Country Paper China

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

China´s Geography China is situated in East Asia, covering a surface of 9.600.000 square kilometer, making it the third largest country in the world after Canada and Russia with more than 1,3 billion inhabitants.

  The capital is Peking with a population of 17.550.000. China has 14 direct neighbors such as North Korea, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Nepal etc..

  China is bordered in the north of the Gobi Desert, in the west of the Himalayan Mountains, and in the south / east by the South Chinese Sea. The highest point of the country is the summit of the Mount Everest; the longest river, not only in China but in all of Asia, is the Yangtze river with an length of 6,350 km.1 Due to it´s size China's climate is very versatile. The north and west of the country are strongly influenced by continental climate while the south is tropical to subtropical. The environmental impacts that China has to fight with are floods, water and air pollution as well as soil erosion. The best time for traveling to China is spring and autumn, since winters can be bitterly cold and summers uncomfortably hot.2 China´s History Traces of the first advanced tribes of the Neolithic culture in the Great Plains date to around 5000 BC. Cultures such as the Yangshao culture, Xinle, Majiabang settled down preferrably near rivers. Around 3000 BC (at the beginning of the Bronze Age) almost all aboriginal cultures disappeared. The era of the dynasties in China began in the heyday of the Bronze Age. The first written records of Chinese culture (written on bones) date to the Shang Dynasty (1700-1100 BC). From this point onwards the Chinese history is very well documented. The Shang Dynasty has been replaced by the Zhou´s in 1045 BC. Under the rule of the Zhou the culture developed further and people began to write on stone and bronze. The first books were written. The time of the Warring States period known as the Zhanguo period...