China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land across an area of nearly 9.6 million square kilometers (3,700,000 sq mi), making it the third-largest country by land area. The country is divided into 33 province-level divisions: 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities, and 2 semi-autonomous special administrative regions. Beijing is the country's capital, while Shanghai is its most populous city by urban area and largest financial center.
Considered one of six cradles of civilization, China saw the first human inhabitants in the region arriving during the Paleolithic. By the late 2nd millennium BCE, the earliest dynastic states had emerged in the Yellow River basin. The 8th–3rd centuries BCE saw a breakdown in the authority of the Zhou dynasty, accompanied by the emergence of administrative and military techniques, literature, philosophy, and historiography. In 221 BCE, China was unified under an emperor, ushering in more than two millennia of imperial dynasties including the Qin, Han, Tang, Yuan, Ming, and Qing. With the invention of gunpowder and paper, the establishment of the Silk Road, and the building of the Great Wall, Chinese culture flourished and has heavily influenced both its neighbors and lands further afield. However, China began to cede parts of the country in the late 19th century to various European powers by a series of unequal treaties. After decades of Qing China on the decline, the 1911 Revolution overthrew the Qing dynasty and the monarchy and the Republic of China (ROC) was established the following year.
China is a unitary communist state led by the CCP that self-designates as a socialist state. It is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council; the UN representative for China was changed from the ROC to the PRC in 1971. It is a founding member of several multilateral and regional organizations such as the AIIB, the Silk Road Fund, the New Development Bank, and the RCEP. It is a member of BRICS, the G20, APEC, the SCO, and the East Asia Summit. Making up around one-fifth of the world economy, the Chinese economy is the world's largest by PPP-adjusted GDP and the second-largest by nominal GDP. China is the second-wealthiest country, albeit ranking poorly in measures of democracy, human rights and religious freedom. The country has been one of the fastest-growing major economies and is the world's largest manufacturer and exporter, as well as the second-largest importer. China is a nuclear-weapon state with the world's largest standing army by military personnel and the second-largest defense budget. It is a great power, and has been described as an emerging superpower. China is known for its cuisine and culture and, as a megadiverse country, has 59 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the second-highest number of any country. (Full article...)
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Zhou Tong stroking his beard Zhou Tong ( Chinese: 周同 and 周侗; pinyin: Zhōu Tóng; died late 1121) was the archery teacher and second military arts tutor of famous Song dynasty general Yue Fei. Originally a local hero from Henan, he was hired to continue Yue Fei's military training in archery after the boy had rapidly mastered spearplay under his first teacher. In addition to the future general, Zhou accepted other children as archery pupils. During his tutelage, Zhou taught the children all of his skills and even rewarded Yue with his two favorite bows because he was his best pupil. After Zhou's death, Yue would regularly visit his tomb twice a month and perform unorthodox sacrifices that far surpassed that done for even beloved tutors. Yue later taught what he had learned from Zhou to his soldiers and they were successful in battle. With the publishing of Yue Fei's 17th folklore biography, The Story of Yue Fei (1684), a new, fictional Zhou Tong emerged, who differed greatly from his historical persona. Not only was he now from Shaanxi, but he was Yue's adopted father, a learned scholar with knowledge of the eighteen weapons of war, and his personal name was spelled with a different, yet related, Chinese character. The novel's author portrayed him as an elderly widower and military arts tutor who counted Lin Chong and Lu Junyi, two of the fictional 108 outlaws on which the Water Margin is based, among his former pupils. A later republican era folktale by noted Yangzhou storyteller Wang Shaotang not only adds Wu Song to this list, but represents Zhou as a knight-errant with supreme swordsmanship. The tale also gives him the nickname "Iron Arm", which he shares with the executioner-turned-outlaw Cai Fu, and makes the outlaw Lu Zhishen his sworn brother. Because of his association with the outlaws, he is often confused with the similarly named outlaw Zhou Tong. ( Full article...)
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Nicole Cooke, gold medalist The women's road race was one of the cycling events at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. It took place on 10 August 2008, featuring 66 women from 33 countries. It was the seventh appearance of an Olympic women's road race event and featured a longer course than any of the previous six races. The race was run on the Urban Road Cycling Course (one of Beijing's nine temporary venues), which is 102.6 kilometres (63.8 mi) total. Including a second lap around the 23.8 km (14.8 mi) final circuit, the total distance of the women's race was 126.4 km (78.5 mi), less than half the length of the men's race. Heavy rain during most of the race made conditions difficult for the competitors. A group of five broke away during the final lap and worked together until the final sprint, where Nicole Cooke won the race. Cooke earned Great Britain's first medal at these Games and 200th Olympic gold medal overall. Emma Johansson of Sweden and Tatiana Guderzo of Italy, finishing second and third place with the same time as Cooke, received silver and bronze medals respectively. ( Full article...)
