China is made of a large part of East Asia. The country shares its border with 14 different countries; they are Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Vietnam.
Recognised as the oldest major civilisation on the planet, China was regarded as the most advanced society in the sciences and arts up until the industrial revolution of the 19th century. During this period, and up until the late 20th century China declined as Civil War, famine and imperialism struck a blow to the countries progression.
First records of civilisation in China reach back to the Bronze ages with the Xia dynasty. From 2000 BC to 1911, the state was under dynastic rule. The longest ruling dynasties included the Shang, Zhou, Tang, Ming, and Qing. In 1912 China turned from its steep history to become a republic. Unrest soon followed and the country found itself in Civil War.
The Chinese Civil War or the "War of Liberation" as it is more regularly known hampered the advancements of the state while the rest of the world took huge leaps forward in technology and economics. Declared in 1927 the war was between the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese National Party) and the Communist Party of China (CPC). Violent combat died down in 1949 after two separate states emerged, "The Peoples Republic of China" which controlled the mainland of China and "The Republic of China" (today known as Taiwan) which controlled many of the outer islands.
Since mainland China became "The Peoples Republic of China" in 1949 under the leadership of Mao Zedong the country was turned into a communist state. "The Great Leap Forward", a scheme which aimed to turn China into a modern communist society when Mao took power failed to change the country for the better. It is said that the process caused up to 36 million deaths by the time it ended in the 1970's. China went through major reform in 1978 with Mao's successor Deng Xiaoping focusing China on developing the economy and industry. By the year 2000 China had increased its economy by four times.
Today China still stands as a communist state but also now is one of the world's major super powers commanding one of the world's greatest economies, and manufacturing industries. The country also has the world's largest population with an estimated 1.33 billion people residing within the borders.
The most common language spoken in China is Mandarin. With English it is the most commonly spoken dialect in the world. Other languages spoken are Cantonese, Fuzhou, Shanghainese, and Hokken-Taiwanese.
Geographically China is a mixed bag with high plateaus, mountains and deserts in the western regions, while in the Eastern regions the landscape is more of plains, hills and deltas. Most of the country's major rivers flow from West to East an empty in the Pacific Ocean.
Due to the vast size of the China weather and climate conditions are different depending on the area. In the northern zones during the summer temperatures can reach around 30's degrees Celsius, while in the winter temperatures can hit extreme lows of arctic proportion. Central China has less extreme winters yet hotter summers, while the South has tropical summers and mild winters.
The country has large reserves of iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, coal, tin, mercury, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, magnetite, vanadium, aluminium, lead, zinc, uranium and has Earth's greatest hydropower potential.
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