About China
National Flag
National Emblem
Population: 1.39 billion
Ethinic Groups: 56
Surface area: 9.6 million square kilometers
GDP: USD 13.46 trillion
GDP per capita: USD 9,630
Total import value: USD 2.049 trillion
Inbound tourists: 141.2 million
Outbound tourists: 149.7 million
No. of national 5A-level scenic areas: 259
No. of Intangible Cultural Heritage: 1,372
HISTORY
China is one of the four major ancient civilisations and has a history of 5,000 years.
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
China is located in the northern Hemisphere in eastern Asia on the west coast of the Pacific.
CAPITAL
Beijing, the capital of China, is located in the central north part of the country, and is the centre of politics, culture and international communication.
TIME ZONG
The official time is based on that of Beijing, which is GMT+8:00.
ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION
China has a total of 34 provincial-level administrative areas, including 4 municipalities, 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions and 2 special administrative regions.
CLIMATE
Situated in the Northern Hemispherr, China is in general characterised by a continental monsoon climate, with March to May being spring, June to August being summer, September to November being autumn and December to Feraary being winter.
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
Mandarin is the official language of China and one of the 6 official working languages of the United Nations.
ELECRICITY
220V is the nominal votage and the power sockets are types A, C and I.
CURRENCY
Renminbi (RMB) is the national currency and is denominated in yuan.
EXCHANGE RATES (AS OF October 2024)
1 Australian dollor ≈ 4.76 RMB
1 New Zealand dollar ≈ 4.31 RMB
1 Fujian dollar ≈ 3.15 RMB
1 US dollar ≈ 7.08 RMB
TIMELINE OF CHINESE HISTORY
XIA (About 21th century BC) -> SHANG (About 16th century BC) -> WESTERN ZHOU (About 11th century BC) -> SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD (770 BC) -> QIN (221 BC) -> HAN (202BC) -> WEI (THREE KINGDOMS) (220) -> JIN (265) -> SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN DYNASTIES (420) -> SUI (581) -> TANG (618) -> SONG (960) -> YUAN (1271) -> MING (1368) -> QING (1644) -> PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (1949-present)
Chinese Delicacies
Chinese cuisine is widely recognised as one of the three great cuisines of the world due to the country’s unique and profound culinary culture. Chinese cuisine is diverse, exquisite and unique and the accumulation of millennia of culinary history, which gives rise to its global prestige.
Cuisines
The most influential and representative Chinese cuisines are those of Shandong, Sichuan, Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan and Anhui Provinces, which are collectively known as the eight major cuisines and highly distinct in terms of preparations and flavor. Some of the most representative dishes include Peking duck, Longing prawns, West Lake vinegar fish, Buddha’s Temptation, mapo tofu and kung poo chicken.
Hotpot
Originated in China, hotpot is one of the most distinctive Chinese specialties. It is enjoyed by cooking the ingredients in boiling pot and then eaten with sauces. Thanks to its unique taste and fun preparation process, it is popular among locals nod foreign visitors alike . Some of the must-try hotpots include the instant-boiled mutton hotpot of northern China, Sichuan and Chongqing spicy hotpots and the beef hotpots of Guangdong Province.
Wheaten Food
China is a major nation of wheaten food. With its profound wheaten-food culture and superb preparation techniques, the food comes in a wide variety, each of which tastes equally great. Some of the fan1ous ones include dumplings, knife-cut noodles, beef noodles. stewed-mutton noodles. Nanxiang steamed buns and Goubuli steamed stuffed buns.
Local Snacks
China has over 3,000 types of regional snacks that a distinct in taste and strong in regional characteristics. The cities with the largest quantity of distinctive local snacks include Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi’an, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Changsha, and the famous snacks include candied fruit, skewer hotpot, tofu pudding, rice-noodle rolls, rice vermicelli, zongzi, rice cake and glutinous-rice balls.
Accommodation
China has comprehensive tourist-accommodation facilities that include internationally renowned hotel groups, local hotel brands, themed hotels, B&B and inns, which cover almost every corner of the country. By the end of 2018, China has over 10,667 starred hotels, including 851 five-star hotels and 2,558 four-star hotels.
Entertainment
China offers a wide variety of rich and colorful entertainment. Be it appreciating the traditional operas (Peking, Sichuan, Henan or Kun Operas), tea ceremonies (kung fu, Zen and Taoist teas) and acrobatic show s (Wuqiao Acrobatics World in Cangzhou of Hebei Province and Puyang Acrobatics). or taking part in traditional festivities (Spring Festival, Dragon-Boat Festival and Mid Autumn Festival) and tourism festivals (Luoyang Peony Festival, International Mount Tai Climbing Festival, Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival and Qingdao International Beer Festival), visitors will have no shortage of amazing choices.
Transportation
China's High-speed Railway
The high-speed railway represents a whole-new image of China. By 2018, China’s mileage of in-operation high-speed railways accounted for two-thirds of the world’s total. Fuxing, high-speed trains researched and developed by China with absolute independent intellectual property right, achieved the running speed of 350 kilometres per hour, making them the fastest trains in the world.
