China

The People’s Republic of China

A Brief History of China

Just like the Great Wall of China, the history of China is very long and winding. It began as one of the world’s first civilizations formed in the fertile Yellow River basin thousands of years ago. Thereafter, China entered the dynastic age beginning with the Xia Dynasty in 2000 BCE. However, China was still very fractured for the next 1800 years. It remained this way until the Great Qin Emperor unified China in 221 BCE. The Qin Emperor ruled with an iron hand and as a result China was more of less unified under dynastic rule until 1912. In 1912, the Nationalists overthrew the Qing Dynasty to form the Republic of China. With the exception of the Japanese occupation, the Chinese Nationalists remained in control until 1949 when they were overthrown by People’s Liberation Army. As a result, the Communist Party of China currently retains firm political control of mainland China.

The Geography of China

China is geographically the second largest country in the world behind Russia. As a result, China contains a very diverse landscape within its 3.7 million square miles. The arid temperatures in the north facilitate the formation of deserts such as the Gobi Desert and Taklamakan Desert. In contrast, the southern territory of China is subtropical and contains lush forest landscapes. Massive mountain ranges such as the Himalayas, Pamir and the Tian Shan separate China from Central Asia and Southern Asia. Furthermore, the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers are the 6th and 3rd longest in the world respectively. They originate on the Tibetan Plateau and flow across China to the populous eastern seaboard.

From the capital city of Beijing the country is governed as 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 2 special administrative regions and 4 directly controlled municipalities.

The Capital City Beijing

According to Wikipedia Beijing is the 3rd most populous city proper in the world behind Shanghai (first) and Karachi, Pakistan (second). Additionally, Beijing is the home of the national legislature of the Peoples Republic of China. Beijing is also one of the directly administered municipalities mentioned above.

The city has a very, very long history. Evidence of prehistoric life dates back over 250,000 years. More recently, evidence of human settlement has existed for over 3000 years, since 1046 BCE.

In 1928, the capital was moved temporarily to Nanjing while the country was under Nationalist control. However, Mao Zedong and the communists overthrew the Republic of China during the Chinese Civil War. Subsequently, in 1949 Mao moved the capital city back to Beijing where it remains to this day. Additionally, the Peoples Republic of China as established by Mao, remains in control of the government.

Some popular locations that we visited in and around Beijing include The Great Wall of China, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Mao’s Mausoleum, Wangfujing, Beihai Park, Olympic Park, Lama Temple and much more! 

Shanghai, China

Shanghai is another of the initially mentioned directly controlled municipalities in China. In contrast to Beijing, Shanghai does not have as much historical prestige. Under the Song Dynasty Shanghai was first upgraded from a village to market town in 1074 AD. Shanghai has historically been an important sea port but was an easy target for Japanese pirates. The pirates were finally held at bay after the construction of a sea wall. However, it was not until the 1990’s that Shanghai would see an immense transformation. This was the result of the economic reforms instigated by Deng Xiaoping.

The result was massive construction that immensely transformed Shanghai into a global economic center. For example, the massive construction that went up to form the Pudong skyline is less then 30 years old!

Shanghai currently has a population of over 24 million and it is the largest city proper in the world. Additionally, Shanghai has the busiest container port in the world, it is a global financial center and a transport hub.