Ancient China produced what has become the oldest extant culture in the world. The name 'China' comes from the Sanskrit Cina (derived from the name of the Chinese
China, the name in English for the country, was derived from Portuguese in the 16th century, and became common usage in the West in the subsequent centuries. It is believed to be a borrowing from Middle Persian, and some have traced it further back to the Sanskrit word "चीन (Cheen)" for the nation.
By 1949, the CCP occupied most of the country. Chiang Kai-shek fled with the remnants of his KMT government and military forces to Taiwan, where he proclaimed Taipei to be China's "provisional capital". In Beijing, on October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China.
From 1927 to 1949, China was embroiled in a civil war between the forces of the Republic of China and Mao Zedong's Chinese Red Army. Mao proclaimed victory in 1949, establishing the People's Republic of China.
Mandarin or Putonghua is the most common dialect used in China and has been adopted as a second language by those who speak other Chinese dialects. The official language of China, Mandarin is the dialect taught in Chinese schools.
The Romans and the Greeks knew the country as 'Seres', “the land where silk comes from”. The name 'China' does not appear in print in the west until 1516 CE in Barbosa's journals narrating his travels in the east (though the Europeans had long known of China through trade via the Silk Road).
Before the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Huaxia nationality named their motherland Zhongguo, and after that, it developed into a nation of various nationalities, and was then called Zhonghua Nation (known as Chinese Nation). ZhongdenotesChina and Hua is the Huaxia nationality for short.
Following defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), the Qing government signs the Treaty of Shimonoseki, by which it cedes sovereignty over Taiwan to Japan, which rules the island until 1945.
Shang Dynasty, Confucius
1600-1050 B.C.: Shang Dynasty - The earliest ruling dynasty of China to be established in recorded history, the Shang was headed by a tribal chief named Tan. The Shang era is marked by intellectual advances in astronomy and math.
With more than four thousand years of recorded history, China is the world's oldest continuous civilization. The largest country in Asia, China stretches from the continent's eastern seaboard to the borders of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakstan in the west.
Bhutan is the only UN member state that has never explicitly recognised either the PRC or the ROC. The Republic of China considers itself to be the sole legitimate government of China (including Taiwan), and therefore claims exclusive sovereignty over all territory controlled by the PRC.
Pakistan was one of the first countries that recognized the People's Republic of China.
The UK was the first major Western country to recognize the PRC in 1950. In September 1972, PRC established formal diplomatic relations with Japan.
In modern Japan, the term Chūka Minkoku (中華民国) refers to the Republic of China, while Chūka Jinmin Kyōwakoku (中華人民共和国) refers to the People's Republic of China; the terms use the same Chinese characters (with Japanese shinjitai simplifications) used officially in both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of ...
As mentioned above, the English word Japan has a circuitous derivation; but linguists believe it derives in part from the Portuguese recording of the early Mandarin Chinese or Wu Chinese word for Japan: Cipan (日本), which is rendered in pinyin as Rìběn (IPA: ʐʅ˥˩pən˨˩˦), and literally translates to "sun origin".
Domestically, the PRC continues to use its own "Taipei, China" translation. During the 2008 Summer Olympics, Chinese state media used the agreed-upon Zhōnghuá Táiběi both internationally and in domestic press.
Although British imperialism never politically took hold in mainland China, as it did in India or Africa, its cultural and political legacy is still evident today. Honk Kong remains a significant center of global finance and its government still functioned in much of the same ways as it did under British colonialism.
Thus Song China was the richest country in the world by GDP per capita at the turn of the millennium, by the 14th century parts of Europe caught up with it and the significant gap between China and Europe appeared by the middle of the 18th century.
Though the ancient Chinese rank high among the world's oldest civilisations (2000 BC), the development of a united China came almost 1100 years after the ancient Egyptians (3100 BC). Mesopotamia (4000 BC), Egypt (3100 BC) and the Indus Valley civilisations (3300 BC) all significantly pre-date ancient China.
The island was annexed in 1683 by the Qing dynasty of China and ceded to the Empire of Japan in 1895. The Republic of China, which had overthrown the Qing in 1911, took control of Taiwan following the surrender of Japan in 1945. Japan would renounce sovereignty over Taiwan in 1952.
In reality, the PRC rules only Mainland China and has no control of but claims Taiwan as part of its territory under its "One China Principle". The ROC, which rules only the Taiwan Area (composed of Taiwan and its nearby minor islands), became known as "Taiwan" after its largest island, (an instance of pars pro toto).
The relationship has been complex and controversial due to the dispute on the political status of Taiwan after the administration of Taiwan was transferred from Japan to the Republic of China at the end of World War II in 1945, and the subsequent split between the PRC and ROC as a result of the Chinese Civil War.
The early names for Japan
While Japanese people usually refer to their country as Nihon or Nippon these days, in early texts, the names Oyashima (mother island) or Yamato (which was written with the Chinese characters for great and wa, see below) were used.
Answer and Explanation: Europeans gave China several names in 1492, when knowledge about the country was extremely limited. Marco Polo referred to the region as Catai, meaning the northern part of China under control of the Mongols, which morphed into a common term Cathay, describing the entire region.