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Image 3The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the short-lived Shun dynasty), numerous rump regimes ruled by remnants of the Ming imperial family, collectively called the Southern Ming, survived until 1662. The Ming dynasty's founder, the Hongwu Emperor ( r. 1368–1398), attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty: the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and the navy's dockyards in Nanjing were the largest in the world. He also took great care breaking the power of the court eunuchs and unrelated magnates, enfeoffing his many sons throughout China and attempting to guide these princes through the Huang-Ming Zuxun, a set of published dynastic instructions. This failed when his teenage successor, the Jianwen Emperor, attempted to curtail his uncle's power, prompting the Jingnan campaign, an uprising that placed the Prince of Yan upon the throne as the Yongle Emperor in 1402. The Yongle Emperor established Yan as a secondary capital and renamed it Beijing, constructed the Forbidden City, and restored the Grand Canal and the primacy of the imperial examinations in official appointments. He rewarded his eunuch supporters and employed them as a counterweight against the Confucian scholar-bureaucrats. One eunuch, Zheng He, led seven enormous voyages of exploration into the Indian Ocean as far as Arabia and the eastern coasts of Africa. Hongwu and Yongle emperors had also expanded the empire's rule into Inner Asia. ( Full article...)
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A Yuan-era stele in the ruins of the Cross Temple. Another stele (left) and some scattered groundwork (right) are visible in the background. The Cross Temple ( Chinese: 十字寺; pinyin: Shízì sì) is a former place of worship in Fangshan, Beijing. The temple was used during different periods by Buddhists and early Chinese Christians. Though it was originally built as a Buddhist temple, some scholars hypothesise that it saw Christian use during the Tang dynasty (618–907). The temple was used by Buddhists during the Liao dynasty (916–1125) and by Christians during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). It returned to Buddhist use during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), before being sold in 1911. It was first recorded in modern scholarship in 1919, damaged during the Cultural Revolution, and re-established as a national-level protected site in 2006. Some scholars consider it to be the only place of worship of the Church of the East (also known as Nestorian Christianity) discovered in China. Today, the site features two ancient steles, as well as groundwork and the bases of several pillars. The steles date to the Liao and Yuan dynasties, but their inscriptions were tampered with during the Ming. During the early 20th century, two stone blocks carved with crosses and other patterns were also discovered at the site, with one of them also bearing an inscription in Syriac. The blocks are presently on display at the Nanjing Museum. ( Full article...)
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Comparison between Gwoyeu Romatzyh (top) and pinyin (bottom) for Gwoyeu Romatzyh's official name 國音字母第二式 ('Second Pattern of the National Alphabet'; middle) Gwoyeu Romatzyh ( GWOH-yoo roh-MAHT-sə; abbr. GR) is a system for writing Standard Chinese using the Latin alphabet. It was primarily conceived by Yuen Ren Chao (1892–1982), who led a group of linguists on the National Languages Committee in refining the system between 1925 and 1926. In September 1928, it was adopted by the Republic of China as the national romanization system for Standard Chinese. GR indicates the four tones of Standard Chinese by varying the spelling of syllables, a method originally proposed by team member Lin Yutang (1895–1976). Distinct sets of spellings are assigned to syllables in GR according to particular rules. This differs from approaches used by other systems to denote tones, like the numerals used by the earlier Wade–Giles system, or the diacritics used by the later Hanyu Pinyin system. Despite support from linguists both in China and overseas—including some early proponents who hoped it would eventually replace Chinese characters altogether—GR never achieved widespread use among the Chinese public, who generally lacked interest in the system or viewed it with hostility due to its complex spelling rules. In places where GR had gained traction, it was eventually replaced—largely by Hanyu Pinyin, which became the international standard during the 1980s, and which follows principles originally introduced by GR. Widespread adoption of GR was also hindered by its narrow calibration to the Beijing dialect, during a period when China lacked the strong central government needed to impose use of a national spoken language. ( Full article...)
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Image 6Luo Yixiu ( Chinese: 羅一秀; 20 October 1889 – 11 February 1910) was the first wife of Chinese communist revolutionary and future leader of China, Mao Zedong, to whom she was married from 1908 until her death. Coming from the area around Shaoshan, Hunan, in south central China – the same region as Mao – her family were impoverished local landowners. Most of what is known about their marriage comes from an account Mao gave to the American reporter Edgar Snow in 1936, which Snow included in his book Red Star Over China. According to Mao, he and Luo Yixiu were the subject of an arranged marriage organised by their respective fathers, Mao Yichang and Luo Helou. Luo was eighteen and Mao just fourteen years old at the time of their betrothal. Although Mao took part in the wedding ceremony, he later said that he was unhappy with the marriage, never consummating it and refusing to live with his wife. Socially disgraced, she lived with Mao's parents for two years until she died of dysentery, while he moved out of the village to continue his studies elsewhere, eventually becoming a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party. Various biographers have suggested that Mao's experience of this marriage affected his later views, leading him to become a critic of arranged marriage and a vocal feminist. He married three more times, to Yang Kaihui, He Zizhen and Jiang Qing, the last of whom was better known as Madame Mao. ( Full article...)
