China

Country in East Asia, the largest in the world by population and the third largest by area.
Languages: Modern Standard Chinese.
Currency: yuan.
Capital: Beijing.
Population: 1,338,613,000 (2009 estimate).
Area: 9,571,300 sq km (3,695,500 sq mi).
Official Name: People's Republic of China.
Major Cities:
Beijing
Beijing is a metropolis in northern China and the capital of the People's Republic of China. Governed as a municipality under direct administration of the central government, Beijing borders Hebei Province to the north, west, south, and for a small section in the east, and Tianjin Municipality to the southeast. Beijing is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. Beijing is divided into 16 urban and suburban districts and two rural counties. Beijing is a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads and motorways passing through the city. It is also the destination of many international flights arriving in China. Beijing is recognized as the political, educational, and cultural center of the People's Republic of China, while Shanghai and Hong Kong predominate in economic fields. The city hosted the 2008 Olympic Games. Few cities in the world besides Beijing have served as the political and cultural centre of an area as immense as China for so long. The Encyclopædia Britannica describes it as "one of the world's great cities," and declares that the city has been an integral part of China’s history for centuries; there is scarcely a major building of any age in Beijing that doesn't have at least some national historical significance. Beijing is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, and huge stone walls and gates. Its art treasures and universities have long made the city a centre of culture and art in China.
______________________________________________________________________________ Shanghai
Shanghai is a metropolis in eastern China and a direct-controlled municipality of the People's Republic of China. Located at the middle part of the coast of mainland China, it sits at the mouth of the Yangtze. Originally a fishing and textiles town, Shanghai grew to importance in the 19th century due to its favorable port location and as one of the cities opened to foreign trade by the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. The city flourished as a center of commerce between east and west, and became a multinational hub of finance and business by the 1930s. After 1990, the economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in intense re-development and financing in Shanghai, and in 2005 Shanghai became the world's largest cargo port. The city is a tourist destination renowned for its historical landmarks such as the Bund and City God Temple, and its modern and ever-expanding Pudong skyline including the Oriental Pearl Tower. Today, Shanghai is the largest center of commerce and finance in mainland China, and has been described as the "showpiece" of the world's fastest-growing major economy.
______________________________________________________________________________ Wuhan
Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in central China. It lies at the east of Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han River. Arising out of the conglomeration of three boroughs, Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang, Wuhan is known as "the nine provinces' leading thoroughfare"; it is a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads and expressways passing through the city. The city of Wuhan, first termed as such in 1927, has a population of approximately 9,100,000 people (2006), with about 6,100,000 residents in its urban area. In the 1920s, Wuhan was the capital of a leftist Kuomintang (KMT) government led by Wang Jingwei in opposition to Chiang Kai-shek, now Wuhan is recognized as the political, economic, financial, cultural, educational and transportation center of central China.
______________________________________________________________________________ Chongqing
Chongqing is a major city in southwestern China. Administratively, it is one of the People's Republic of China's four provincial-level direct-controlled municipalities(the other three are Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin), and the only such municipality in western China. The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the sub-provincial city administration that was part of Sichuan Province. In 2007, the municipality of Chongqing had a population of 31.4 million. It has jurisdiction over 19 districts, 17 counties, and four autonomous counties. Chongqing was also a municipality of the Republic of China administration, serving as its wartime capital during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Its abbreviated name is derived from the old name of a part of the Jialing River that runs through Chongqing and feeds the Yangtze River.
______________________________________________________________________________ Xian
Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi province in the People's Republic of China and a sub-provincial city. As one of the oldest cities in Chinese history, Xi'an is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China because it has been the capital (under various names) of some of the most important dynasties in Chinese history, including the Zhou, Qin, Han, the Sui, and Tang dynasties. Xi'an is the eastern terminus of the Silk Road and home of the Terracotta Army which was made during the Qin Dynasty. Since the 1990s, as part of the economic revival of interior China especially for the central and northwest regions, the city of Xi'an has re-emerged as an important cultural, industrial and educational center of the central-northwest region, with facilities for research and development, national security and China's space exploration program.
______________________________________________________________________________ Chengdu
Chengdu, located in southwest People's Republic of China, is the capital of Sichuan province and a sub-provincial city. Chengdu is also one of the most important economic centers, transportation and communication hubs in Western China. According to the 2007 Public Appraisal for Best Chinese Cities for Investment, Chengdu was chosen as one of the top ten cities to invest in out of a total of 280 urban centers in China. More than four thousand years ago, the prehistorical Bronze Age culture of Jinsha (Chinese; pinyin: Jīnshā) established itself in this region. The fertile Chengdu Plain, on which Chengdu is located, is called Tianfuzhi guo (simplified Chinese; pinyin: Tiānfǔzhi Guó) in Chinese, which literally means "the country of heaven", or more often seen translated as "the Land of Abundance". It was recently named China's 4th-most livable city by China Daily.
