China guide
China is the world's oldest continuous major civilization, with written records
dating back about 3,500 years and with 5,000 years being commonly used by Chinese
as the age of their civilization. Successive dynasties developed systems of bureaucratic
control, which gave the agrarian-based Chinese an advantage over neighboring nomadic
and mountain dwelling cultures. The development of a state ideology based on Confucianism (100 BC) and a common
system of writing (200 BC) both strengthened Chinese civilization. Politically,
China alternated between periods of political union and disunion, and was often
conquered by external ethnicities, of which many were eventually assimilated into
the Chinese identity. These cultural and political influences from many parts
of Asia as well as successive waves of immigration and emigration merged to create
the familiar image of Chinese culture and people today.
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