China’s high-speed railway covers major cities in the country and has comfortable waiting areas. The trains have a punctuality rate of close to 99%. Passengers may purchase tickets using mobile apps and go through the stations by scanning their ID cards or faces, which greatly facilitate travelling.
Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge
Measuring 55 kilometres in length, it is the world’s longest sea-crossing bridge, which took 9 years to build and had to overcome a dozen world-class technical challenges. The bridge has a design life of 120 years and can withstand magnitude-8 earthquakes and super thphoons.
Air
Now China has opened more than 1,000 domestic air routes and over 230 internationa1 air routes. The domestic air routes are mainly distributed in the areas east of the Harbin-Beijing-Xi’an-Chengdu-Kunming Line, with Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou as the hubs, linking all the large- and medium-sized cities and coastal areas in China. The international air routes take Beijing as the center, and radiate to the east, west and south through the airports in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Urumqi, Dalian, Kunming and Xiamen. Scheduled planes fly from China to Japan, North America, Middle East, Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and other countries and regions regularly. The information website of China civil aviation: www.airnews.cn
Railways
China has fairly developed railways. There are several kinds of trains for domestic rails: CRH trains (with a code of D), direct express trains (Z), extra express trains (T), express trains (K), air-conditioned trains (N), tour trains (Y)and temporary trains (L). There are also the international combined transportation trains. The trains in China provide two soft upper berths and two soft lower berths in each private room.
For the convenience of tourists, all the major cities in China have express trains, which leave in the evening and arrive in the morning; and the tourist trains go to all the main tourist cities regularly. Therefore, it is very convenient for tourists to travel in China by train. In 2007, China put into use more than 200 pairs of CRH trains with their speed reaching over 200 km per hour.
Now China has international combined transportation trains, which go to Ulan Bator, Moscow, Pyongyang, Hanoi and other cities regularly. Chinese railway website: www.258.com.cn
Highways
China boasts dense highway networks, which radiate to all directions with Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou as the center. Now China is sparing no effort to develop expressways and the first-and second-class highways. The work has made great achievements in many tourist cities, thus providing great convenience for tourists. The main highways include Shenyang-Dalian, Beijing-Tanggu, Beijing-Shijiazhuang, Nanjing-Shanghai, Shanghai-Hangzhou, Hangzhou-Ningbo, Xi’an-Lintong, Xi’an-Baoji, Guiyang-Huangguoshu, Yichang-Huangshi, Jinan-Qingdao, Guangzhou-Shenzhen, Guangzhou-Foshan, Guangzhou-Shantou, Chengdu-Chongqing, Fuzhou-xiamen, Round Hainan Island, Guilin-Liuzhou and Luoyang-Kaifeng highways.
Waterways
With a vast sea area, China borders the Bohai, Yellow and East China seas in the east, and the South China Sea in the south. Along the undulating coastlines there are Shanghai, Tianijn Xingang, Guangzhou Hu angpu, Yantai, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, Dalian, Beihai and Hong Kong ports. These ports are vast and deep, with beautiful en vironment. It is suggested that tourists go to visit these cities by pleasure ship.
lnternational Sea Routes
China has many international portcities, where ships can go to the port cities of foreign count ries. Ships go from Shanghai, Tianjin and Dalian to Kobe, Osaka, Yokoha ma and Inchon regularly. Many luxury ships go back and forth along these international sea routes.
Domestic Sea Routes
Domestic sea navigation routes connect all the port cities in China. The main routes include: Shanghai-Dalian, Dalian-Tianjin, Da lian-Yantai, Shanghai-Qingdao, Shanghai Guangzhou, Beihai-Guangzhou, Shenzhen Zhuhai and Zhuhai-Hong Kong.
Inland River Routes
The mainland of China is crisscrossed by a great number of rivers with a total length of 226,800 km, of which 136,000 km are navi gable.
Famous Inland River Routes for Sight-seeing
1. Tourists may travel by pleasure ship along the Grand Canal between Suzhou and Hangzhou, 146.6 km long. During a boat excursion, tourists will feast their eyes on the picturesque scenery of South China.
2. Tourists may get on a dragon boat or a pleasure ship in Nanjing, Wuxi or Yangzhou to take the Grand Canal-Yangtze River-Taihu Lake Tour, full of poetic flavor. Tourists can taste delicious local cuisine on the boat while appreciating the beautiful scenery.
3. Tourists may take an 83-km-long boat tour down the Lijiang River from Guiiln to Yangshuo to enjoy the picturesquescenery and many historicalsites on both banks of the river.
4. In Wuhan, tourists can appreciate the fascinating scenery of the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River by luxury pleasure ship ey
Sightseeing
At the end of 20 07, China had over 19,720 travel services, which have good facilitiesand offer excellent services. In particular, the large travel services in China, with high-quality staff members and advanced marketing systems, can provide services to meet different demands of tourists. There fore, letting a travel service to arrange a trip inChina for you will be agood choice.
In addition, along with the promotion of diversified services by the hotels in China, many hotels offer tourism services too. Tou rists may joina tourist group at the hotel, and do sightseeing according to the itineraries carefully arranged by the hotel. Some cities also have set up the sightseeing centers for the convenience of tourists.