Country description

1. China – country
presentation
By daddy

2. Location

3. Flag

4. Population

5. Capital: Beijing

6. Name: China
 Comes from European and Indian sources;
 May have come from Qin dynasty;

7. Imperial dynasties

8. Opium Wars: 1839–1842,
1856–1860
 Fought between the Quing dynasty and the Western Powers (British Empire and
France);
 European force's modern military technology led to easy victory over the Qing
forces, with the consequence that the government was compelled to grant
favorable tariffs, trade concessions, reparations and territory to the Europeans;
 The wars and the subsequently-imposed treaties weakened the Qing dynasty
and the Chinese imperial government, and forced China to open specified treaty
ports (especially Shanghai) that handled all trade with imperial powers. In
addition, China gave the sovereignty over Hong Kong to the United Kingdom.

9. 1911 Revolution or Xinhai Revolution:
Republic of China

10. First Republic of China:
12 February 1912
 Founded by Sun Yat-sen, a general of the
Qing dynasty.
 On 12 February 1912, regent Empress
Dowager Longyu sealed the imperial
abdication decree on behalf of
4 year old Puyi, the last emperor of China,
ending 5,000 years of monarchy in China.

11. War with Japan:
1937-1945
 Japanese forces committed numerous
war atrocities against the civilian
population; in all, as many as 20 million
Chinese civilians died;
 An estimated 40,000 to 300,000 Chinese
were massacred in the city of Nanjing
alone during the Japanese occupation

12. Civil War and the
People's Republic:
1949
 Major combat in the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with the CCP gain control
of most of mainland China, and the Kuomintang retreating offshore to Taiwan,
reducing its territory to only Taiwan, Hainan, and their surrounding islands.
 On 1 October 1949, CCP Chairman Mao Zedong formally proclaimed the
establishment of the People's Republic of China at the new nation's founding
ceremony and inaugural military parade in Tiananmen Square, Beijing

13. Mao reforms: 1950-1976
 The government consolidated its popularity among the peasants through land reform,
which included the execution of between 1 and 2 million landlords.
 China developed an independent industrial system and its own nuclear weapons.
 The Chinese population increased from 550 million in 1950 to 900 million in 1974.
 However, the Great Leap Forward, an idealistic massive reform project, resulted in
an estimated 15 to 35 million deaths between 1958 and 1961, mostly from starvation.
 In 1966, Mao and his allies launched the Cultural Revolution, sparking a decade of
political recrimination and social upheaval that lasted until Mao's death in 1976

14. Climate
 China's climate is mainly dominated by dry seasons and wet monsoons, which
lead to pronounced temperature differences between winter and summer. In the
winter, northern winds coming from high-latitude areas are cold and dry; in
summer, southern winds from coastal areas at lower latitudes are warm and
moist.
 A major environmental issue in China is the continued expansion of its deserts,
particularly the Gobi Desert.

15. Economy
 Since 2010, China has had the world's second-largest economy in terms of
nominal GDP
, totaling approximately US$15.66 trillion as of 2020.
 In terms of purchasing power parity (PPP GDP), China's economy has been the
largest in the world since 2014, according to the World Bank.
 China is also the world's fastest-growing major economy. According to the World
Bank, China's GDP grew from $150 billion in 1978 to $14.28 trillion by 2019.

16. Languages
 There are as many as 292 living languages in China.
 The languages most commonly spoken belong to the Sinitic branch of the Sino-
Tibetan language family, which contains Mandarin (spoken by 70% of the
population), and other varieties of Chinese language: Yue (including Cantonese
and Taishanese), Wu (including Shanghainese and Suzhounese), Min (including
Fuzhounese, Hokkien and Teochew), Xiang, Gan and Hakka. Languages of the
Tibeto-Burman branch, including Tibetan, Qiang, Naxi and Yi, are spoken
across the Tibetan and Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau.

17. Religion
 The government of the People's Republic of China officially espouses state
atheism, and has conducted antireligious campaigns to this end.
 Over the millennia, Chinese civilization has been influenced by various religious
movements. The "three teachings", including Confucianism, Taoism, and
Buddhism (Chinese Buddhism), historically have a significant role in shaping
Chinese culture.
 According to a 2014 study, approximately 74% are either non-religious or practice
Chinese folk belief, 16% are Buddhists, 2% are Christians, 1% are Muslims, and 8%
adhere to other religions including Taoists and folk salvationism.

18. Confucianism
 Confucianism developed from what was later called the Hundred Schools of
Thought from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (551–479 BCE);
 With particular emphasis on the importance of the family and social harmony,
rather than on an otherworldly source of spiritual values, the core of
Confucianism is humanistic.
 Confucius was thought to be the author or editor of the Five Classics which
were the basic texts of Confucianism (Book of Changes, Book of Songs, Book of
History, Book of Rites, Spring and Autumn Annals).

19. Confucianism
 The Five constants of Confucian
thoughts are:
 Rén (仁, benevolence, humaneness);
 Yì (义; 義, righteousness or justice);
 Lǐ (礼; 禮, proper rite);
 Zhì (智, knowledge);
 Xìn (信, integrity).

