China:

This article is about Chinese civilization. For the modern political state comprising Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, see People's Republic of China. For the modern political state comprising Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu, see Republic of China. For other uses, see China (disambiguation).

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China
Traditional Chinese:	中國
Simplified Chinese:	中国
[show]Transliterations Kejia (Hakka) - Romanization: Chûng-koet Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōngguó - Tongyong Pinyin: Jhongguó - Wade-Giles: Chung¹-kuo² Listen (help·info) Min - Hokkien POJ: Tiong-kok Yue (Cantonese) - Jyutping: zung¹ gwok³

China (traditional Chinese: 中國; simplified Chinese: 中国; Tongyong Pinyin: Jhongguó; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōngguó (help·info); Wade-Giles (Mandarin): Chung¹kuo²) is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia.

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

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

China has one of the world's oldest civilizations and has the oldest continuous civilization.^[1] It has archaeological evidence dating back over 5,000 years.^[2] It also has one of the world's oldest written language systems, and is viewed as the source of many major inventions.^[2] 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. 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 from 300,000 to 550,000 years ago.