is more commonly known as Taiwan.
See also: 
Portal:People's Republic of China and 
Portal:Republic of China
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Chinese New Year (simplified Chinese: 春节; traditional Chinese: 春節; pinyin: Chūn jié), or Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year (simplified Chinese: 农历新年; traditional Chinese: 農曆新年; pinyin: Nóng lì xīn nián), is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is an important holiday in East Asia. The festival proper begins on the first day of the first lunar month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè) in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called the Lantern Festival (simplified Chinese: 元宵节; traditional Chinese: 元宵節; pinyin: yuánxiāojié).
Chinese New Year's Eve is known as Chúxì (除夕). Chu literally means "change" and xi means "Eve".
Celebrated in areas with large populations of ethnic Chinese, Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had a strong influence on the new year celebrations of its neighbours. These include Koreans, Mongolians, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Vietnamese, and formerly the Japanese before 1873.
In countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, The Philippines, Thailand, and other countries with significant Chinese populations, the Lunar New Year is also celebrated, largely by ethnic Chinese, but it is not part of the traditional cultures of these countries. In Thailand, for example, the true New Year celebration of the ethnic Thais is Songkran, which is totally different and is celebrated in April. (More...)
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pronunciation (help·info) (December 26, 1893 –September 9, 1976) was a Chinese revolutionary, political theorist and communist leader. He led the People's Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. His theoretical contribution to Marxism-Leninism, military strategies, and his brand of Communist policies are now collectively known as Maoism.
Mao remains a controversial figure to this day, with a contentious and ever-evolving legacy. He is officially held in high regard in China as a great revolutionary, political strategist, military mastermind, and savior of the nation. Many Chinese also believe that through his policies, he laid the economic, technological and cultural foundations of modern China, transforming the country from an agrarian society into a major world power. Additionally, Mao is viewed by many as a poet, philosopher, and visionary, owing the latter primarily to the cult of personality fostered during his time in power. As a consequence, his portrait continues to be featured prominently on Tiananmen and on all Renminbi bills.
Mao is regarded as one of the most influential figures in modern world history, and named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.
Did you know...
- ... China shares its borders with fourteen different countries, including Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, North Korea and Pakistan?
- ... that China has over 1.3 billion people, with the capital (Beijing) having 19 612 368 people, while the largest city in China is Shanghai, having 23 019 148 people?
- ... the average life expectancy age of a Chinese child at birth is 74.68 years, ranking 95th compared to the rest of the world?
- ... the current chief of state is President Hu Jintao, the 6th president and paramount leader of the People's Republic of China?
- ... the head of government in China is the Premier? The current premier of China is Wen Jiabao. A premier has one executive vice premier (currently Li Keqiang) and three vice premiers (Zhang Dejiang, Hui Liangyu and Wang Qishan).
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| The Divine Trail in Nanjing, built during the Ming Dynasty.
Photo credit: Godofnanjing |
In the news
- February 5: UN resolution on Syria vetoed by Russia and China
- January 28: Wikinews Shorts: January 28, 2012
- January 22: China to run low-cost maglevs by next year
- January 20: Wikinews Shorts: January 20, 2012
- January 18: India and China to develop friendly relations
- December 15: Authorities blockade Chinese town rebelling over land dispute
- October 22: Chinese girl who was hit and run by two drivers, ignored by eighteen people, dies
- September 10: Out of space in outer space: Special report on NASA's 'space junk' plans
- August 17: Chinese human rights activist faces trial
- August 16: Wikinews interviews Chinese-American martial artist Alfred Hsing
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