Ming dynastyThe Ming dynasty (mɪŋ), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the short-lived Shun dynasty), numerous rump regimes ruled by remnants of the Ming imperial family—collectively called the Southern Ming—survived until 1662.
BeijingBeijing (beɪˈdʒɪŋ ; ; AUDBeijing pronunciation.oggbei3.jing1), alternatively romanized as Peking (piːˈkɪŋ ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. With over 21 million residents, Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city after Shanghai. It is located in Northern China, and is governed as a municipality under the direct administration of the State Council with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts.
Qing dynastyThe Qing dynasty (tʃɪŋ ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China (1636–1912) and the last imperial dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaking ethnic group who unified other Jurchen tribes to form a new "Manchu" ethnic identity. The dynasty was officially proclaimed in 1636 in Manchuria (modern Northeast China and Russian Manchuria).
Tang dynastyThe Tang dynasty (tɑːŋ, tang2; ), or the Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Historians generally regard the Tang as a high point in Chinese civilization, and a golden age of cosmopolitan culture. Tang territory, acquired through the military campaigns of its early rulers, rivaled that of the Han dynasty.
Song dynastyThe Song dynasty (sʊŋ) was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The Song often came into conflict with the contemporaneous Liao, Western Xia and Jin dynasties in northern China. After retreating to southern China following attacks by the Jin dynasty, the Song was eventually conquered by the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty.
ShanghaiShanghai (ʃæŋˈhaɪ; , zɑ̃̀.hɛ́zh-wuu-2-上海.ogg, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: AUDZh-Shanghai.oggshang4.hai3) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowing through it. The population of the city proper is the third most populous in the world, with 24.89 million inhabitants in 2021, while the urban area is the most populous in China, with 39,300,000 residents.
Hong KongHong Kong (US'hQNkQN or UKhQN'kQN; , hœ́ːŋ.kɔ̌ːŋ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and a special administrative region in China. With 7.4 million residents of various nationalities in a territory, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated territories in the world. Hong Kong was established as a colony of the British Empire after the Qing Empire ceded Hong Kong Island in 1841–1842.
Chinese folk religionChinese folk religion, also known as Chinese popular religion, comprehends a range of traditional religious practices of Han Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. Vivienne Wee described it as "an empty bowl, which can variously be filled with the contents of institutionalised religions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Chinese syncretic religions”. This includes the veneration of shen (spirits) and ancestors, exorcism of demonic forces, and a belief in the rational order of nature, balance in the universe and reality that can be influenced by human beings and their rulers, as well as spirits and deities.
Han ChineseThe Han Chinese or Han people are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They are the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population. Han Chinese people comprise various subgroups speaking distinctive varieties of the Chinese languages. The estimated 1.4 billion Han Chinese people worldwide are primarily concentrated in the People's Republic of China (including Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau), where they make up about 92% of the total population.
MacauMacau or Macao (məˈkaʊ, ; mɐˈkaw; , ōu.mǔːn), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a population of about 680,000 and an area of , it is the most densely populated region in the world. Formerly a Portuguese colony, the territory of Portuguese Macau was first leased to Portugal as a trading post by the Ming dynasty in 1557.
TaiwanTaiwan,tw officially the Republic of China (ROC),tw is a country in East Asia. It is located at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. The territories controlled by the ROC consist of 168 islands with a combined area of . The main island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa, has an area of , with mountain ranges dominating the eastern two-thirds and plains in the western third, where its highly urbanized population is concentrated.
NanjingNanjing (naenˈdʒIN; , Mandarin pronunciation: AUDChinese-Nanjing.oggnan2.jing1), alternatively romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, and a megacity. The city has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400 .
ChinaChina (), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's second-most populous country with a population exceeding 1.4 billion. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, tied with Russia as having the most of any country in the world. With an area of nearly , it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two semi-autonomous special administrative regions.
Chinese calendarThe traditional Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar which identifies years, months, and days according to astronomical phenomena. In China, it is defined by the Chinese national standard GB/T 33661–2017, "Calculation and Promulgation of the Chinese Calendar", issued by the Standardization Administration of China on May 12, 2017. Traditional Chinese calendar also known as these five titles: Nongli Calendar (traditional Chinese: 農曆; simplified Chinese: 农历; pinyin: nónglì; lit.
Deng XiaopingDeng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong's death in 1976, Deng gradually rose to supreme power and led China through a series of far-reaching market-economy reforms earning him the reputation as the "Architect of Modern China".
Köppen climate classificationThe Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notably in 1918 and 1936. Later, German climatologist Rudolf Geiger (1894–1981) introduced some changes to the classification system, which is thus sometimes called the Köppen–Geiger climate classification.
ShenzhenShenzhen (ˌʃɛnˈdʒɛn; ʃɛnˈʒɛn; ; AUDShenzhen pronunciation.oggshen1.zhen4) is a city and special economic zone on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, bordering Hong Kong to the south, Dongguan to the north, and Huizhou to the northeast. With a population of 17.56 million in 2020, Shenzhen is the third most populous city by urban population in China after Shanghai and Beijing.
Chinese languageChinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the world's population) speak a variety of Chinese as their first language. Chinese languages form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be dialects of a single language.
Han dynastyThe Han dynasty (UKˈhæn, USˈhɑːn; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warring interregnum known as the ChuHan contention (206–202 BC), and it was succeeded by the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD). The dynasty was briefly interrupted by the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD) established by usurping regent Wang Mang, and is thus separated into two periods—the Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD) and the Eastern Han (25–220 AD).
TaoismTaoism or Daoism (ˈtaʊɪzm̩ or ˈdaʊɪzəm) refers to a Chinese philosophy, or a set of Chinese traditions and religions that emphasize living in harmony with the Tao (, 'Path'). The Tao is generally defined as the source of everything and the ultimate principle underlying reality. The Tao Te Ching and the Zhuangzi are widely considered key Taoist texts and are distinctly philosophical in nature and theme. Taoism includes various self-cultivation methods, including meditation, internal alchemy, and various rituals.