China
Name
| Official name | People's Republic of China — Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo (中华人民共和国) |
|---|---|
| Short name | China — Zhongguo (中国), "the central state" |
| Demonym | Chinese |
| Meaning of the name | Zhongguo, the Middle Kingdom, from the Zhou dynasty; "China" from the Qin (221–206 BC) by way of Sanskrit and Persian |
| Motto | None official |
Quick facts
| Capital | Beijing — the capital of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and since 1949; about 22 million |
|---|---|
| Largest cities | Shanghai, about 25 million; Beijing; Chongqing, about 32 million in its municipality; Guangzhou; Shenzhen; Chengdu; Tianjin; Wuhan; Hangzhou; Xi'an |
| Official language | Standard Chinese — Putonghua, Mandarin — written in simplified characters; Cantonese official with English in Hong Kong, with Portuguese in Macau; Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur and Zhuang regional |
| Currency | Renminbi — the yuan, ISO code CNY, ¥; about 7.1 to the U.S. dollar; the Hong Kong dollar and the Macanese pataca in the special administrative regions |
| Time zone | China Standard Time, UTC+8, across the whole country — one zone for five geographical ones |
| Calling code | +86 |
| Internet domains | .cn and .中国 |
| ISO 3166 codes | CN · CHN · 156 |
| Vehicle registration code | CHN |
| Driving side | Right — left in Hong Kong and Macau |
| Electricity | 220 V, 50 Hz; plug types A, C and I |
| Founded | 1 October 1949 — the proclamation of the People's Republic at Tiananmen; the Republic of China 1 January 1912; the Qin unification 221 BC |
| National days | 1 October, National Day, with the Golden Week; the Spring Festival, the lunar new year; 1 May; Qingming; the Dragon Boat and Mid-Autumn festivals |
| Constitution | 4 December 1982 — the fourth; amended 1988, 1993, 1999, 2004 and 11 March 2018, when presidential term limits were removed |
| Population | 1,411,778,724 at the census of 2020; 1.405 billion at the end of 2025 (National Bureau of Statistics) — down 3.39 million in the year, the fourth decline in a row |
| Area | 9,596,960 km² (3,705,407 sq mi) — land 9,326,410 km², water 270,550 km²; the third- or fourth-largest country, by the measure of disputed and water areas |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | The Five-star Red Flag — a red field with a large yellow star and four smaller stars in an arc in the upper hoist: the revolution, and the four classes of the people united under the Communist Party; designed by Zeng Liansong, adopted 27 September 1949 and first raised on 1 October 1949.Flag of China |
|---|---|
| National emblem | Tiananmen under the five stars, ringed by ears of wheat and rice over a cogwheel, in red and gold — adopted 20 September 1950 |
| National anthem | "March of the Volunteers" (义勇军进行曲) — words by Tian Han, music by Nie Er, 1935, for a film; the provisional anthem of 1949, made official in 1982 and written into the Constitution in 2004; the National Anthem Law of 2017 |
| National colors | Red and yellow |
| National animal | None designated — the giant panda, the emblem of the nation abroad, and the dragon of tradition; the red-crowned crane widely cited |
| National flower | None designated — the peony and the plum blossom the rival claimants; a vote of the 1990s never enacted |
| National tree | None designated — the ginkgo widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag, emblem and anthem are fixed by the Constitution and their laws of 1990, 1991 and 2017; the animal, flower and tree are traditional, none designated |
Geography
| Location | East Asia — from the Pacific coast to the Pamirs and from the Amur to the South China Sea; fourteen neighbors by land, the most of any country with Russia |
|---|---|
| Land borders | 22,457 km (13,954 mi) — the longest in the world — with Mongolia 4,630, Russia 4,133, India 3,380, Myanmar 2,129, Kazakhstan 1,765, Nepal 1,389, North Korea 1,352, Vietnam 1,297, Kyrgyzstan 1,063, Pakistan 438, Bhutan 477, Tajikistan 477, Laos 475 and Afghanistan 91 |
| Coastline | 14,500 km (9,010 mi) on the Yellow, East China and South China Seas |
| Highest point | Mount Everest — Qomolangma — 8,849 m (29,032 ft), shared with Nepal |
| Lowest point | The Turpan Depression, Xinjiang — Aydingkol Lake, 154 m (505 ft) below sea level |
| Mean elevation | 1,840 m (6,037 ft) |
| Longest rivers | The Yangtze — Chang Jiang — 6,300 km (3,915 mi), the longest in Asia and third in the world; the Yellow River — Huang He — 5,464 km; the Heilongjiang–Amur, the Pearl, the Mekong and the Brahmaputra rising in Tibet |
| Largest lakes | Qinghai Lake, salt, about 4,500 km², the largest; Poyang, the largest freshwater lake; Dongting; Taihu |
