China Manuscript
China's extraordinary capital of Beijing (Tianjin) is an endless treasure of China. From the Summer Palace, the emperor's former vacation home, to the Temple of Heaven where the emperor made annual pilgrimages to pray for good harvests we find many ancient marvels. Education is exemplary to be found in the "Harvard of the East" - Tsinghua University. The stone-paved Great Wall more than 3,000 miles winds into the beautiful rolling countryside. There is the famous Tiananmen Square, which holds one million people.
Thus, one may go on to Xian to see the life-size terra cotta figures of warriors and horses arranged in battle formation in the Museum of Qin. One can even take the Yangtze River to the Three Gorges Dam, which is the world's largest hydroelectric dam.
From the port of Huangpu, on an island in the Pearl River, is the city known by many names Canton (Kwangchow), Guangzhou, the Flower City, the City of Five Goats as legend tells what the five gods rode as they descended from heaven. It is one of China's great hubs for international trade from fine silk to embroidery and jade. Canton is known for China's finest regional cuisine and flavorable delicacies. Chinese revolutionist Sun Yat-sen was born in this great region and there also to be found is the Memorial Hall in his namesake. Also of historical importance is the Temple of Bright Filial Piety, one of the area's oldest Buddhist temples.
Hong Kong is the shopping spree of Asia. Its port whose strategic location has lured traders since the early 1600s. The city's beauty is best viewed from Victoria Peak, the most affluent residential area. One can see the huge bell-shaped coils of incense hanging from the ceiling of Man Mo Temple. There is one unusual place devoted entirely to tea found at the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware.
The Pearl of the Orient, Shanghai on the Huangpu River, is still outrageously affluent and cultured. It may be better known today as "The New York of the West" or "The Paris of the East". The Bund, its famous waterfront boulevard, is lined with gorgeous renovated buildings since the great era of Mao Zedong such as the Peace Hotel, an Art Deco masterpiece. The Pudong commercial district is a sea of cranes guiding new skyscrapers. The Shanghai Museum owns the finest collection of bronze in the world. One may take a casual stroll in the 16th century Yu Garden, an extraordinary maze of Ming Dynasty pavilions and bridges, enriched by an undulating dragon wall.
Since 1994, China has become the world's top investment destination attracting much of the world's direct foreign investment. One of China's main contributions to the industrialized mature economies is labor-intensive goods. China is an opportunity for the 21st century.
Facts in Brief
Capital: Beijing, Tianjin or Peking
Official Language: Chinese (Mandarin dialect or Kuo-yu)
Official Name: Chung-hua Jen-min-kung-ho-kuo (People's Republic of China)
Form of Government: Communist dictatorship
Form of Economic System: Socialist capitalism
4th Largest Country Area: 3,705,392 sq. mi.
Eastern Asia Bordering: East China Sea, Korea, Bay, Yellow Sea and South China Sea between Korea and Vietnam
Elevation: Highest - Mount Everest (29,028 ft.) to Lowest - Turfan Depression (505 ft. below sea level)
Population: est. 2005 - 1.6 billion
National Anthem: "The March of the Volunteers"
Race: Mongoloid
Religion: Taoism - book Tao Te Ching (The Classic of the Way and the Virtue) - person Lao Tzu about 500s B.C. and Confucianism (System of Philosophy) - person Confucius b. 550 B.C.
Major Rivers: Yangtze River and Hwang Ho River
Money: Yuan (Renminbi)
Special Cities: Beijing or Peking - Shanghai - Tientsin - Hong Kong
1500 B.C. China is the world's oldest living civilization and world's largest population
1500-1027 B.C. Shang dynasty
1027-256 B.C. Chou dynasty
221-206 B.C. Ch'in Dynasty created first strong central government
202 B.C.- 220 Han dynasty
589-618 Sui dynasty rebuilt China into a single kingdom
618-907 T'ang dynasty when printing was invented
960-1279 Sung dynasty
1275-1292 Marco Polo visited China
1279-1368 Yuan dynasty - established by Kublai Khan
1368-1644 Ming dynasty
1453-1644 China is world power
1644-1912 Qing dynasty - Manchus ruled China
1842 Treaty of Nanking opened China ports for trade
1900 Boxer Rebellion led by Chinese secret societies
1911 Army officers launch attack against the Manchu (Qing) dynasty, it is toppled, and the Republic of China is born.
1912 Republic of China (ROC) established - a little known historical fact which is not widely known is that the only nation which utilized money to build education institutions in China was the United States. Some of the funds were used to build Tsinghua University, the MIT of China.
1919 Chinese intellectuals take to streets to protest the dividing up of China by foreign powers
1920-1925 Nationalist (Kuomintang) government appeals for outside help and receives it from the Soviet Union, on the condition that the Soviets work with the newly formed Chinese Communist Party. The Whampoa Military Academy is set up outside Canton. Planning begins for an expedition to unite China.
1926-1927 Chiang Kai-shek leads the Northern Expedition army up the coast of China and in six months defeats 34 warlords. Communist organizers stage rallies along the way to win popular support. In Shanghai, Chiang suddenly turns on the Communists in a bloody massacre and establishes Nationalist headquarters in Nanjing, China's economic heartland.
1928-1930 The Communists disappear into the countryside after the Shanghai purge and set up a new government in Jiangxi Province, South China. Mao Zedong is one of the leaders. They initiate radical land reform, displacing hated landlords and building peasant support.
