Study in China

China is located in East Asia and borders the western part of the Pacific Ocean.
It has a land area of more than 9.6 million square kilometers, and a mainland coastline of more than 18,000 kilometers. Its water area, including inland sea and marginal sea, is over 4.7 million square kilometers, in which there are more than 7,600 islands of every size. Among them, the island of Taiwan is the largest, with an area of 35,798 square kilometers.

China borders 14 countries and is adjacent to 8 island countries on the sea. By provincial administrative division, China has 4 municipalities, 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions and 2 special administrative regions. Its capital is Beijing. There are 56 ethnic groups in China, which is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-dialect and multi-text country. The common language is Mandarin and standard Chinese characters.

China is the world’s most populous country. It has a continuous culture stretching back nearly 4,000 years and originated many of the foundations of the modern world. The People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949 after the Communist Party defeated the nationalist Kuomintang, who retreated to Taiwan, creating two rival Chinese states – the People’s Republic on the mainland and the Republic of China based on Taiwan.

After stagnating for decades under the rigid totalitarian socialism of founder Mao Zedong, China reformed its economy along partly capitalist lines to make it one of the world’s fastest-growing, as well its leading exporter. China is now a major overseas investor, and is pursuing an increasingly assertive foreign and defence policy.

But economic change has not been matched by political reform, and the Communist Party retains a tight grip on political life and much of wider society.