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Chinese civilisation began in the Yellow River basin of northern China, an area of fertile loess soils, where Neolithic agricultural communities developed in the 5th and 6th centuries BC.?In 221 BC, the King of Qin completed the conquest of neighbouring states, and for the first time an extensive area of China was united under a single ruler.?By this time, cities and commerce had emerged with an administration capable of undertaking drainage and irrigation projects.?Agricultural and basic industrial techniques were well developed, and the basis of Chinese thought, Confucianism, Daoism (Taoism), and Legalism, had been established.? During the Qin Dynasty and the succeeding Han Dynasty, the administrative system was further developed, weights and measures, the written language and the legal code were unified, and Chinese rule extended westwards and southwards.?The Han Dynasty fell in AD 220, and China remained divided until reunited by the Sui in 589.?They were followed by the Tang Dynasty (618-907), during which an effective Confucian bureaucracy was set up, Chinese culture flourished, and Chinese rule spread to inner Asia.?There followed a period of division in which the Chinese Song Dynasty ruled in southern China, and the Mongols, under Genghis Khan, in the north.?In 1279 Kublai Khan defeated the Song and reunited China under Mongol rule, with his capital at what is now Peking (Beijing), then known as Dadu.?In 1368 the Chinese cast off Mongol rule.? Under the newly-installed Ming Dynasty, the traditional Chinese economic and administrative system was refined.?In 1644 the Manchu people from the northeast conquered China and founded the Qing Dynasty.?The Manchus had long been in contact with Chinese civilisation and absorbed the Ming system almost intact (although the commanding heights of authority were reserved for Manchus).?The Qing extended their rule over the western periphery of China, including Tibet, so that by the mid-eighteenth century the Chinese Empire was at the height of its strength and prosperity. During the nineteenth century the Qing faced repeated challenges from peasant revolts and the depredations of the western powers.?Following the Chinese defeat in the first Opium War (1839-42), the Qing ceded Hong Kong island to Britain, and were forced to open certain ports to foreign trade.? Further concessions were obtained by Britain and other powers, including the establishment of extra-territorial rights (including the right for non-Chinese to be subject to the laws of their own countries).?During this period, a massive popular revolt, the Taiping rebellion (1855-65), devastated much of central China.?The Dynasty made various half-hearted attempts at reform.?But central power was progressively eroded. The Qing Dynasty fell in 1911, and the Republic of China was founded in its place.? However, the new Government failed to concentrate political control and China steadily dissolved into a series of regional quasi-fiefdoms, often dominated by local war-lords.?The Nationalist Party (or Kuo Min Tang - KMT) led by Dr Sun Yat-sen (who died in 1925) was founded in 1912. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), one of whose founders, Mao Zedong, was established in 1921.?For a brief period the two parties cooperated.?But all collaboration ended abruptly in 1927, when the KMT under Chiang Kaishek turned against the Communists.?Communist guerillas established bases in the countryside, mainly in the southern province of Jiangxi between 1928-34.?To flee the attacks of the KMT, the Communists were forced into a prolonged evasive manoeuvre known as the Long March (1934-35), which finally led them to a redoubt near Yan’an in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province.?When the Japanese invaded China in 1937, the two parties patched together a “united front? which collapsed into all-out civil war following Japan’s defeat.?The KMT eventually took refuge on the island of Taiwan off the southeast coast.?The KMT on Taiwan still claim that they constitute the lawful Government of China, although most nations, including the UK and USA, recognise the Government in Peking as China’s sole legitimate Government. The People’s Republic of China was established by Mao Zedong on 1 October 1949, with the CCP as its governing party. Geography & Population The People’s Republic of China (PRC) covers an area of 3,745,190 square miles (9,700,000 km2), an area as large as the entire European continent.?The population is 1.2bn, accounting for between a fifth and a quarter of the world’s people.?China can be divided up into five principal regions :- i) Western China Including the Tibetan highlands and the Autonomous Regions of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.?This area consists largely of deserts and mountains, and contains only about 1 per cent of China’s people, many of whom are of “minority?nationalities (ie non-Han Chinese).?Transhumance farming, mining and oil are the main economic activities. ii) Northeast China Many of China’s most important industrial centres are located here.?Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province, is a major centre of heavy industry, exploiting the region’s wealth of coal and ferrous ores.?The Daqing oilfield and refinery are here, as well as as key hydro-power schemes on the Songhua and Yalu Rivers.?Forestry, soybeans and cereals are also mainstays of the economy. iii) North China This region’s main industrial centres are Peking (Beijing), Tianjin, Tangshan and Xi’an, which produce a wide range of industrial goods, including machinery, textiles and steel.?Primary resources, notably coal and iron ore, are plentiful.?The intensively cultivated plains grow wheat, millet and other foodstuffs. iv) South China This diverse region embraces the Yangtze and West River basins and the mountainous coastal provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang.?The river plain is heavily cultivated and has China’s highest population density.?Shanghai, at the mouth of the Yangtze, is China’s largest commercial centre and principal port. Shanghai produces some of China’s most sophisticated light industrial products.?Wuhan, on the middle reaches of the Yangtze, is another important industrial centre, producing steel, engineering and consumer goods.?South of the Yangtze, three rivers merge to form the Pearl River Delta.?This densely populated area is part of Guangdong Province, the wealthiest region in China, with?Guangzhou as its centre. Guangdong generated 11.4% of China’s GDP, 35.6% of its trade and attracted 25% of China’s foreign direct investment in 2002. All five of China’s Special Economic Zones are located along this region’s coastline. v) Southwest China This region contains China’s most populous province, Sichuan.?In 1997 the city of Chongqing was promoted to Municipality status, absorbing neighbouring counties and making it China’s largest population centre.?Industrial development has been fuelled by local coal and iron ore deposits.?But the region’s mountainous landscape has hindered its full interaction with other Chinese regions, leaving its economy relatively under-developed. The southern areas of China have a hot and wet monsoon climate.?The interior regions have very little rainfall, and the north relatively little.?In winter the Siberian anticyclone brings cold weather to northern and western China.? Southeast China has far milder winters.?In summer, tropical air systems cover the entire country, bringing rain to most provinces.?Fluctuating rainfall regularly brings floods to China’s major river valleys, including the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. Travel Information Bibliography David Bonavia.?The Chinese. Jung Chang (1992) Wild Swans. Boye De Mente (1989) Chinese Etiquette & Ethics in Business. Lincolnwood, Ill: NTC Business Books Edward G Hinkelmann (1994) China Business.?San Rafael, CA: W J F Jenner (1994)?The Tyranny of History : The Roots of China’s Crisis.?London: World Trade Press Lucien W Pye (1992) Chinese Negotiating Style.?Westport, CT: Penguin Books Ltd Scott D Seligman (1989) Dealing with the Chinese.?New York: Quorum Books Colin Thubron.?Behind the Wall: Warner Books