China in Brief
THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA is a country
with a long history and ancient civilization.
As early as 4,000 BC, there were settlements in
the range of Yellow River. Chinese always tell
their history from the Xia Dynasty, which began
in the 21st century BC and was followed by all
the ddynasties until 1911 when Sun Yat-sen was
proclaimed the president of the Republic of China.
After this, the communist cooperated with Sun
Yat-sen's Nationalists, but broke with the Nationalist
after Sun died. Then the Communist Party began
to establish its army, called as Red Army. Shortly
before the Anti-Japanese War (1936-1945) the Red
Army formally established. Through protracted
and arduous struggle under the leadership of the
party and her chairman, Mao Zedong, the Chinese
people founded the People's Republic of China
in 1949. After 1949, The People's Republic of
China (also called as New China locally) experienced
the Korea War, and about 10 years rapid growing
period, and then suffered a 3-year long hard time
because of natural disasters and withdraw of Soviet
Union's aid. From 1966-1976 China had its "Cultural
Revolution", a nation-wide movement against
feudalism (also including religion) and capitalism.
As a result, China's economy was stopped. After
1978, when Deng Xiaoping came into the top leader,
China began a reform and opening program, and
has enjoyed a 20 years of rapid development.
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1.
Geography
Located
in east Asia, on the western coast of the Pacific Ocean,
the People's Republic of China has a land area of about
9.6 million sq km and is the third largest country in
the world, next only to Russia and Canada. Its contiguous
countries on land are: Russia and Mongolia to the north;
Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Pakistan and India to the west;
Korea to the east, Japan, the Philippines and Malaysia
to east and southeast across the seas.
The
capital Beijing is about 1310 kilometers from Tokyo
Japan, 5800 kilometers from San Francisco, the U.S.A
to the east; about 5090 kilometers from Paris, France
to the west; about 2790 kilometers from Singapore to
the south.
China
has a marked continental monsoon climate characterized
by great varieties. North winds prevail in winter, while
south winds reign in summer. The four seasons are quite
distinct. The rainy season coincides with the hot season.
In terms of temperature, the nation can be sectored
from south to north into equatorial, tropical, subtropical,
warm-temperate, temperate, and cold-temperate zones;
in terms of moisture, it can be sectored from southeast
to northwest into humid, semi-humid, semi-arid and arid
zones which separately account for 32 percent, 15 percent,
22 percent and 31 percent of land area of the whole
country.
The
average temperature of Beijing in January is 4.4, average
temperature in July is 26; the average temperature of
Shanghai in January is 4.3, average temperature in July
is 27.9; the average temperature of Guangzhou in January
is 13.5, average temperature in July is 28.5; the average
temperature of Xi'an in January is 0.5, average temperature
in July is 26.3.
China
is the most populous country in the world, with 1.295
billion people, including 455.94 million people in cities
and towns, accounting for 36.09 percent of the total
population and 807.39 million people in rural areas,
accounting for 63.91 percent of total population. The
densely populated areas are the Yangtze River Delta,
the Pearl River Delta, the Sichuan Basin and the Yellow
River and Huai River Plain.
2.
Political and Economic System
The
people's congress system is China's fundamental political
system. The National People's Congress is the organ
which has the highest power in the PRC. It revises the
Constitution and exercises legislative power, and elects
the major state leaders, such as president of the state.
The
State Council (the central people's government), is
the highest state administrative body. It is responsible
to the National People's Congress, and reports its work
to them. Under the State Council, there are 28 ministries,
commissions and bureaus.
The
Supreme People's Court and local people's courts are
the judicial organ and the Supreme People's Procuratorates
and local people's procuratorates are the supervisory
organ.
China
carries out socialist market economy; the government
practices market management to economy; resource supply,
the price of commodities and service are mostly determined
by market run on their own without intervention of government
administration.
3.
Economic Indices
The
reform of China's economic system is further deepened,
positive progress has been made in the structural adjustments,
the national economy maintains a reasonable fast pace,
domestic market runs smoothly, reserve of major commodities
is sufficient, balance of international payments is
in a good state, the living conditions of people are
continuously improved and various social undertakings
have registered.
4.
Education
Since
the reform and opening-up adopted in 1979, China implemented
the strategy of relying on science and education to
rejuvenate the nation and gave top priority to education
in its strategic development plans, making9-year compulsory
education universal across China. Major breakthroughs
have been recorded in reforming the regulatory systems
of the education sector. In 2002, Chinese higher educational
institutions enrolled 3.21 million university students
and 200,000 graduate enrollment at 9.03 million and
500,000 respectively. Also in 2002, there were 16.84
million students studying in senior high school and
66.87 million in junior high school.
5.
Culture and Customs
In
ancient civilizations China is the paragon of the Far
East and its long history formed a distinctive culture
and custom. The thrifty and modest attitude to life
and the value of paying more attention to the common
interest of family and community are still reflected
in daily behaviors of most Chinese people.
Over
the past decades, China has been changing from a traditional
agricultural society into an industrial one, and today
even into an information one, and the culture and custom
also see many changes with the development. More and
more youngsters intend to lead a westernized life, enjoying
McDonald's hamburger and Coca Cola, spending evenings
in discos and celebrating Christmas while the traditional
standard of value still keeps them responsible to family
and society.
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