China has one of the world's oldest civilizations and has the oldest continuous civilization.It has archaeological evidence dating back over 5,000 years.China was the largest and most advanced civilization for much of recorded history and is viewed as the source of many major inventions It has also one of the world's oldest written language systems. Historically, China's cultural sphere has extended across East Asia as a whole, with Chinese religion, customs, and writing systems being adopted to varying degrees by neighbors such as Japan,Korea and Vietnam. The first evidence of human presence in the region was found at the Zhoukoudian cave and is one of the first known specimens of Homo erectus, now commonly known as the Peking Man, estimated to have lived from 300,000 to 780,000 years ago.

For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, MAO's successor DENG Xiaoping and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by 2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight.  

China is located in eastern Asia, on the western shore of the Pacific Ocean, with an total area of 9.6 million square kilometers. China's continental coastline extends for about 18,000 kilometers, and its vast sea surface is studded with more than 5,000 islands, of which Taiwan and Hainan are the largest.

China has a continental climate and a latitude spanning nearly 50 degrees. Much of the landmass is located in the temperate zone, with the tropical and subtropical zones to the south, and reaching the frigid zone in the north, so temperatures differ strikingly across the country. The northern part of Heilongjiang Province has long winters with no summers, while the Hainan Island has summers year round. The Huaihe River valley( parts of Anhui provinces and the north part of JIangsu province) is marked by distinctive seasonal changes, but it is spring all year round in the south of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. In the northwest hinterland, the temperature changes dramatically. China's high tundra zone is situated in the Qinghai-Tibet, where the temperature is low for all seasons, and incredibly low in winter. Some desert areas remains dry year round.