China Travel and Tour Information
Get to know China's history, population,
economy and geography before your tour to China 
China, with nearly 5,000 years of recorded
history, is the cradle of one of the world's four oldest
civilizations.
General Information about China regarding your
Travel
In ancient times, our ancestors considered that
our country was the center of the world, and the state established
by the Xia tribe near the Yellow River Basin was called "Zhongguo"
(Middle Kingdom). At that time, this name had three connotations:
One connotation is that China was the center, the surrounding areas
were peripheral and barbarian; the second refers to the present
cities of Xi'an, Luoyang and nearly areas; the third one refers to
the Capital where the king, the son of Heaven, stayed. During the
European Middle Ages, China was known as Cathay thanks to Marco
Polo, the great Italian traveler to China, but it was rarely used in
China at that time.
The traditional names: "Zhongguo" (Middle Kingdom
or Zhonghua Flowery Middle Country) are still in use today. They
actually sprang from the first connotation that China was the
center, and that surrounding areas were peripheral and barbarian.
China has been known by the name of Middle
Kingdom for a long time, even after the 1911 Revolution, which
abolished the feudal Monarchy and gave birth to the Republic of
China. However, the founding of a new Republic did not mark the
completion of the Chinese people's tasks of combating feudalism and
imperialism.
The year 1949 was a year of great significance in
the history of New China. From June 15 to 19,1949, the Preparatory
Committee for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
(CPPCC) held its first meeting in Beijing (then called Beiping)
concerning the founding of the state. Because a name for the country
had not yet been decided upon, it was temporarily called the
People's Democratic Republic of China.
On September 18,1949, while making a report at
the second meeting of the Preparatory Committee, Premier Zhou Enlai
started using the name the People's Republic of China.
From September 21-23, 1949, the first Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference was held in Beijing. In
the meeting on September 22, Dong Biwu discussed the question of
naming the country. He said that they had chosen the name 'the
People's Republic of China' because the political system was a
republic. The word 'People' in the new democracy of today's China
referred to the working class, the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie.
This was the precise definition. Since the word expresses the
concept of a 'democratic dictatorship of the people', repeating the
word 'democratic' is unnecessary.' Thus the first meeting of the
People's Political Consultative Conference officially chose the
People's Republic of China as the country's name. |
