Ancient Times and Slave Society (1.7 million years ago - 476 BC)

China is one of the earliest countries in the world with advanced civilization, which has a history of nearly 4,000 years of written records.

Fossils of apeman found in Yuanmou, Yunnan Province indicate that the Yuanmou Man, which lived about 1.7 million years ago, was the earliest known primitive human in China. The Peking Man, who lived nearly 600,000 years ago in the area of Zhoukoudian in Beijing, can walk upright, make and use simple tools and know how to use fire as well. Numerous sites of the Neolithic Age around 10,000 years ago have been throughout China. Artificially cultivated rice and millet and farming tools were found at the sites of Yuyao Hemudu (67,000 years ago) in Zhejiang Province and Banpo, Xi'an in Shaanxi Province.

The Xia Dynasty began in 2070 BC. The central area of Xia located in the western part of today’s Henan Province and the southern part of Shanxi Province. Xia’s power and influence have reached the north and south of the Yellow River and began to enter the slave society. Following the fall of Xia, Shang and Western Zhou dynasties further developed the slavery system. This was followed by the decline of the royal power, and the Spring and Autumn and Warring States, which was considered to be a transition period from slave society to feudal society.

About 5,000 years ago, Chinese people had mastered the technology of copper smelting. About 3,000 years ago, people of the Shang Dynasty began to use ironware. They began to make white pottery and color pottery. Silk production was also developed, including the world's first jacquard weave technique. In the Spring and Autumn period, steel-making technology has been utilized. During the period, the ideological academic became more active than ever before. Famous philosophers such as Laozi, Confucius, Mencius and militarist Sun Wu have emerged, who have had a profound influence on future generations.

First Emperor of Qin (259 BC-210 BC) and His Empire

In 221 BC, Yingzheng, the First Emperor of Qin, ended more than 250 years of conflicts between kingdoms of the Warring States period by establishing the first unified, centralized multi-ethnic feudal state in Chinese history – Qin Dynasty. Emperor Qin Shihuang unified languages, measures and the currency. He established the system of prefecture and counties. The framework of the feudal system laid by him lasted for more than 2,000 years. For more than a decade, he organized more than 300,000 people to build a 5,000-kilometer-long Great Wall in northern China. He also organized to build large-scale graves when he was alive. The Terracotta Warriors, discovered in 1974, which were used to guard the Emperor Qinshihuang Mausoleum, shocked the world. There are 8,000 life-size pottery, terracotta warriors and chariots, which is known as "the 8th Wonder of the World."

Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) and the Silk Road

In 206 BC, Liu Bang established the powerful Han Dynasty. The agriculture, handicrafts and commerce of the Han Dynasty had developed greatly, with a population of 50 million. The reign of Emperor Wu of Han Liu Che (140 BC - 87 BC) was the most powerful period of the Han Dynasty. He expanded the regions of actual control from the central plains to the Western Region (today’s Xinjiang and Central Asia areas). He twice dispatched his courtier Zhang Qian to the Western Regions, opening the so-called Silk Road that connects Chang'an (present-day Shaanxi’s Xi'an) with the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea by way of Xinjiang and Central Asia. Since then, China's brilliant silk fabric products had been transported to the West. With the exchange of East and West, Buddhism was introduced into China in the 1st century. In the year of 105, Han official Cai Lun summed up the experiences of folk papermaking, invented papermaking, which marks a fundamental progress in human writing materials.

Flourishing Age of Tang Dynasty (618-907)

After Han Dynasty, China witnessed through the Three Kingdoms period, Jin Dynasty, the North and South Dynasties, the Sui Dynasty before Li Yuan established the Tang Dynasty in 618 AD. Li Yuan's son, Emperor Taizong of Tang Li Shimin (626-649 in power), implemented a series of enlightened policies that pushed the prosperity of China's feudal period to its peak. Industries such as agriculture, handicrafts and commerce, textile, dyeing, ceramics, smelting, shipbuilding and other technologies have been further developed. Land and water transportation crisscrossed through the nation. By 660s, China's national influence not only took root in the Tarim Basin, the Quangal Basin and the Ili River Basin, but also extended to many city-states in Central Asia. China has established extensive economic and cultural ties with Japan, Korea, India, Persia, Arabia and many other countries.

Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (960-1911)

It has experienced a period of frequent wars in the Five Dynasties (907-960) and Ten Kingdoms (902-979) after the fall of Tang Dynasty. In 960, Zhao Kuangyin, a general of Later Zhou Dynasty, established the Song Dynasty (960-1279). There were Northern Song Dynasty and Southern Song Dynasty in history. During the Southern Song Dynasty period, the advanced economy and culture of the north were brought to the south with the move of the regime, which greatly promoted the economic development of the southern region. Song Dynasty’s astronomy, science and technology and printing technologies took the lead in the world. Bi Sheng invented the movable type printing, which triggered a revolution in the history of printing.