| Terrain | The Tibetan Plateau above 4,000 m; the Himalaya, Karakoram, Tian Shan and Kunlun; the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts; the loess plateau; the North China Plain and the Yangtze basin; the hills of the south |
| Climate | From tropical on Hainan to subarctic in Heilongjiang; monsoon rains in the east; desert in the northwest; the Tibetan cold |
| Natural hazards | Floods of the Yangtze and the Yellow River; typhoons on the coast; earthquakes — Tangshan 1976, Sichuan 2008; drought and dust storms in the north |
| Natural resources | Coal — the largest reserves and production; rare earths — most of the world's; iron ore, tungsten, antimony, aluminum, oil and gas, hydropower; arable land only about 12% |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 55%, most of it pasture; forest about 24%; arable about 12% |
| National parks | Five national parks since 2021 — Sanjiangyuan, the source of three rivers, the largest; the Giant Panda; Wuyishan; Hainan Tropical Rainforest; Northeast Tiger and Leopard |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 60 — the second most in the world — from the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Terracotta Army and Mogao (1987) to the Xixia Imperial Tombs (2025); 41 cultural, 15 natural, 4 mixed |
| Administrative divisions | 23 provinces, counting Taiwan as claimed; 5 autonomous regions — Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Tibet, Xinjiang; 4 municipalities — Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, Tianjin; 2 special administrative regions — Hong Kong (1997) and Macau (1999) |
People
| Population | 1,411,778,724 (census of 2020); 1.405 billion (end of 2025) |
|---|---|
| Population density | About 150 per km² (385 per sq mi) — the east dense, the west empty; 94% live east of the Heihe–Tengchong line |
| Population growth | Negative since 2022 — about −0.24% in 2025 |
| Median age | About 40 years |
| Life expectancy | About 79 years |
| Fertility rate | About 1.0 births per woman — among the lowest in the world; the one-child policy 1980–2015, three children allowed since 2021 |
| Aging | 323 million aged 60 and over — 23% of the population — at the end of 2025 |
| Urban population | About 67% |
| Adult literacy | About 97% |
| Ethnic groups | Han about 91%; 55 recognized minorities about 9% — the Zhuang the largest at about 19 million, then the Uyghur, Hui, Miao, Manchu, Yi, Tujia, Tibetan, Mongol |
| Languages | Mandarin the mother tongue of about 70% and spoken by about 80%; Wu, Yue (Cantonese), Min, Hakka, Xiang, Gan and Jin among the Chinese languages; Tibetan, Uyghur, Mongolian, Zhuang, Korean |
| Religion | Folk religion and Buddhism the largest; Taoism; Islam about 2% — the Hui and Uyghur; Christianity about 2–5%; the state officially atheist, most people unaffiliated |
| Human Development Index | 0.797 (2023 data, 2025 report) — high; 78th of 193 |
| Sport | Table tennis, badminton and diving — the Olympic table; basketball and football; the Olympics of Beijing 2008 and 2022, the first city to host both |
| Diaspora | Some 50 to 60 million overseas Chinese — the largest diaspora in the world — in Southeast Asia, the Americas, Europe and Australia |
Government
| Form of government | A unitary one-party socialist republic under the Communist Party of China — the party leads the state under the Constitution of 1982 |
|---|---|
| Paramount leader | Xi Jinping — General Secretary of the Communist Party since 15 November 2012, Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 15 November 2012, President of the People's Republic since 14 March 2013; in a third term as general secretary since 23 October 2022 and as president since 10 March 2023 |
| Premier | Li Qiang, since 11 March 2023 — head of the State Council, the cabinet; formerly party secretary of Shanghai |
| Chairman of the National People's Congress | Zhao Leji, since 10 March 2023 |
| The Politburo Standing Committee | Seven members since October 2022 — Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Li Xi |
| Legislature | The National People's Congress — 2,977 deputies elected for five years by the provincial congresses, meeting each March; its Standing Committee between sessions; the CPPCC as the advisory body |
| The 15th Five-Year Plan | For 2026–2030 — adopted by the National People's Congress in March 2026: technological self-reliance, consumption, and for the first time a chapter on population |
| The party | The Communist Party of China, founded 1921 — about 100 million members; the 21st National Congress due in 2027 |
| Legal system | Civil law with socialist characteristics; the Supreme People's Court; the Civil Code of 2021 |
