The official name of the country is the People’s Republic of China. China covers a land mass of over 3.7 million square miles, making it a large country indeed. The capital is Beijing. Other major cities include Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Harbin, and Chengdu.
With such a massive land area, you can image that there is a wide variety of terrain in the country. Generally, one can find plains, deltas and hills in the east, while mountains, high plateaus and a vast desert exists in the west. The climate ranges from tropical in the far south to arctic cold in the far north on the border with Siberia, Russia.
The people of China are known as Chinese. The most recent population study put the total number of Chinese at over 1.3 billion people, more than four times as many people as found in the United States. Population growth, however, has slowed to roughly half a percent annually. The reason for the slow down is very controversial. Concerned about economic strain caused by population growth, China has implemented a policy of allowing for only one child per family with some minor exceptions. Enforcement of this policy is supposedly done through fines, but forced abortions are known to occur despite government policy opposing them. The government hopes to stabilize the population at no more than 1.6 billion people through 2050. The current infant mortality rate is an astonishingly high 25.5 per 1,000 births.
Ethnicity in China is a hodgepodge issue given its vast size and long history. Han Chinese is the dominant group, consisting of over 91 percent of the population. This is a very loose group, however, as evidenced by various dialects of language in the country. There are seven major Chinese dialects and literally hundreds of localized dialects. Mandarin is the dominant dialect, spoken by over 70 percent of the population in one form or another. That being said, only 60 percent of the Han Chinese can speak it with the remaining 40 percent speaking other dialects. In addition to Mandarin, languages spoken widely included Turkic, Korean, Uygur, Tibetan and Mongolian. It is often said that people in one part of China cant communicate with people on the opposite side.
From a religious perspective, China is officially atheist. That being said, it takes a lax view towards faiths that work with the government. Buddhism is the largest faith with over 100 million practitioners. Taoism is the second most popular. There is a smattering of Muslim and Christian believers, but nothing significant.
As this overview demonstrates, China is huge and unique. This makes it a great travel destination.
Travel To China And See What All The Fuss Is About
China is a magical country full of old and historical sights and many wonders. There is no other country that has sights as fantastic as the Great Wall of China and all of the old places where the monks used to live thousands of years ago. Add to all of this beauty the supreme glory that is the scenery and you have a place that dreams are made of.
China is the type of place that you think only exists in real until you see it for yourself. When you step out onto one of the many mountain peaks and look down on the mist and the world below you will find that your breath is completely taken away. It is stunning and if you do not take cameras and camcorders and tons of extra batteries you are going to be sorry for it. You need to capture these sights on camera so that you can always remember and share those memories with those who were not lucky enough to come with you on this magnificent trip.
Here are some of the top places for you to visit when you go to China:
Hong Kong
This is of course a must see place. Everyone has herd of this great place but so many do not get the wonderful opportunity to see it for themselves. When you go to China you need to see Hong Kong for yourself. There you will get to spend some quality time soaking up the atmosphere. You can see the day life and the nightlife there, it is so different than it is in western countries. You will also find that Hong Kong has the best shopping world wide. No other city on earth can offer this kind of shopping and everyone will be able to find something that they can love and enjoy for years to come.
Guangzhou
This is a place that so many people have not thought to even travel to and oh how these people have missed out. This is one of the top destinations, or at least it should be. When you visit Guangzhou you need to start in one area and move from there. Checking out Guangzhou place by place is the most efficient way to do it. Make sure to not leave until you see Colonial Canton for yourself.
Dongguan
Dongguan is full of all the top museums that China has to offer. If you love to see museums and all that the history of this great country then this is the place to go to do it. In just a couple of days you can learn so much and experience even more.
China is a fabulous place to visit no matter how young or how old you happen to be. Both adults and children will be able to enjoy all of the wonders of China.
Travel Destinations To China
Traveling to China will immerse us not only to the top travel destinations. Instead, we can go through a lot of different cultures that symbolizes a long history and spans the age of the Chinese civilization. From the highlands of Tibet, the popularly known Silk Road and the Forbidden City, China has so much in its large nutshell.
The Great Wall of China
China being known for tourism can be attributed to its Great Wall. The Great Wall of China is one of the greatest wonders of the world and Chinas greatest travel destination. The Great Wall winds up and through desert and mountains at an expanse of 6,700 kilometers from the East to West of China. This wall was built to ward off Mongol invaders in the north.
Tourists traveling to China take in the history of the country with every step of the Great Wall. Now, different foreign tourist marvel at the Great Wall to a point of invasion making it an icon of all Chinas travel destinations.
The Forbidden City of Beijing
In the heart of Beijing lies the Forbidden City. This top Chinese travel destination celebrates the history of different royalties of China. The palace contains exactly 9,999 buildings. Tourists can view the Forbidden City behind each gates found on the four sides. Aside from that, tourists can go up the four towers found in the corners to view the buildings from the top. From this viewpoint, travelers can notice the symmetry of the buildings that coincide with Chinese architectural tradition known as Feng-Shui. As the symbol of the royal family, yellow is the dominant color of the Forbidden City. Foreign tourists to China can see the magnificent architecture, dainty paintings, and the grand halls.
The Silk Road
For foreign tourists who want to take in the economic tradition of China, they go to the famous Silk Road. It is the greatest trading route between the East and the West. The road is named after the product that is most traded between China and the West. The Silk Road is also the route of Marco Polos travel to China. Most importantly, it served as the route for knowledge exchange between Europe and China. Today, the Silk Road is reduced to dilapidated houses and structures in the middle of the desert. However, travelers will encounter different ethnic groups such as the Tibetans, Uigur, and the Mongolians. The value of the economic history of the Silk Road represents the merging of civilization that leaves a mark on the heart of a tourist traveling to China.