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A stamp of Zhang Heng issued by China Post in 1955 Zhang Heng ( Chinese: 張衡; AD 78–139), formerly romanized Chang Heng, was a Chinese polymathic scientist and statesman who lived during the Eastern Han dynasty. Educated in the capital cities of Luoyang and Chang'an, he achieved success as an astronomer, mathematician, seismologist, hydraulic engineer, inventor, geographer, cartographer, ethnographer, artist, poet, philosopher, politician, and literary scholar. Zhang Heng began his career as a minor civil servant in Nanyang. Eventually, he became Chief Astronomer, Prefect of the Majors for Official Carriages, and then Palace Attendant at the imperial court. His uncompromising stance on historical and calendrical issues led to his becoming a controversial figure, preventing him from rising to the status of Grand Historian. His political rivalry with the palace eunuchs during the reign of Emperor Shun (r. 125–144) led to his decision to retire from the central court to serve as an administrator of Hejian Kingdom in present-day Hebei. Zhang returned home to Nanyang for a short time, before being recalled to serve in the capital once more in 138. He died there a year later, in 139. ( Full article...)
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Image 9St. Michael's Cathedral ( German: Kathedrale St. Michael; simplified Chinese: 圣弥爱尔大教堂; traditional Chinese: 聖彌愛爾大教堂; pinyin: Shèng Mí'ài'ěr Dàjiàotáng), also called the Zhejiang Road Catholic Church ( Chinese: 浙江路天主教堂), is a Catholic church in Qingdao (Tsingtao), Shandong Province, China, and is the seat of the bishop of the Diocese of Qingdao (Tsingtao). It is located in the oldest part of Qingdao, at 15 Zhejiang Road, on the east side of Zhongshan Road in Shinan District. Built by German missionaries, the cathedral stands at the top of a hill in the center of the old German-built part of the city. It is the largest example of Romanesque Revival architecture in the province, resembling a German cathedral of the 12th century. St. Michael's Cathedral is the product of a strong German presence in Shandong Province in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the mid-19th century the European powers forcibly opened China to foreign trade. The Divine Word Missionaries built a church in the Jiaozhou Bay concession in Shandong in 1902, and in 1934 erected the cathedral, which remained nominally under their administration until 1964. In 1942 it came under the control of the Japanese Army, returning to Chinese control when the Japanese left Qingdao in 1945. In the early 1950s, all foreign missionaries, including the Bishop of Qingdao, were either imprisoned or expelled from China, and during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) the cathedral was defaced and abandoned. In 1981, it was repaired by the government and reopened for services, and in 1992 it was listed as a Provincial Historic Building by the government of Shandong Province. ( Full article...)
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Image 10A cannon (plural either cannons or cannon) is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during the late 19th century. Cannons vary in gauge, effective range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees, depending on their intended use on the battlefield. A cannon is a type of heavy artillery weapon. The word cannon is derived from several languages, in which the original definition can usually be translated as tube, cane, or reed. The earliest known depiction of cannons may have appeared in Song dynasty China as early as the 12th century; however, solid archaeological and documentary evidence of cannons do not appear until the 13th century. In 1288, Yuan dynasty troops are recorded to have used hand cannons in combat, and the earliest extant cannon bearing a date of production comes from the same period. By the end of the 14th century, cannons were widespread throughout Eurasia. ( Full article...)
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Image 11Rob-B-Hood ( traditional Chinese: 寶貝計劃; simplified Chinese: 宝贝计划, also known as Robin-B-Hood, literally: Baby Project) is a 2006 Hong Kong action comedy drama film written, produced and directed by Benny Chan, feature an ensemble cast include Jackie Chan, Louis Koo, Yuen Biao, Michael Hui, Gao Yuanyuan, Charlene Choi, Chen Baoguo and Matthew Medvedev. It tells the story of a kidnapping gone wrong in Hong Kong; a trio of burglars consisting of Thongs (Chan), Octopus (Koo) and the Landlord (Hui) kidnap a baby from a wealthy family on behalf of triads. With the Landlord arrested, Thongs and Octopus take care of the baby for a short time, developing strong bonds with him. Reluctant to hand the baby over, the two are forced to protect him from the triads who hired them in the first place. Originally announced in 2005, the film marked Benny Chan's third collaboration with Jackie Chan, following Who Am I? and New Police Story. It was produced with a budget of HK$16.8 million and filming took place in Hong Kong between December 2005 and January 2006. Rob-B-Hood is the first film in over 30 years in which Jackie Chan plays as a thief. ( Full article...)