| Taiwan | Governed by the Republic of China since 1949 and claimed by the People's Republic as a province; the one-China policy the condition of Beijing's diplomacy |
| Hong Kong and Macau | Special administrative regions under "one country, two systems" — Hong Kong from 1 July 1997, Macau from 20 December 1999; the National Security Law for Hong Kong of 30 June 2020 |
| Armed forces | The People's Liberation Army — about 2 million, the largest in the world; the navy the largest by hull count; the parade of 3 September 2025 marking eighty years since 1945 |
| United Nations | A founding member, 24 October 1945; a permanent member of the Security Council — the seat held by the People's Republic since 25 October 1971 |
| Memberships | The WTO (2001), the G20, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, APEC, RCEP, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; the Belt and Road Initiative since 2013 |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | 140.2 trillion yuan — about US$19.5 trillion (2025) — the second-largest economy in the world after the United States |
|---|---|
| GDP (PPP) | The largest in the world — about US$40 trillion (2025) |
| GDP per capita | About US$13,900 (2025) |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$28,000 (2025) |
| GDP growth | 5.0% in 2025 — the official target of "around 5%"; 4.5% in the fourth quarter, the slowest since 2022 |
| Economy by sector | Services about 57%, industry about 36%, agriculture about 7% |
| Currency | Renminbi (CNY) |
| Trade | The largest exporter in the world — about US$3.6 trillion in 2025 — and a record trade surplus of about US$1.2 trillion; the largest trading partner of more than 120 countries |
| Manufacturing | About 30% of the world's output — electronics, machinery, steel, ships, solar panels, batteries; the largest carmaker and the largest maker of electric vehicles, BYD the largest |
| The United States | A trade dispute since 2018 — tariffs raised on both sides through 2025, with a one-year truce agreed at Busan on 30 October 2025; U.S. controls on advanced chips, Chinese controls on rare earths |
| Property | The real-estate slump since 2021 — the defaults of Evergrande and Country Garden; falling prices and weak consumption; youth unemployment about 16% |
| Income classification | Upper-middle income (World Bank) |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airports | Beijing Capital and Beijing Daxing, opened 2019; Shanghai Pudong; Guangzhou Baiyun; Shenzhen; Chengdu Tianfu |
|---|---|
| Airlines | Air China, the flag carrier; China Southern, the largest; China Eastern; Hainan Airlines |
| Main ports | Shanghai, the busiest container port in the world, above 50 million TEU; Ningbo-Zhoushan, the busiest by tonnage; Shenzhen; Guangzhou; Qingdao; Tianjin; Hong Kong |
| High-speed rail | About 50,000 km (31,000 mi) — the longest network in the world by far, two-thirds of the world's total, built since 2008; the Beijing–Shanghai line in 4½ hours; the Shanghai maglev at 430 km/h |
| Railways | About 165,000 km (102,500 mi) — the second-longest network; the Qinghai–Tibet line to Lhasa, the highest in the world, at 5,072 m at the Tanggula Pass |
| Roads | About 5.5 million km (3.4 million mi); expressways about 190,000 km — the longest network in the world |
| Bridges and dams | The Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge, 164.8 km, the longest bridge on earth; the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, 55 km; the Three Gorges Dam, the largest power station in the world, 22.5 GW |
| Metro | Some 50 cities with metros — Shanghai and Beijing the longest networks in the world, each above 800 km |
| Space | The Tiangong space station; the Chang'e lunar landings, including the first on the far side, 2019, and the far-side samples of 2024; the Tianwen-1 Mars rover; a crewed lunar landing planned before 2030 |
History in dates
| c. 1600 BC | The Shang dynasty — the oracle bones, the first Chinese writing |
|---|---|
| 221 BC | Qin Shi Huang unifies China — the first emperor; the Great Wall begun |
| 206 BC | The Han dynasty — four centuries; the Silk Road opened |
| 618 | The Tang dynasty — the golden age; Chang'an the largest city in the world |
| 960 | The Song dynasty — paper money, printing, the compass |
| 1271 | Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty; Beijing the capital |
| 1368 | The Ming dynasty; the Forbidden City built 1406–1420; Zheng He's voyages |
| 1644 | The Qing dynasty — the Manchus; the empire at its largest under Qianlong |
| 1839–1842 | The First Opium War; Hong Kong ceded to Britain |
| 1911–1912 | The Xinhai Revolution; the Republic of China, 1 January 1912; the last emperor abdicates, 12 February |
| 1937–1945 | The war with Japan — the Nanjing Massacre, December 1937 |
