People’s Republic of China, commonly known as China (Chinese: 中国, pinyin: Zhōngguó) (simplified Chinese: 中华人民共和国, traditional Chinese: 中華人民共和國, pinyin: Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó, is the largest country in East Asia as well as the most populous in the world with more than 1,300 million residents, approximately one fifth of the world’s population. With a total area of approximately 9.6 million square kilometers, the People’s Republic of China is the fourth largest country in the world in terms of territorial extension, after Russia, Canada and the United States. World Trade Organization, China is the world’s leading exporter according to data from August 2009. Little by little the country has become a world superpower, a factor that has increased in the last 20 years.
Geography
China is the fourth largest country in the world by total area, and the third largest by land area. Given its size, it naturally contains a great variety of landscapes and climatic zones. In the east, along the coasts of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, there are densely populated floodplains. The coastal area of the South China Sea is more mountainous and southern China is dominated by hills and small mountain ranges. In the central area of the east are the deltas of the two largest rivers: the Yellow and the Yangzi. Other important rivers are the Pearl River, the Mekong, Brahmaputra, the Amur, the Huai He and the Xi Jiang.
To the west, the great mountain ranges predominate, especially the Himalayas, which reaches its highest height on Mount Everest, and plateaus that characterize most of an arid landscape with deserts such as the Takla-Makan and the Gobi. Due to drought and harmful agricultural practices, sandstorms have become common in the spring. The expansion of the Gobi desert is the main cause of these storms that affect northeast China as well as Korea and Japan.
The limits of ancient China were: To the north the Gobi Desert and Mongolia ; to the south the China Sea and the Indochina Jungles, to the east the Yellow Sea and the China Sea and to the west, the mountains of Tibet and Turkestan.
The rivers that cross China are: the Hoang-Ho (Yellow River) and the Yang-tse-Kiang (Blue River), these two rivers are born in the mountains of Tibet and flow into the Yellow Sea. The Hoang-Ho, has a very irregular course and its extension cannot be compared to that of the Yang-tse-Kiang, since it is 5000 km long and near its mouth it has 500 km of navigation, with a width of almost 35 km.
China’s rivers have divided China into different regions, but culture has developed along the banks of these waterways. Due to the extension of the country the climates are highly variable and therefore its agriculture, as well as its fauna, were also of great diversity, rice constituted, due to the fertility of its soil, the main food element.
In this territory, with fertile soil, favorable to agriculture (rice crops, mulberry trees, sugar cane, tea, wheat, etc.) and to mining activities (copper, gold, iron and lead deposits), the town was established Chinese, corresponding to the Mongolian race, with high cheekbones, slanting eyes, straight black hair, and a more or less yellow complexion.
As is known, it was precisely in China, where the remains of the Peking Man or sinanthropus pekinensis were located, which are estimated to be around half a million years old, and are considered contemporaries of the most primitive races corresponding to the Palaeolithic lower, it is known that the Peking man knew fire, was a hunter, and made his knives, hammers, and scrapers out of stone.
Economy
Despite the current economic crisis, as a country located in Asia according to SOFTWARELEVERAGE, China is the only major economy that continues to grow strongly in the world. In 1979 the commune system was progressively dismantled and peasants began to have more freedom to manage the lands they cultivated and sell their products in the markets. At the same time, the Chinese economy was opening up abroad.
The economic reforms contributed to a very intense economic growth throughout the 1980s. As of 1992, after the confirmation that the economic policy maintained the reformist orientation and the opening of Chinese markets abroad, the economy reached growth rates unprecedented economic. In that year of 1992, the growth of the gross domestic product reached 14.2%, remaining around 10% during the following years, up to the present time. [2]
The reforms in the economic policy sponsored by the government, to encourage foreign investment, determined the creation of special economic zones in the coastal zone, where industrial development was concentrated, providing the State with large investments in facilities, public services and creating housing centers for workers, making China the largest manufacturing power in the world, especially in the sector of the production of household appliances and textiles. It is estimated that approximately 25% of all manufactured goods in the world are produced in China.
Since 2004, the European Union (EU) has been the main trading partner of China, which in turn is the second trading partner of the European organization.
The 16 of March of 2007, the National People ‘s Congress first recognized private property by law, widely debated for 13 years. The measure did not affect, however, the countryside and farmland, and assigned collectively owned beneficially by the state to farmers [3] .
