China, officially known as the People's Republic of China, is a vast country in Eastern Asia (about the same size as the USA) with the world's largest population. With coasts on the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, in total it borders 14 nations. 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. Only Russia has more land borders in Asia.

The climate is extremely diverse, from tropical regions in the south to subarctic in the north. Hainan Island (where most of China's tropical resorts are located) is roughly at the same latitude as Jamaica, while Harbin, one of the largest cites in the north, is at roughly the latitude of Montreal. There is also a wide range of terrain to be found in China with many inland mountain ranges, high plateaus, and deserts in center and far west; while plains, deltas, and hills are to be found in the east. On the border between the province of Tibet and the nation of Nepal lies Mount Everest, at 8,850 m, the highest point on earth. The Turpan depression, in northwest China's Xinjiang is the lowest point in the country, at 154 m below sea level. This is also the second lowest point on land in the world after the Dead Sea.

China has one of the world's oldest and continuous civilizations, consisting of states and cultures dating back more than six millennia. It has the world's longest continuously used written language system, and is the source of many major inventions, such as what the British scholar and biochemist Joseph Needham called the "four great inventions of Ancient China": paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing. Historically, China's cultural sphere has extended across East Asia as a whole, with Chinese religion, customs, and writing systems being adopted to varying degrees by neighbors such as Japan, Korea and Vietnam (in its early history). The first evidence of human presence in the region was found at the Zhoukoudian cave and is one of the first known specimens of Homo erectus, now commonly known as the Peking Man, estimated to have lived approximately from 300,000 to 550,000 years ago. Noticeably, it is also known that the Peking Man was able to control and use fire.

China is a colossal land, not only in size but also in the depth of its history and the range of its natural, and even sometimes unnatural, wonders. From the amazing sights that everyone knows - like the Army of Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an or the Great Wall of China - to places that few outsiders will ever visit - Namsto Lake or the Buddhist grottos in Guyuan - China has something for everyone to see and experience. With a varied geography encompassing the highest mountains in the world, amazing deserts, grasslands, dense jungles and rainforests, China can be a difficult country to explore - but it's well worth the effort.

China was ruled by a series of Imperial Dynasties for around four to five thousand years until the Republic was founded in 1912. The Republic fell, on the mainland, to Communist regime in 1949. Since then, China has - somewhat ironically - charged to the fore of the modern world, particularly in the past few decades as it has focussed on growing economically through international trade and commerce. The result is cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, where skyscrapers tower above the horizon, but ancient spiritual practices are still maintained reverently.

The last Chinese Civil War (with major combat ending in 1949) has resulted in two political entities using the name China:

• People's Republic of China (PRC), commonly known as Communist China or simply China, has control over mainland China and the largely self-governing territories of Hong Kong (since 1997) and Macau (since 1999).
• Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as Nationalist China or Taiwan, has control over the islands of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu.

The People's Republic of China claims to have succeeded the Republic of China as the sole legitimate governing authority of all of China, which, from the official viewpoint of the People's Republic of China, includes the island of Taiwan. Due to the One-China policy, states around the world are pressured by Beijing to refuse or to cut off diplomatic relations with the Republic of China. As a result, 23 U.N. member states currently maintain official diplomatic relations with the Republic of China, while the vast majority of U.N. member states maintain official diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.

Between 1949 and 1974, the People's Republic was closed to all but selected foreign visitors. China has become a major and one of the world's most-watched tourist destination, since its opening to the world in the late 1970s. In 1978, China received about 230,000 international foreign tourists. In our days, China is the world's fourth largest country for inbound tourism. The number of overseas tourists was 55 million in 2007. Foreign exchange income was 41.9 billion U.S. dollars, the world's fifth largest in 2007. The number of domestic tourists totaled 1.61 billion, with a total income of 777.1 billion yuan.  According to the WTO, in 2020, China will become the largest tourist country and the fourth largest for overseas travel.