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Engravings on a cliff-side near a widely accepted candidate site for the battlefield, in the vicinity of Chibi, Hubei. The engravings are at least 1000 years old, and include the Chinese characters 赤壁 ('red cliffs') written from right to left. The Battle of Red Cliffs, also known as the Battle of Chibi, was a decisive naval battle in China that took place during the winter of AD 208–209. It was fought on the Yangtze River between the forces of warlords controlling different parts of the country during the end of the Han dynasty. The allied forces of Sun Quan, Liu Bei, and Liu Qi based south of the Yangtze defeated the numerically superior forces of the northern warlord Cao Cao. By doing so, Liu Bei and Sun Quan prevented Cao Cao from conquering any lands south of the Yangtze, frustrating Cao Cao's efforts to reunify the territories formerly held by the Eastern Han dynasty. The allied victory at Red Cliffs ensured the survival of Liu Bei and Sun Quan and left them in control of the Yangtze, establishing defensible frontiers that would later serve as the basis for the states of Shu Han and Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period (220–280). Historians have arrived at different conclusions in their attempts to reconstruct the timeline of events at Red Cliffs. The location of the battlefield itself remains a subject of debate: most scholars consider either a location southwest of present-day Wuhan, or a location northeast of Baqiu in present-day Yueyang, Hunan as plausible candidate sites for the battle. The battle has been the subject of or influenced numerous poems, dramas, movies and games. ( Full article...)
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Image 14The 2001 Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident took place in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, on the eve of Chinese New Year on 23 January 2001. There is controversy over the incident; Chinese government sources say that five members of Falun Gong, a religious movement that is banned in mainland China, set themselves on fire in the square. Falun Gong sources disputed the accuracy of these portrayals, and claimed that their teachings explicitly forbid violence or suicide. Some journalists have claimed that the self-immolations were staged. According to Chinese state media, a group of seven people had travelled to Beijing from Henan province, and five set themselves on fire on Tiananmen Square. In the Chinese press, the event was used as proof of the dangers of Falun Gong, and was used to legitimise the government's campaign against the group. ( Full article...)
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Image 15Choe Bu ( Korean: 최부, 1454–1504) was a Korean diarist, historian, politician, and travel writer during the early Joseon Dynasty. He was most well known for the account of his shipwrecked travels in China from February to July 1488, during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). He was eventually banished from the Joseon court in 1498 and executed in 1504 during two political purges. However, in 1506 he was exonerated and given posthumous honors by the Joseon court. Choe's diary accounts of his travels in China became widely printed during the 16th century in both Korea and Japan. Modern historians also refer to his written works, since his travel diary provides a unique outsider's perspective on Chinese culture in the 15th century. The attitudes and opinions expressed in his writing represent in part the standpoints and views of the 15th century Confucian Korean literati, who viewed Chinese culture as compatible with and similar to their own. His description of cities, people, customs, cuisines, and maritime commerce along China's Grand Canal provides insight into the daily life of China and how it differed between northern and southern China during the 15th century. ( Full article...)
Chinese noodles at a noodle shop in Tuen Mun, Hong Kong
Chinese noodles vary widely according to the region of production, ingredients, shape or width, and manner of preparation. Noodles were invented in China, and are an essential ingredient and staple in Chinese cuisine. They are an important part of most regional cuisines within China, and other countries with sizable overseas Chinese populations.
Chinese noodles can be made of wheat, buckwheat, rice, millet, maize, oats, acorns, kudzu, Siberian elm, soybeans, mung beans, seaweed, yams, cassava, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and meats such as fish and shrimp. There are over 1,200 types of noodles commonly consumed across China today, more than 2,000 different cooking methods for Chinese noodles, and tens of thousands of dish varieties prepared using these types of noodles in China. (Full article...)
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Image 1Hu Lanqi ( Chinese: 胡兰畦; pinyin: Hú Lánqí; Wade–Giles: Hu Lan-ch'i; 1901 – 13 December 1994), also spelled Hu Lanxi, was a Chinese writer and military leader. She joined the National Revolutionary Army in 1927 and the Chinese branch of the Communist Party of Germany in 1930. She was imprisoned by Nazi Germany in 1933 and wrote an influential memoir of her experience, for which she was invited by Maxim Gorky to meet him in Moscow. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, she organized a team of women soldiers to resist the Japanese invasion, and became the first woman to be awarded the rank of Major General by the Republic of China. She supported the Communists during the Chinese Civil War, but was persecuted in Mao Zedong's political campaigns following the Communist victory in mainland China. She survived the Cultural Revolution to see her political rehabilitation, and published a detailed memoir of her life in the 1980s. Based on her early life, the writer Mao Dun wrote the novel Rainbow (1929), whose heroine, Mei, would become more famous than Hu herself. ( Full article...)