20. Taoism
 In Taoism, the Tao is the source of everything and the ultimate principle
underlying reality. Taoism teaches about the various disciplines for achieving
"perfection" through "self-cultivation". This can be done through the use of Taoist
techniques and by becoming one with the unplanned rhythms of the all, called
"the way" or "Tao".
 The roots of Taoism go back at least to the 4th century BCE. Early Taoism drew its
cosmological notions from the School of Yinyang (Naturalists) and was deeply
influenced by one of the oldest texts of Chinese culture.
 The Taoist Three Treasures or Three Jewels (三寶; sānbǎo) comprise the basic
virtues of ci (慈; cí, usually translated as compassion), jian (儉; jiǎn, usually
translated as moderation), and bugan wei tianxia xian (不敢爲天下先; bùgǎn wéi
tiānxià xiān, literally "not daring to act as first under the heavens", but usually
translated as humility).

21. Buddhism
 Buddhism is a widespread Asian religion or philosophical tradition based on a
series of original teachings attributed to Gautama Buddha. It originated in
ancient India as a Sramana tradition in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE,
spreading through much of Asia. It is the world's fourth-largest religion with over
520 million followers, or over 7% of the global population, known as
Buddhists.
 Four Noble Truths of Buddhism: The Four Truths express the basic orientation
of Buddhism: we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, which is
dukkha, "incapable of satisfying" and painful. This keeps us caught in saṃsāra,
the endless cycle of repeated rebirth, dukkha and dying again. But there is a way
to liberation from this endless cycle to the state of nirvana, namely following the
Noble Eightfold Path.

22. Buddhist Noble Eightfold
Path: Karma Wheel
 Right Resolve or Intention: the giving up of home and adopting the life of a religious mendicant in order to follow the path; this concept aims at
peaceful renunciation, into an environment of non-sensuality, non-ill-will (to loving kindness), away from cruelty (to compassion). Such an environment aids
contemplation of impermanence, suffering, and non-Self.
 Right Speech: no lying, no rude speech, no telling one person what another says about him to cause discord or harm their relationship.
 Right Conduct or Action: no killing or injuring, no taking what is not given, no sexual misconduct, no material desires.
 Right Livelihood: no trading in weapons, living beings, meat, liquor, and poisons.
 Right Effort: preventing the arising of unwholesome states, and generating wholesome states, the bojjhagā (Seven Factors of Awakening). This includes
indriya-samvara, "guarding the sense-doors", restraint of the sense faculties.[27][25]
 Right Mindfulness (sati; Satipatthana; Sampajañña): "retention", being mindful of the dhammas ("teachings", "elements") that are beneficial to the Buddhist
path. In the vipassana movement, sati is interpreted as "bare attention": never be absent minded, being conscious of what one is doing; this encourages the
awareness of the impermanence of body, feeling and mind, as well as to experience the five aggregates (skandhas), the five hindrances, the four True Realities and
seven factors of awakening.
 Right samadhi (passaddhi; ekaggata; sampasadana): practicing four stages of dhyāna (meditation), which includes samadhi proper in the second
stage, and reinforces the development of the bojjhagā, culminating into upekkha (equanimity) and mindfulness. In the Theravada tradition and the vipassana
movement, this is interpreted as ekaggata, concentration or one-pointedness of the mind, and supplemented with vipassana meditation, which aims at insight.
 Right View: our actions have consequences, death is not the end, and our actions and beliefs have consequences after death. The Buddha followed and taught
a successful path out of this world and the other world (heaven and underworld/hell). Later on, right view came to explicitly include karma and rebirth, and the
importance of the Four Noble Truths, when "insight" became central to Buddhist soteriology.

23. China’s four significant inventions:
 Paper;
 Compass;
 Printing;
 Gunpowder;

24. Great Wall of China
 The Great Wall of China (traditional Chinese: 萬里長城; simplified Chinese: 万里长
城; pinyin: Wànlǐ Chángchéng) is a series of fortifications that were built across
the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as
protection against various nomadic groups from the Eurasian Steppe. Several
walls were built from as early as the 7th century BC, with selective stretches later
joined together by Qin Shi Huang (220–206 BC), the first emperor of China.
 The Wall spans 21,196.18 km (13,170.70 mi) in total. Today, the defensive system
of the Great Wall is generally recognized as one of the most impressive
architectural feats in history.

25. Chinese calendar
 Although modern-day China uses
the Gregorian calendar, the tradition
al Chinese calendar governs
holidays, such as the Chinese
New Year and Lantern Festival, in
both China and in overseas Chinese communities. It also gives the traditional
Chinese nomenclature of dates within a year which people use for selecting
auspicious days for weddings, funerals, moving, or starting a business.

26. The Chinese New Year
 is the festival that celebrates the
beginning of a new year on the
traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar.
The festival is commonly referred to as the Spring Festival as the spring season in
the lunisolar calendar traditionally starts with lichun, the first of the twenty-four solar
terms which the festival celebrates around the time of the Lunar New Year.
The Chinese calendar defines the lunar month containing the winter solstice as the
eleventh month, meaning that Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new
moon after the winter solstice.

27. The Lantern Festival
 is a Chinese traditional festival
celebrated on the full moon,
the fifteenth day of the first month
in the lunisolar Chinese calendar.
 During the Lantern Festival, children
go out at night carrying paper lanterns and solve riddles on the lanterns
(traditional Chinese: 猜燈謎; simplified Chinese: 猜灯谜; pinyin: cāidēngmí).
 The lanterns can symbolize the people letting go of their past selves and getting
new ones, which they will let go of the next year. The lanterns are almost always
red to symbolize good fortune.