China
China Hotels Compare Rates : Find lowest prices for China
hotels at Hotels Price Bot - Price Comparison Service. We search
top hotels websites at once and return you the lowest Rates
and largest choice of hotels, searching over 30 different hotel
reservation websites in China and Worlwide, over 700,000
hotels, more hotel information , facilities and hotel images.
China , formally known as the People's Republic
of China is a vast country in Eastern Asia (about the same size
as the United States of America) and with the world's largest
population.
With coasts on the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and
South China Sea, it borders Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal,
Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam to the South; Tajikistan,
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to the West; Russia and Mongolia to
the North and North Korea to the East.
History
The first civilizations in China arose in the Yangtse and Yellow
river valleys at about the same time as Mesopotamia, Egypt and
India developed their first civilizations.
For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing
the rest of the world in the arts and sciences. Paper and gunpowder,
for example, are Chinese inventions and Chinese developments
in astronomy, medicine, scholarship and other fields were extensive.
A tomb unearthed in Changsha showed its occupant wore a bra,
and contained a heliocentric model of the solar system —
it is 3,200 years old.
China also explored the world and traded extensively with other
nations. By the 5th-6th centuries AD, voyages to India and the
Arab countries were routine. In the 15th century the Ming Dynasty
fleets under Admiral Zheng He reached as far as East Africa.
However, China has always been inward-looking. China is the
"middle kingdom". The Emperor did not receive ambassadors,
only tribute bearers. Around 1425, China turned inward with
a vengeance. Records of the great trading voyages were destroyed
and the ships allowed to rot.
When Western traders arrived in the 16th century, China was
initially hostile to them. The first Western base was Portugal's
colony Macau, near Canton.