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Chinese forces overrun a UN position. The Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River ( Chinese: 清川江战役; pinyin: Qīngchuānjiāng Zhànyì), also known as the Battle of the Ch'ongch'on, was a decisive battle in the Korean War that took place from November 25 to December 2, 1950, along the Ch'ongch'on River Valley in the northwestern part of North Korea. In response to the successful Chinese First Phase Campaign against the United Nations (UN) forces, General Douglas MacArthur launched the Home-by-Christmas Offensive to expel the Chinese forces from Korea and to end the war. Anticipating this reaction, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA) Commander Peng Dehuai planned a counteroffensive, dubbed the " Second Phase Campaign", against the advancing UN forces. Hoping to repeat the success of the earlier First Phase Campaign, the PVA 13th Army first launched a series of surprise attacks along the Ch'ongch'on River Valley on the night of November 25, 1950, at the western half of the Second Phase Campaign ( Chinese: 第二次战役西线; pinyin: Dì'èrcì Zhànyì Xīxiàn), effectively destroying the Eighth United States Army's right flank, while allowing PVA forces to move rapidly into UN rear areas. In the subsequent battles and withdrawals from November 26 to December 2, 1950, although the Eighth Army managed to avoid being surrounded by PVA forces, the PVA 8th Army were still able to inflict heavy losses onto the retreating UN forces, which had lost all cohesion. In the aftermath of the battle, the Eighth Army's heavy losses forced all UN forces to retreat from North Korea to the 38th Parallel. ( Full article...)
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Image 4The Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) was a period of Imperial China divided into the Western Han (202 BCE – 9 CE) and Eastern Han (25–220 CE) periods, when the capital cities were located at Chang'an and Luoyang, respectively. It was founded by Emperor Gaozu of Han and briefly interrupted by the regime of Wang Mang (r. 9–23 CE) who usurped the throne from a child Han emperor. The Han dynasty was an age of great economic, technological, cultural, and social progress in China. Its society was governed by an emperor who shared power with an official bureaucracy and semi-feudal nobility. Its laws, customs, literature, and education were largely guided by the philosophy and ethical system of Confucianism, yet the influence of Legalism and Daoism (from the previous Zhou dynasty) could still be seen. Members of the scholarly-gentry class who aspired to hold public office were required to receive a Confucian-based education. A new synthetic ideology of Han Confucianism was created when the scholar Dong Zhongshu (179–104 BCE) united the Confucian canon allegedly edited by Kongzi, or Confucius (551–479 BCE), with cosmological cycles of yin and yang and the Chinese five elements. ( Full article...)
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Image 5The yeren ( Chinese: 野人; lit. 'wild man') is a cryptid apeman reported to inhabit remote, mountainous regions of China, most famously in the Shennongjia Forestry District in the Hubei Province. Sightings of "hairy men" have remained constant since the Warring States Period circa 340 BC through the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), before solidifying into the modern legend of the yeren. Generally, they are described as savage, strong, and fast-moving, living in mountain caves and descending only to raid villages in search of food or women. Scientific interest in such apemen erupted in the 1950s and 1960s in conjunction with pseudoscientific discoveries relating to Bigfoot and the yeti, but pressure by the Maoist government to leave behind these kinds of legends and folk stories repressed further interest in the yeren until its dissolution in 1976. Afterwards, large expeditions were launched by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to investigate alleged eyewitness accounts, footprints, hairs, and bodies as "yeren fever" took hold, with scientists working with an unprecedented reliance on citizen science. The yeren was often speculated to be a far removed human relative, such as Gigantopithecus or Paranthropus robustus. All forwarded evidence of the creature originated from known animals — namely bears, monkeys, and gibbons — and scientific interest waned by the late 1980s. Nonetheless, organized yeren research still persists, though no serious scientific institutions recognize such apemen. ( Full article...)
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Image 10Given textual and archaeological evidence, it is thought that thousands of Europeans lived in Imperial China during the Yuan dynasty. These were people from countries traditionally belonging to the lands of Christendom during the High to Late Middle Ages who visited, traded, performed Christian missionary work, or lived in China. This occurred primarily during the second half of the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century, coinciding with the rule of the Mongol Empire, which ruled over a large part of Eurasia and connected Europe with their Chinese dominion of the Yuan dynasty. Whereas the Byzantine Empire centered in Greece and Anatolia maintained rare incidences of correspondence with the Tang, Song and Ming dynasties of China, the Holy See sent several missionaries and embassies to the early Mongol Empire as well as to Khanbaliq (modern Beijing), the capital of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. These contacts with the West were preceded by rare interactions between the Han dynasty and Hellenistic Greeks and Romans. Mainly located in places such as the Yuan capital of Karakorum, European missionaries and merchants traveled around various parts of the Yuan dynasty and other Mongol-ruled khanates during a period of time referred to by historians as the " Pax Mongolica". Perhaps the most important political consequence of this movement of peoples and intensified trade was the Franco-Mongol alliance, although the latter never fully materialized, at least not in a consistent manner. The establishment of the Ming dynasty in 1368 and reestablishment of ethnic Han rule led to the cessation of European merchants and Roman Catholic missionaries living in China. Direct contact with Europeans was not renewed until Portuguese explorers and Jesuit missionaries arrived on Ming China's southern shores in the 1510s, during the Age of Discovery. ( Full article...)