______________________________________________________________________________ Tianjin
Tianjin is a metropolis in Northeastern China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is thus under direct administration of the central government, and borders Hebei Province and Beijing Municipality, bounded to the east by the Bohai Gulf portion of the Yellow Sea. In terms of urban population, it is the sixth largest city of the People's Republic of China, and its urban land area ranks 5th in the nation, only after Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Tianjin's urban area is located along the Hai He River, which connects to the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers via the Grand Canal in Tianjin. Its ports, some distance away, are located on the Bohai Gulf in the Pacific Ocean. Tianjin was once home to foreign concessions in the late Qing Dynasty and early Kuomintang (KMT) era. The municipality incorporates the coastal region of Tanggu, home to the Binhai New Area and the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA). Tianjin Municipality borders Hebei province to the north, south, and west; the Chinese capital Beijing is to the northwest, and the Bohai Gulf to the east.
______________________________________________________________________________ Shenyang
Shenyang is a sub-provincial city and capital of Liaoning province in Northeast China. The city was also known as Shengjing or Fengtianfu. Shenyang was first used by the Manchu people as capital in the 17th century and is today the biggest city in northeastern China. Along with its nearby cities Shenyang is an important industrial center in China, and the transportation and commercial center of China's northeastern region–particularly with Japan, Russia, and Korea. A titan of heavy industry since the 1930s, Shenyang has been diversifying its industry and now boasts a solid industrial foundation, a good land and air transport network, abundant natural resources, and a skilled workforce. Investment subsidies are granted to multinational corporations (MNCs) that set up offices or headquarters in Shenyang.
______________________________________________________________________________ Harbin
Harbin is a sub-provincial city and the capital of the Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China. It lies on the southern bank of the Songhua River. Harbin is the tenth largest city in China (pop. 9.87 million), serving as a key political, economic, scientific, cultural and communications hub in Northeastern China. Harbin is originally a Manchu word meaning "a place for drying fishing nets". Harbin has very cold winters and is often called "Ice City". Harbin is well-known for its beautiful ice sculptures in winter and plays an important part in China's trade with Russia. In the 1920s, Harbin was considered China's fashion capital as new designs from Paris and Moscow reached there first before arriving in Shanghai. Harbin is also a potential candidate for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
______________________________________________________________________________ Guangzhou
Guangzhou is a sub-provincial city located in southern China in the middle of Guangdong Province north of the Pearl River, about 120 km (75 mi) northwest of Hong Kong. It is the third largest city in China and the capital of Guangdong Province, southern China's largest city and key transportation hub and trading port, located on the Pearl River which is navigable to the South China Sea. As of the 2000 census, the city has a population of 6 million, and an urban area population of roughly 11.85 million, making it the most populous city in the province and the third most populous metropolitan area in China. The provincial government's official estimate of the metropolitan area's population at the end of 2006 was 9,754,600.
______________________________________________________________________________ Nanjing
Nanjing is the capital of China's Jiangsu Province, and a city with a prominent place in Chinese history and culture. The different spellings 'Nanjing' or 'Nanking' meaning 'Southern capital' - Nanking was widely used until the Pinyin language reform after which Nanjing is the international standard spelling of the city's name. Located in the lower Yangtze River drainage basin and Yangtze River Delta economic zone, Nanjing has always been one of China's most important cities. It served as the capital of China during several historical periods and is listed as one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. Nanjing was the capital of the Republic of China before the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Nanjing is also one of the fifteen sub-provincial cities in the People's Republic of China's administrative structure, enjoying jurisdictional and economic autonomy only slightly less than that of a province. Apart from having been the capital of China for six dynasties and of the Republic of China, Nanjing has also served as a national hub of education, research, transportation and tourism throughout history. It will also host the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics. With an urban population of over five million (2006), Nanjing is the second largest commercial center in the East China region, after Shanghai. It has been ranked fourth by Forbes magazine in its listing of "2008 Top 100 Business Cities in Mainland China", seventh in the evaluation of "Cities with Strongest Comprehensive Strength" issued by the National Statistics Bureau, and second in the evaluation of cities with most sustainable development potential in the Yangtze River Delta. It has also been awarded the title of 2008 Habitat Scroll of Honor of China, Special Award of UN Habitat Scroll of Honor and National Civilized City.
______________________________________________________________________________ Taiyuan
Taiyuan is a prefecture-level city and the capital of Shanxi province, China. In 2004, the city had a population of 3.4 million.
______________________________________________________________________________ Changchun
Changchun is the capital and largest city of Jilin province, located in the northeast of the People's Republic of China, in the center of the Songliao Plain. It is administered as a sub-provincial city with a population of about 7.5 million under its jurisdiction, including counties and county-level cities. The name originated from the Jurchen language. The urban districts of Changchun's city proper have a total population of 3.58 million.
______________________________________________________________________________ Changsha
Changsha is the capital city of Hunan, a province of south-central China, located on the lower reaches of Xiang river, a branch of the Yangtze River. Its municipality covers an area of 11,819 sq. kilometers and has a population of 6,017,600 (2003 intercensal estimate), the urbanized area has around 2.7 million people. Changsha was important from the time of the Qin dynasty (221–207 BC). In AD 750–1100 Changsha was an important commercial city, and its population increased greatly. Under the Qing dynasty, from 1664, it was the capital of Hunan province, and it was a major rice market. It was besieged during the Taiping Rebellion but never fell. Changsha was the site of Mao Zedong's conversion to communism. It was the scene of major battles in the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–45 and was briefly occupied by the Japanese. Rebuilt since 1949, the city is now a major port and a commercial and industrial center.
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