Flag National Emblem Anthem: "March of the Volunteers" (IÇ›ÛLò)

Capital Beijing 39°552N 116°232Eÿ / ÿ39.917, 116.383 Largest city Shanghai Official languages Chinese (Mandarin)[a] Demonym Chinese Government Single-party state, Socialist republic[b]  -  President Hu Jintao  -  Premier Wen Jiabao  -  Chairman of the Standing Committee Wu Bangguo  -  Chief Grand Justice Wang Shengjun Establishment  -  Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors c. 2852 BC   -  Qin Dynasty c. 221 BC   -  People's Republic declared October 1, 1949  Area  -  Total 9,598,086 km² [d] or 9,640,821 km²[d] (3rd / 4thdisputed) 3,704,427 sq mi   -  Water (%) 2.8[c] Population  -  2007 estimate 1,321,851,888[c] (1st)  -  2000 census 1,242,612,226   -  Density 140/km² (53rd) 363/sq mi GDP (PPP) 2007 estimate  -  Total $7.043 trillion[1] (2nd)  -  Per capita $5,300[2] (99th) GDP (nominal) 2007 estimate  -  Total $3.25 trillion (4th)  -  Per capita $2,800 (105th) Gini (2007) 47.0[3]  HDI (2007) ² 0.777 (medium) (81st) Currency Yuan[c] ([[ISO 4217|CNY [c]]]) Time zone (UTC+8)  -  Summer (DST) not observed (UTC+9) Internet TLD .cn[c] Calling code +86[c] a. ^  General Information of the People's Republic of China, ChinaToday. Retrieved 21 February 2007. In addition to Standard Mandarin, Cantonese is co-official in both Hong Kong and Macau. English is co-official in Hong Kong (SAR); correspondingly, Portuguese in Macau (SAR). Similarly, several minority languages are also co-official with Chinese (Mandarin) in minority areas, viz. Zhuang in Guangxi, Uyghur in Xinjiang, Mongolian in the classical alphabet in Inner Mongolia, Tibetan in Tibet, etc. b. ^  The role of the government, China, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved on 21-02-2007. c. ^  Information for mainland China only. The Special Administrative Regions of the PRC: Hong Kong, Macau are excluded. In addition, the island territories under the control of the Republic of China, which includes the islands of (Taiwan, Kinmen, and Matsu) are also excluded. d. ^  9,598,086 km² Excludes all disputed territories. 9,640,821 km² Includes PRC-administered area (Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract, both territories claimed by India), Taiwan is not included. China Daily website This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters. The People's Republic of China (simplified Chinese: -NºqŒý; traditional Chinese: -ïºqŒ; pinyin: ZhMnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó listen (help·info)), commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people (a fifth of the world's population). It is a single-party socialist republic that has administrative control over twenty-two provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two Special Administrative Regions. Beijing has been its capital since 1949. At 9.6 million km2, the People's Republic of China (PRC) is the world's third or fourth largest country by area[4] and endowed with a diverse landscape. In the north, near China's borders with Mongolia and Russia's Siberia, the Gobi Desert and forest steppes dominate the dry expanse while lush subtropical forests grow along its southern borders with Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. The terrain in the west is rugged and high altitude with the Himalayas and the Tian Shan mountain ranges forming China's natural borders with India and Central Asia. In contrast, China's eastern seaboard is low-lying and has a 14,500-km long coastline bounded on the southeast by the South China Sea and on the east by the East China Sea beyond which lies Korea and Japan. Ancient Chinese civilization - one of the world's earliest - flourished in the fertile basin of the Yellow River that flows through the North China Plain. For the past 4000 years, China had been ruled by hereditary monarchs or dynasties beginning with the Xia until the Qing that finally ended in 1911. The first half of the 20th century saw China plunged into a period of disunity and civil wars that divided the country into two main political camps - the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communist Party of China (CPC). Major hostilities ended in 1949 with the establishment of the People's Republic in mainland China by the victorious Communists while the retreating Nationalists set up the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan. Even today, the PRC is still involved in potentially bloody disputes with the ROC over issues of sovereignty and the political status of Taiwan. Currently the PRC is considered to be a major power,[5][6] holding a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and memberships in APEC, East Asia Summit, and Shanghai Cooperation Organization. China is a nuclear state as well as having the world's largest standing army and fourth largest defense budget. It is a fast-growing economic power[7][8][9][10] having the world's fourth largest GDP in nominal terms or second largest in purchasing power and consuming as much as a third of the world's steel and over a half of its concrete.[11] China is also the world's second largest exporter[12] and the third largest importer.[13] Since the introduction of market-based economic reforms in 1978, the poverty rate in China has gone down from 53% to 8% in 2001.[14] However, China is now faced with a number of other economic problems including a rapidly ageing population, a widening rural-urban income gap, and rapid environmental degradation.[15][16]