China

China: capital Beijing, population 1.4B, area 9,706,961 km². The 2nd most populous country, in Asia. Facts, map, neighbours and more.

China stretches from the Pacific coast to the high plateaus of Central Asia. Its written record reaches back to Shang oracle bones, while successive dynasties linked distant regions through roads, canals and shared systems of measurement. Paper, movable type and enduring tea traditions are among the ideas and practices developed here.

• At Yinxu, oracle-bone inscriptions from around 1250 BCE preserve a mature writing system; scholars have catalogued roughly 150,000 inscribed fragments from the Shang capital.
• After unifying rival states in 221 BCE, Qin Shi Huang standardized writing, weights, measures and even cart axle widths across his new empire.
• Sections of the Grand Canal began in the fifth century BCE, but Sui engineers joined them in the seventh century into a vast transport network.
• Farmers digging a well near Xi'an in 1974 uncovered terracotta fragments, leading archaeologists to nearly 200 pits around Qin Shi Huang's burial complex.

• In 105 CE, court official Cai Lun reported an improved papermaking method using tree bark, hemp waste, old rags and discarded fishing nets.
• Zhang Heng built a seismoscope in 132 CE whose eight dragon heads dropped balls to indicate the direction of a distant earthquake.
• Between 1041 and 1048, artisan Bi Sheng arranged reusable fired-clay characters on an iron plate, creating the earliest documented movable-type printing system.
• Tu Youyou's team isolated artemisinin in 1972 after studying traditional medical texts; the malaria discovery brought her the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

• UNESCO measures the Great Wall's surviving and archaeological components at more than 20,000 kilometres, built from the third century BCE to the seventeenth century.
• Built from 1406 to 1420, Beijing's Forbidden City housed 14 Ming and 10 Qing emperors over 505 years and contains nearly 10,000 rooms.
• The 492 Mogao caves near Dunhuang hold about 45,000 square metres of murals and more than 2,000 painted sculptures, created from 366 onward.
• The 71-metre Leshan Giant Buddha was carved into a Sichuan cliff during the eighth century where the Min, Dadu and Qingyi rivers meet.

• The Diamond Sutra, printed on a five-metre scroll and dated 11 May 868, is the earliest complete printed book carrying an explicit date.
• Peking opera developed after four Anhui troupes reached Beijing in 1790, combining song, stylized speech, acting, combat and symbolic stage movement.
• China's tea-processing traditions, added to UNESCO's heritage list in 2022, encompass six tea categories and more than 2,000 named products.
• Inscribed by UNESCO in 2024, Spring Festival customs centre on family reunion and welcoming the first day of the traditional Chinese calendar.

What is the capital of China?

The capital of China is Beijing.

What is the population of China?

China has about 1.4B people — the 2nd most populous country in the world.

How big is China?

China covers 9,706,961 km², making it the 3rd largest country by area.

Which region is China in?

China is in Eastern Asia, Asia.