The Chinese call their country Chung Kuo, which means middle country. This name may have come into being because the ancient Chinese thought of their country as both the geographical center of the world and the only truly cultured civilization. The name China was given to the country by foreigners. It may have come from Ch'in, which was the name of an early Chinese dynasty,or family of rulers.
In early times, the Chinese people were divided into many small states. In 221 B.C. the Qin dynasty established an empire with a strong central government. This empire lasted in some form for more than 2,000 years. Important inventions were developed. Great cities were built. Magnificent works of art and literature werecreated. During the 1800s, the Chinese empire began to weaken. In 1911, revolutionaries overthrew the Manchu dynasty and China become a republic the following year. In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong, set up another government system, the People's Republic of China . Nationalists fled to the island of Taiwan where they reestablished their government. Most Chinese people belong to the Han nationality, which has been the largest in China for centuries. The rest of the population consists of about50 minority groups,including Kazakhs,Mongols,Tibetans,and Uigurs.
By Sharad Chandra Shukla[Edit by="sshukla on Dec 27, 3:34:00 PM"][/Edit]
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