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Japanese soldiers atop a gate in the walled city of Jinan, May 1928 The Jinan incident ( simplified Chinese: 济南惨案; traditional Chinese: 濟南慘案; Japanese: 済南事件; formerly romanised Tsinan) or 3 May Tragedy ( simplified Chinese: 五三惨案; traditional Chinese: 五三慘案; pinyin: Wǔsān Cǎn'àn) began as a 3 May 1928 dispute between Chiang Kai-shek's National Revolutionary Army (NRA) and Japanese soldiers and civilians in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province in China, which then escalated into an armed conflict between the NRA and the Imperial Japanese Army. Japanese soldiers had been deployed to Shandong province to protect Japanese commercial interests in the province, which were threatened by the advance of Chiang's Northern Expedition to reunite China under a Kuomintang government. When the NRA approached Jinan, the Beiyang government-aligned army of Sun Chuanfang withdrew from the area, allowing for the peaceful capture of the city by the NRA. NRA forces initially managed to coexist with Japanese troops stationed around the Japanese consulate and businesses, and Chiang Kai-shek arrived to negotiate their withdrawal on 2 May. This peace was broken the following morning, however, when a dispute between the Chinese and Japanese resulted in the deaths of 13–16 Japanese civilians. The resulting conflict resulted in many casualties on the NRA side, which fled the area to continue northwards toward Beijing, and left the city under Japanese occupation until March 1929. ( Full article...)
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Great Britain]] competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The United Kingdom was represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), one of only five National Olympic Committees to have competed in every modern Summer Olympic Games since the inaugural event in 1896. The team of athletes selected to compete for the UK was officially known as Team GB; the delegation of 549 consisted of 313 competitors (169 men and 144 women) accompanied by 236 officials. The team incorporated athletes from the whole of the UK, including Northern Ireland (whose citizens may be selected to represent either Great Britain or Ireland at the Olympics if they have elected to hold Irish citizenship). Additionally, three of the British Overseas Territories compete separately from Britain in Olympic competition, namely Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. Great Britain's Olympic medal performance in 2008 was its best in a century; at the close of the Games, the overall medal count of 47 was the second highest ever achieved by Team GB. The total number of gold medals was the highest since the 1908 Summer Olympics, which Britain hosted in London. Following the retesting of samples in 2016 in connection with the Russian doping scandal, disqualifications led to four further bronze medals being awarded to Great Britain in athletics: both the men's and women's 4 × 400 metres relay teams were officially upgraded to bronze; Kelly Sotherton received her second reallocated bronze medal, in the women's heptathlon event (having also been part of the women's relay team); and Goldie Sayers was awarded the bronze medal for the women's javelin throw event. These four additional medals retrospectively increased Team GB's total medal count to 51. ( Full article...)
Image 14Re-education through labor ( RTL; simplified Chinese: 劳动教养; traditional Chinese: 勞動教養; pinyin: láodòng jiàoyǎng), abbreviated laojiao (simplified Chinese: 劳教; traditional Chinese: 勞教; pinyin: láojiào) was a system of administrative detention in the People's Republic of China. Active from 1957 to 2013, the system was used to detain persons who were accused of committing minor crimes such as petty theft, prostitution, and trafficking of illegal drugs, as well as political dissidents, petitioners, and Falun Gong followers. It was separated from the much larger laogai system of prison labor camps. Sentences under re-education through labor were typically for one to three years, with the possibility of an additional one-year extension. They were issued as a form of administrative punishment by police, rather than the judicial system. While they were incarcerated, detainees were frequently subjected to a form of political education. Estimates of the number of RTL detainees on any given year range from 190,000 to two million. In 2013, approximately 350 RTL camps were in operation. ( Full article...)
Image 15Liu Geping (Chinese: 刘格平; 8 August 1904 – 11 March 1992) was a Chinese communist revolutionary and politician of Hui Muslim heritage. He is best known as the founding Chairman of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and later for seizing power in Shanxi during the Cultural Revolution, where he made himself the top leader of the province. Liu spent his early days as a communist agitator, leading peasant uprisings and building the party organization in rural areas. A political survivor, he was arrested several times during the Warlord Era and served two prison terms. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he held important roles in the party and government but was branded a traitor in 1960. He later returned to work, only to be purged again several years later during the Cultural Revolution. He was rehabilitated after the Cultural Revolution and spent the rest of his life in ceremonial positions. ( Full article...)
The Tibetan Bönpa monastery of Narshi Gonpa, in Sichuan Province.
