China - Overview:

China borders Afghanistan, Bhutan, Burma, India, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia (northeast), Russia (northwest), Tajikistan, Vietnam and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau. The countries coastline meets the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam.

China is divided into 22 provinces (not including Taiwan), 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities and 2 special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau) and although a number of China&'s regions have degrees of autonomy, ultimately Beijing is in control of around 1.3 billion people throughout China.

Habitation in China is thought by some archaeologists to reach as far back as half a million years or more and evidence of farming around 7000 years ago. As civilisation grew in China, it did so virtually cut off from rest of the world and developed independently and successfully into a nation, that in a number of fields was more advanced than its European counterparts over many centuries. The Chinese Dynasties began somewhere in the region of 4000 years ago with the Xia Dynasty and ended in 1912 with the Qing Dynasty.

Much of the first three quarters of the 20th century saw China in states of conflict with the Civil War between 1927 and 1950 and the Second Sino-Japanese War between 1937 and 1945. The Cultural Revolution, which started in 1966, was also disastrous for the Republic and it was not until the reforms brought about by Deng Xiaoping in 1978 that China began to grow into the powerful economy it is today.

The Chinese economy is based around agriculture, industry, the services and more recently tourism. Figures from the China National Tourism Administration show how dramatically tourist numbers have risen; in 1978 a mere 300,000 foreigners visited China. By 2006 and not including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, China received 22 million visitors. Figures published by the National Bureau of Statistics of China show that between 2002 and 2006 the countries GDP grew by 10% plus year on year.

As a manufacturing base, China employs somewhere in excess of 80 million within the manufacturing industry, however in recent years concerns have arisen as to the quality control of some exported products. An example is that in the USA and Europe, Chinese made toys have been removed from shelves owing to excess levels of lead. In general however the majority of Chinese made goods sold around world, are of good quality and usually competitively priced.

The infrastructure of China along with the economy has changed significantly over the past few decades especially in the cities, one example being, that according to the Shanghai Government between 2001 and 2005 over 325.721 billion yuan (approximately USD$42 billion) was invested in urban construction projects alone.

A little less than 30 years ago a Mainland Chinese millionaire was unheard, today China has somewhere in the region of 300,000 millionaires. At the other end of the scale poverty is still an issue especially rural areas, however according to the World Bank "China has lifted 400 million out of poverty since 1980". The standard of living for the citizens of the Peoples Republic of China has improved greatly over the years and with the countries current economic growth it is hoped that many more Chinese will benefit in the future.