In 1206, Genghis Khan founded the Mongolian Khanate. His grandson, Kublai, occupied the Central Plains in 1271 and established the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), making Dadu (present-day Beijing) the capital. Kublai terminated centuries of coexistence of multi-regimes and achieved national reunification, which include Xinjiang, Tibet and Yunnan. Paper-making, printing, compass, gunpowder were the "Four Great Inventions" of ancient Chinese science and technology. These inventions were introduced to all parts of the world in the Song and Yuan dynasties, making great contributions to the development of world civilizations.

In 1368, Emperor Taizu of Ming Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) with the capital in Nanjing. His son Zhu Di (1360-1424) began large-scale construction of Beijing, including palaces, city walls and other defense facilities. He moved the capital to Beijing in 1421. From 1405 to 1433, he sent Eunuch Zheng He to lead a large-scale fleet to sail through Southeast Asian countries, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, the Maldives Islands, as far as the east coast of Africa such as Somalia and Kenya. The seven voyages led by Zheng He were the largest and longest sea expeditions in the world before the Columbus era.

In late Ming Dynasty, the Jurchen people of the Northeast China rose rapidly to establish the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in 1644 with the capital in Beijing. In the reign of Emperor Kangxi (ruled in 1661-1722), who is the most famous emperor of the Qing Dynasty, he unified Taiwan and prevented the invasion of Russia. He also strengthened his administration over Tibet and formulated rules and regulations that enable the central government to decide the nomination of local leaders in Tibet. Under his rule, China's territory covered an area of more than 11 million square kilometers.

China’s Dynasties

Modern Times (1840-1919)

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Qing Dynasty declined rapidly. During this period, Britain imported large quantities of opium into China and the Qing government tried to ban opium. In order to protect its opium trade, the British Government launched a war of aggression against China in 1840, forcing the Qing Government to sign the Nanjing Treaty, a treaty of national betrayal and humiliation. After the Opium War, Britain, the United States, France, Russia, Japan and other countries continued to force the Qing Government to sign various unequal treaties. Since then, China has gradually become a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

The Revolution of 1911, under the leadership of Dr Sun Yat-sen, overthrew the more than 200 years of rule by the Qing Dynasty and ended the feudal monarchy that had lasted more than 2,000 years by establishing the Republic of China, which is one of the greatest events in China's modern history.

New-Democratic Revolution (1919-49)

The May 4 Movement is considered to be the source of thoughts for many important events in China’s Modern History. The immediate cause of the movement was the unequal provisions imposed on China after the World War I. Strong patriotism led to a protest that was initiated by students and spread to all levels of the country. It also triggered a variety of new ideas to enter into China, the most striking of which is the spread of Marxism and Leninism in China. In 1921, Mao Zedong and 12 other communist groups from around the nation held the first national congress in Shanghai, which marks the birth of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

In the course of the Chinese people’s New-Democratic Revolution, the CPC experienced four historical stages: the Northern Expedition War (1924-27), the Agrarian Revolutionary War (1927-37), the Chinese People’s War against Japanese Invasion (1937-45) and the National Liberation War (1945-49). The CPC and the Kuomintang cooperated in the fighting against the Japanese invaders and won the victory of the war. In 1945, the Kuomintang launched a civil war, during which the CPC toppled the Kuomintang government in 1949 after a three-year liberation war.

The People’s Republic of China (1949 - )

On October 1, 1949, 300,000 people gathered in Tiananmen Square in Beijing to hold the founding ceremony of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Mao Zedong, chairman of the PRC Central People's Government, solemnly declared: "The People's Republic of China was formally established."

At the beginning of the founding of the PRC, the Chinese government successfully completed land reform in areas where more than 90 percent of the country's total rural population dwelled, and 300 million farmers shared about 47 million hectares of land. The first Five-Year Plan, implemented from 1953 to 1957, was a great achievement. The republic realized an average annual growth rate of more than 8.9 percent in national income and established a number of basic industries for future industrialization, including aircraft and automobile manufacturing, heavy and precision machinery, power generation equipment, metallurgical and mining equipment, as well as advanced alloy steel and non-ferrous metal smelting facilities.

From 1957 to 1966, China carried out large-scale socialist construction. From May 1966 to October 1976, China and Chinese people suffered from worst setbacks and losses since the founding of the PRC during the decade-long Cultural Revolution.

In October 1976, the Cultural Revolution ended. China entered a new historical period. Deng Xiaoping, the former general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, began to pursue the "reform and opening-up" policy since 1979 with the focus on modernization. Through the reform of the economic system and political system, a socialist modernization road with Chinese characteristics has been gradually established. Since the reform and opening-up, China has undergone profound changes with its economy making rapid progress and the people's living standards improving significantly. This is the best period after the founding of the PRC.

The 14th National Congress of the CPC proposed that the goal of China's economic reform is to establish a socialist market economic system. The Chinese government resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1, 1997, and over Macao on December 20, 1999. At the beginning of the 21st century, China basically established a socialist market economy system, and the per capita gross national product has been continuously improving.

In 2011, China overtook Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, only after the United States.

Since 2013, China has made remarkable achievements in economic construction, comprehensive reform and people's lives. The nation also provided China's wisdom and proposals in solving global problems. China is moving forward towards the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way and achieving the Two Centenary Goals.

（信息来源：http://www.gov.cn/guoqing   / 中国网 )