The following are images from various China-related articles on Wikipedia.
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Image 1Hanging Monastery, a temple with the combination of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. (from Chinese culture)
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Image 2Photo showing serving chopsticks ( gongkuai) on the far right, personal chopsticks ( putongkuai) in the middle, and a spoon. Serving chopsticks are usually more ornate than the personal ones. (from Chinese culture)
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Image 3A traditional Chinese tea culture (茶艺,茶藝) set and three gaiwan. (from Chinese culture)
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Image 4Oolong tea leaves steeping in a gaiwan (from Chinese culture)
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Image 5Tea Pots, Republic of China (from Chinese culture)
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Image 7Box with the character for "Spring" ( 春), Qianlong period, Qing dynasty. Nanjing Museum (from Chinese culture)
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Image 8Chinese polities in the late 5th century BC, before the breakup of Jin and the Qin move into Sichuan. (from History of China)
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Image 9"Nine Dragons" handscroll section, by Chen Rong(1244 CE), Song dynasty. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (from Chinese culture)
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Image 10Ming dynasty wood carving books in the Tian Yi Chamber collection (from Chinese culture)
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Image 11A Tang dynasty era copy of the preface to the Lantingji Xu poems composed at the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, originally attributed to Wang Xizhi (303–361 AD) of the Jin dynasty (from Chinese culture)
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Image 12Jichang Garden in Wuxi (1506–1521), built during the Ming dynasty, is an exemplary work of South Chinese style garden. (from Chinese culture)
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Image 14Red lanterns are hung from the trees during the Chinese New Year celebrations in Ditan Park (Temple of Earth) in Beijing. (from Chinese culture)
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Image 15The Warring States, c. 260 BC (from History of China)
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Image 16Zhu-Ye-Qing-Tea (from Chinese culture)
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Image 17Decorative plaque from the Erlitou culture (from History of China)
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Image 18A traditional red Chinese door with Imperial guardian lion knocker (from Chinese culture)
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Image 19Main hall and tea house in Dunedin Chinese Garden (from Chinese culture)
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Image 20A Chinese jade named Bi(璧) with a dual dragon motif, Warring States period (from Chinese culture)
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Image 21Range of Chinese dialect groups according to the Language Atlas of China. (from Chinese culture)
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Image 22People's Republic of China 10th Anniversary Parade in Beijing (from History of China)
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Image 23Flag of the First Guangzhou uprising (from History of China)
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Image 24The 12th-century BC Houmuwu ding, the largest Bronze Age bronzeware found anywhere in the world (from History of China)
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Image 26Taoist architecture in China (from Chinese culture)
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Image 27Bian Lian("Face-Changing") Performer (from Chinese culture)
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Image 28Chinese tea (from Chinese culture)
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Image 29Tea caddy, Chinese - Indianapolis Museum of Art (from Chinese culture)
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Image 30Laoshan green tea (from Chinese culture)
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Image 33Dragon Tea Pot, Republic of China (from Chinese culture)
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Image 34The Four Treasures of the Study – brush, ink, paper and ink stone in Chinese calligraphy traditions. (from Chinese culture)
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Image 35Gilin with the head and scaly body of a dragon, tail of a lion and cloven hoofs like a deer. Its body enveloped in sacred flames. Detail from Entrance of General Zu Dashou Tomb (Ming Tomb). (from Chinese culture)
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Image 36Flag of the Republic of China from 1928 to now (from History of China)
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Image 37Koi Pond is a signature scenery depicted in Chinese gardens (from Chinese culture)
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Image 38Chinese folding screen used at the Austrian imperial court, 18th century, the Imperial Furniture Collection (from Chinese culture)
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Image 39Flag of the Republic of China from 1912 to 1928 (from History of China)
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Image 40Official map of the Qing Empire published in 1905 (from History of China)
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Image 41Ancient China's Tea Pots (from Chinese culture)
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Image 42Relief of a fenghuang in Fuxi Temple (Tianshui). They are mythological birds of East Asia that reign over all other birds. (from Chinese culture)
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Image 43The flag of the People's Republic of China since 1949. (from History of China)
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Image 44Hair Ornament, China, c. 19th century (from Chinese culture)
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Image 47A commercially produced scented wood folding fan, featuring a drawing of the Great Wall of China. (from Chinese culture)
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Image 48Birthplaces of notable Chinese philosophers of the Hundred Schools of Thoughts in the Zhou dynasty. (from Chinese culture)
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Image 49Spring rolls are a large variety of filled, rolled appetizers or dim sum found in Chinese cuisine. Spring rolls are the main dishes in Chinese Spring Festival ( Chinese New Year). (from Chinese culture)
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Image 52Mongol successor khanates (from History of China)
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Image 53A map of the Qing dynasty, c. 1820 (from History of China)
