China,

People's Republic of China.

The national flag of China.

Map of China.

The map is not updated yet in regards to HK, who became Chinese again 97.07.01.

My 1' visit to China was in 1993, where we went via HK by sea to Shenzen, in Guangzhou Provins.

In 1994 we visited Qunigdau, which is south of Tianjin at the coast, basically facing Soul in South Korea.

My experiences in China are only positive, and it is a country I would love to visit again.

Historic brief.

China is one of the ancient civilizations & countries, starting from 2000 BC.

The 1'st attempt to unite China are from 1400-1122 BC under the Shang dynasty, which was overthrown by invading armies from the west, that is Tibet. It was then under the Chou dynasty 1100-249 BC that the Chinese civilization emerged, incl. Confucius at 500 BC. The Great Chinese wall was build in 500-300 BC to prevent further invasions from the west, a creation which today is the only man made structure you can see from space.!!!

The Han dynasty 206 BC - 220 AC China had a glorious period, where the exam system for government servants was created, know as the Mandarins which is the official language of China today. (+ Singapore.) The regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, and east Turkistan was conquered, which gave the Chinese control of "the silk route"

The Han dynasty dis-solved and the country fell apart, until the Tang dynasty arrived in 618-907 AC, which again united the Chinese country. This became a new glorious period, with the invention of porcelain, money notes, and gunpowder was invented. Trade was flurishing, mainly with Tee

This period was also the rise of Chinese literature, especially in the Sung Dynasty 960-1279 AC. Despite the Mongols in periods invaded the country, specially under the Yuan dynasty 1280-1368, they did not concur the Chinese.

The Ming dynasty 1368-1644, was a calm period in Chinese history, until the Portugise arrived and invaded Macao in 1557. The following Tsing dynasty 1644-1920 was relatively calm, with some trade with the Europeans.

The Chinese considered the strangers to be barbarians, and mostly China was a closed country, to the outside world.

This changed with the opium war, with the British in 1840-42, which forced China to give Hong Kong to the British, and open up 5 port cities along the Chinese coast ( of which one is Shanghai.) .Then China was seriously weakened by the internal upraise Taiping 1850-1865, by the Manchurians and a war with Japan in 1894-1895, China had to give up Formosa ( Now Taiwan )

A hatred against none Chinese lead to a upraise in 1898-1900 where foreign powers gained increased control of coastal areas. 1911 the revolution ended the rule of the emperor, which was followed by 15 years of Japanese intervention & civil war.

1926, Chiang Kai-shek started to unite China once again, which he achieved by 1928, where he then started civil war against the communists lead by Mao Tse-tung. This lead to the long march by the communists, from south to north China.

In 1931 Japan occupied Manchuria, and in 1937 this broke out as full scale war with China, leading to the Japanese invasion of the East part of China, which united the former enemies Mao & Chaing Kai-shek.

However after the end of world war 2, they ended up in civil war again in 1946, leading to Chang kai-shek fleeing to Formosa.

In 1949, Mao declared the creation of the People's Republic of China, with the defeated Chang kai-shek holding Formosa now Taiwan, which China still claims as a runaway provins.

If I remember right, Denmark was the 1'st country to recognize the new People's Republic of China.

Under the rule of Mao,and later on Deng China have experienced great changes, and been involved in many issued of South East Asia, especially Korea, Cambochea, Vietnam, Laos, Tibet, Mogolia.

The economic reform's made by Deng are today changing China in a incredible speed, and China are now on the road to be a member of the world on equal terms.

Unfortunately most of the world know as much about China today as they did after Marco Polo returned from his trip by land to China in 1271- return by sea in 1295.

Some facts on China, see here