China’s population, 1.4 billion,
is the world’s largest…for now.
With more than 1.4 billion citizens, the People’s Republic of China has the largest
population of any country in the world. Stretching over 3.7 million square miles, China
is also the world’s fourth-largest country in size. It borders 14 other nations, including
Russia, Mongolia, Pakistan, India, Laos, North Korea, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and more.
The majority of China’s population lives in the eastern third of the country, where the
best farmland is found. This is also where the longest river in Asia, the Yangtze, flows.
The cold, dry Gobi Desert is located in China’s northern region.
In the past, most people in China worked on farms. But in recent years, people in rural
areas have rushed to the country’s cities to make more money than they can as farmers.
Many of them have moved to Beijing, the capital city, and one of the world’s biggest
cities. Beijing, however, is not the largest city in China. Shanghai, with more than 24
million people in its city limits, is China’s biggest city, and the biggest in the world.
In 2012, Xi Jinping — shee jin-ping — took over as the leader of China’s ruling
Communist Party. Early the next year, he became China’s president. Communism is a
political and economic system where the people officially own everything together, and
the government has absolute power. China’s economy is no longer strictly communist
today, since it encourages private business growth.
China is one of the oldest and most
important cultures in the world.
China is one of the oldest civilizations on Earth. The Chinese people have been
writing down their history for at least 3,500 years. Their language is not just ancient,
but very beautiful in its written form. Calligraphy is the art of writing words in
beautiful lettering. Chinese calligraphy has been done for thousands of years.
Today, people use very different versions of Chinese in different parts of the
country. In fact, people who live in different areas sometimes cannot understand
each other. But these languages all share the same basic structure and system. Each
Chinese character is an ideogram, based on pictures rather than a formal alphabet.
One of the greatest manmade wonders of the world is the Great Wall of China.
At 4,000 miles long, the Great Wall is the biggest single structure ever built by
humans. It took about 2,000 years to build, and was finally completed in the 1600s.
It was built to keep invading armies out of the country.
China was not always a communist country. A leader named Mao Zedong —
maow zuh-dong — fought for years against China’s government, finally winning
in 1949. He turned China into a communist country and ruled as a dictator until
he died in 1976. Although China is still officially communist, the government
allows private ownership of businesses and property. This has helped turn China
into an economic superpower. However, China is still not a democracy and the
government does not allow real freedom of speech.
China is known for being the only place in the world where giant pandas live in
the wild. Giant pandas are one of the most endangered animals on Earth. But
conservation efforts seem to be working and there may now may be as many as
1,600 giant pandas living in preserves and in the wild in China.