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Image 54Chinese Export—European Market, 18th century - Tea Caddy (lid) (from Chinese culture)
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Image 55Xiqu performance (from Chinese culture)
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Image 56Tang dynasty mural from Li Xian's tomb in Qianling showing Han nobility clothing of the era. (from Chinese culture)
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Image 57Guzheng, a type of Chinese instrument. (from Chinese culture)
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Image 59Beijing college students rallied during the May Fourth Movement, dissatisfied with Article 156 of the Treaty of Versailles for China ( Shandong Problem). (from History of China)
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Image 60A Moon gate in a Chinese garden (from Chinese culture)
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Image 61Map showing the expansion of Han dynasty in the 2nd century BC (from History of China)
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Image 62Map of tribes and tribal unions in Ancient China, including the tribes led by the Yellow Emperor, Emperor Yan and Chiyou. (from History of China)
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Image 63Relief of a dragon in Fuxi Temple (Tianshui). (from Chinese culture)
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Image 64Wooden sculpture of Guanyin (from Chinese culture)
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Image 66Rulers of the world at the beginning of the 20th century (from History of China)
Select [►] to view subcategories
China People's Republic of China Buildings and structures in China Organizations based in China
- 8 August 2025 –
- Flash floods kill at least ten people and leave 33 others missing in Gansu province, China. (MSN)
- 6 August 2025 –
- Five people are killed and 24 others are injured when a suspension bridge deck tilts at a scenic spot in Zhaosu County, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, China. (China Daily)
- 4 August 2025 – India–Philippines relations, Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
- The Indian and Philippine navies conduct their first joint exercise in the Philippine-designated exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea. The Indian Navy deployed guided missile destroyers, tankers, and corvettes, while the Philippines sent two frigates. (AP) (Reuters)
- 3 August 2025 –
- Two people are killed and three others are injured in a mass stabbing attack at a primary school in Caizichi, Leiyang, Hunan, China. (Sina News)
- 2 August 2025 –
- A Tatmadaw court sentences twelve people, including five Chinese nationals, to life in prison for their involvement in trafficking Burmese women to forced marriages in China. (AP)
- 31 July 2025 –
- The death toll from the flooding in Beijing, China, increases to over 70 as the government discovers 31 elderly people who were trapped in a nursing home in Miyun district. (AP)
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Here are some tasks awaiting attention:
- Article requests : visit WikiProject China/Requested articles
- Assess : rate the Unassessed China-related articles and Unknown-importance China-related articles, tag the talk pages of China-related articles with the {{WikiProject China}} banner.
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- Copyedit : visit China articles needing attention
- Deletion sorting : listed at WikiProject Deletion sorting/China
- Expand : China National Ethnic Song and Dance Ensemble,
Northern Min,
Mobike,
Chinese People's Liberation Army Support Base in Djibouti
- Infobox : visit China articles needing infoboxes
- Maintain : visit WikiProject China/Article alerts
- Map : visit Wikipedia requested maps in China
- Merge : deciding whether to merge Islam in China with Islam in China (1911–present), an idea proposed in 2014
- Notability : visit WikiProject Notability (WikiProject China listing) and East Asia articles of unclear notability
- Photo : visit Wikipedia requested photographs in China
- Portal : maintain and Portal:Republic of China (shared task with WikiProject Taiwan), fill in Anniversaries,
update Did you know?,
suggest Selected articles and pictures, add
{{Portal|China}} to the See also section of China-related articles. - Stubs : visit the China stubs category
- Translate : please visit the Chinese translation department and the Chinese intertranswiki project for more details.
- Verify : Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015 TV series) - see Talk:Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015 TV series)#In China on 1905.com from Dec 31, 2014 and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Transformers/Archive 7#Transformers in (PR) China
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The General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, officially General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is head of the Chinese Communist Party and the highest-ranking official within China, a standing member of the Politburo and head of the Secretariat. The officeholder is usually considered the paramount leader of China.
According to the Constitution, the General Secretary serves as an ex officio member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's de facto top decision-making body. Since the early 1990s, the holder of the post has been, except for transitional periods, the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, making the holder the Commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army.
The current General Secretary is Xi Jinping (pictured), who took the office at the 18th National Congress on 15 November 2012.
The President of the Republic of China is the head of state of the Republic of China (ROC).
The Constitution names the president as head of state and commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Armed Forces (formerly known as the National Revolutionary Army). The president is responsible for conducting foreign relations, such as concluding treaties, declaring war, and making peace. The president must promulgate all laws and has no right to veto. Other powers of the president include granting amnesty, pardon or clemency, declaring martial law, and conferring honors and decorations.
The current President is Lai Ching-te (pictured), since May 20, 2024. Lai is a Taiwanese politician and former physician, who is currently serving as the eighth president of the Republic of China under the 1947 Constitution and the third president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
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You are invited to participate in WikiProject China, a WikiProject dedicated to developing and improving articles about China. ~~~~
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