| 1949 | The People's Republic proclaimed, 1 October; the Nationalists withdraw to Taiwan |
| 1958–1962 | The Great Leap Forward and the famine — tens of millions dead |
| 1966–1976 | The Cultural Revolution; Mao dies, 9 September 1976 |
| 1978 | Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening, December |
| 1989 | The Tiananmen Square protests and their suppression, 4 June |
| 1997 · 1999 | Hong Kong returned, 1 July 1997; Macau, 20 December 1999 |
| 2001 | China joins the WTO, 11 December |
| 2008 | The Beijing Olympics, 8 August |
| 2012 | Xi Jinping general secretary, 15 November |
| 2018 | Presidential term limits removed, 11 March |
| 2020 | COVID-19 from Wuhan; the Hong Kong National Security Law, 30 June |
| 2023 | India passes China in population; Xi's third term as president, 10 March |
| 2026 | The 15th Five-Year Plan adopted, March |
Records & firsts
| The longest land border | 22,457 km with fourteen neighbors |
|---|---|
| The longest high-speed railway | About 50,000 km — two-thirds of the world's |
| The largest dam and power station | The Three Gorges, 22.5 GW |
| The longest bridge | Danyang–Kunshan, 164.8 km |
| The highest railway | Qinghai–Tibet, 5,072 m |
| The busiest port | Shanghai, above 50 million containers a year |
| The largest exporter and manufacturer | About 30% of the world's factory output |
| The Great Wall | Some 21,000 km of walls across two millennia |
| The four great inventions | Paper, printing, gunpowder and the compass |
| The Grand Canal | About 1,800 km, begun in the 5th century BC — the longest canal in the world |
| The first landing on the far side of the Moon | Chang'e 4, 3 January 2019 |
| The oldest continuous writing system | Chinese characters, from the oracle bones of the Shang |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of China?
The People's Republic of China — Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo (中华人民共和国) — proclaimed by Mao Zedong at Tiananmen on 1 October 1949. Zhongguo, "the Middle Kingdom" or "the central state," has named the country for some three thousand years; the English "China" comes, through Persian and Sanskrit, from the Qin dynasty that first unified it in 221 BC. The Republic of China of 1912 continues on Taiwan, which the People's Republic claims.
What is the capital of China?
Beijing — "northern capital" — the seat of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties from 1272 and of the People's Republic since 1949, with about 22 million people. Shanghai, the largest city, has about 25 million; Chongqing municipality about 32 million in a territory the size of Austria; Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Tianjin and Wuhan follow.
How big is China, and how many people live there?
About 9,596,960 km² (3,705,407 sq mi) — the third- or fourth-largest country in the world, with the longest land border on earth, 22,457 km with fourteen neighbors. The census of 2020 counted 1,411,778,724 people; the National Bureau of Statistics puts the population at 1.405 billion at the end of 2025, after a fourth year of decline — 7.92 million births against 11.31 million deaths — and India passed China as the most populous country in 2023.
What are the highest and lowest points of China?
Mount Everest — Qomolangma — 8,849 m (29,032 ft), on the Nepalese border, the highest point on earth; and the Turpan Depression in Xinjiang, at Aydingkol Lake, 154 m (505 ft) below sea level — the lowest point in China and among the lowest exposed land in the world. Between them the land steps down from the Tibetan Plateau, the roof of the world, to the plains of the east where most people live.
What currency does China use?
The renminbi — "the people's currency" — whose unit is the yuan (ISO code CNY, ¥, colloquially the kuai), issued by the People's Bank of China since 1948, at about 7.1 to the U.S. dollar. Hong Kong and Macau keep their own dollar and pataca. The whole country keeps one time, China Standard Time, UTC+8, from Kashgar to Shanghai.
Who governs China?
The Communist Party of China, through its General Secretary, Xi Jinping — leader of the party since 15 November 2012, chairman of the Central Military Commission since then, and President of the People's Republic since 14 March 2013, in a third term since 10 March 2023 after the removal of presidential term limits in 2018. Li Qiang has been Premier of the State Council since 11 March 2023. The National People's Congress of some 2,977 deputies meets each March; in March 2026 it adopted the 15th Five-Year Plan for 2026 to 2030. The party's 21st National Congress is due in 2027.
World knowledge, A to Z — the flags of every country, the sciences, places, people and more.
We Value Your Opinion Comments