1931-1935 In 1931 Japan invades Northeastern China and sets up a puppet government. Instead of resisting Japan, Nationalist troops launch a series of military campaigns against the Communists and nearly destroy them. But 90,000 people break through a blockade and set out on the "Long March", a perilous 6,000-mile journey to a new base in Yenan. Along the way, Mao emerges as the undisputed leader of the Chinese Communists.
1936 Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek faces intense pressure to resist Japan, both from his own generals and from the Communists in Yenan. In an extraordinary turn of events, he is kidnapped by his own generals and pressured to fight Japan. He is only released when he agrees to a united front with the Communists.
1937-1945 War with Japan - Japan launches full-scale invasion of China in July 1937. Within five months the Japanese enter Nanjing and massacre 200,000 people. The government retreats to Chongqing, a remote area ruled by rival warlords. America enters the war in 1941 on side of China - Chiang saves his best troops for use against the Communists. In 1944 America sends the Dixie Mission to Yenan to gauge Communist fighting capacity.
1945 World War II ends, America airlifts Nationalist troops to take the Japanese surrender, but civil war soon erupts between the Nationalists and Communists, and all efforts at mediation break down. The Communists expand their support in the North with radical land reform and defeat the over extended Nationalist troops in the decisive battle of Huai-hai.
1946-1949 Chiang Kai-shek resigns in January and retreats to Taiwan; two million Nationalists follow as the Communists led by Mao Tse-tung drive Nationalist from mainland China to island of Taiwan (about 90 mi.).
1949 October 1 Communists move into Beijing and establish the People's Republic of China. They create political structures that reach down to every village in country, and receive limited aid and a defense treaty from the Soviet Union.
1950-1953 Chinese Communist troops join North Korean Communists troops fighting UN forces in Korea.
1954-1956 Soviet advisors help create industrial infrastructure in cities, Mao Tse-tung pools property into small cooperative farms, and families are pushed to the next stage: collectivization.
1955 China's 600 million people live in collectives, and all of China's agricultural output is under government control.
1957 Mao Tse-tung's Hundred Flowers campaign encourages intellectuals to voice criticism, but reverses himself and condemns those who speak out as "Rightists" when the Party becomes the intellectuals' focus.
1958-1960 Mao Tse-tung launches the Great Leap Forward - a campaign to make China the West's industrial equal in 15 years. In an effort to please Mao, farmers over-report their yields. The world's worst manmade famine follows.1961 China crushes a revolt in Tibet.
1962 China invades India.
1964 China challenges Russia for leadership of the Communist bloc of nations and Mao Tse-tung publishes his "Quotations from Chairman Mao" also known as the "Little Red Book".
1966-1968 Mao Tse-tung launches the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. He sends millions of Red Guards through China to attack the "Four Olds": culture, ideas, customs, and habits. Mao disbands the Red Guards, sending them to the countryside for reeducation.
1970 China launches its first space satellite.
1972 Border clashes flare between China and the Soviet Union. Mao Tse-tung and Zhou Enlai make overtures to the United States. US President Richard Nixon with his visit to China in February 1972 takes the first step in normalizing relations with China and begins to establish the "strategic triangle" of China, the United States, and the Soviet Union.
1974-1976: Purged Party members are rehabilitated and the Cultural Revolution is blamed on the Gang of Four, who sought the implementation of communist ideology at the expense of traditional Chinese culture.
1976 Mao Tse-tung dies in September.
1977 China is officially led by Hua Guofeng. Deng Xiaoping works behind the scenes to take Guofeng's place. Deng moves to exonerate millions attacked during the Cultural Revolution. He puts economic prosperity before socialist purity and maintains a belief in the Party's absolute authority. Sent-down youths return home from the countryside to find Beijing a changed, more open place.
1978 Deng Xiaoping is China's paramount leader with plans to modernize China and visits America, where he negotiates full diplomatic relations. Beijing's Democracy Wall provides an outlet for people to criticize the Cultural Revolution, unless this freedom threatens Party authority. At the same time, he allows drastic reforms in Anhui province in response to severe drought.
1980-1984: Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the South and innovative agricultural reforms in the countryside fuel stunning economic growth. Deng negotiates Hong Kong's return to China.
1984 Rural China is booming and 14 more coastal cities are designated SEZs.
1985-1987 Cultural Fever encourages freedom of expression on college campuses and students demonstrate for more say in their future. The population reaches an unprecedented 1.2 billion. Many state-owned enterprises (SOEs) become insolvent.
1989 Students occupy Tiananmen Square upon the death of Hu Yaobang, a Deng protégé sympathetic to pro-democracy demonstrations and forced to resign as Party secretary. Protests last through Russian Mikhail Gorbachev's historic visit. China government declares martial law on June 4 and sends in troops to suppress all demonstrations.
1993 Foreign investors return and China produces its first millionaires.
1994 Jiang Zemin is named his heir-apparent. Foreign companies scramble for Chinese contracts, while China's state-owned factories operate draining capital from government and banks.
1995 June Yuan (Renminbi) is pegged to USDollar at 8.277.
October Jiang Zemin announces at United Nations that China will be the 21st Century power.
1997 July 1 Hong Kong returns to China.
1998 Premier Zhu Rongji announces a three-year plan to reform state enterprises or let them die. Ending the "iron rice bowl" of jobs and benefits for life, he lays off millions of Party officials. China agrees to open its markets to gain World Trade Organization (WTO) membership.
1999 July 15 China seeks active policy of China as one nation.
2001 December 11 China becomes member of World Trade Organization (WTO).
2003 Outbreak of the deadly virus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) occurs.
2004 China is the 2nd economic power and economy in the world measured in purchashing power parity (PPP).
2008 Beijing is host to Olympics.
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