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China is a country with a great diversity of religious beliefs, mainly Taoism, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam and Christianity. According to incomplete statistics, China boasts over 100,000,000 religious believers, 85,000 religious venues and 3,000 religious groups and 300,000 ecclesiastics.

Taoism

As the only indigenous China religion, Taoist School was initially founded by Laotze in the Spring and Autumn Period, followed by Immortal School in the Warring States Period. During the Qin and the Han dynasties, the Magic and Immortality School and Huang-Lao School, based on Taoist School and Immortal School, were successively set up by absorbing thoughts of Yin-Yang School, Confucian School and Mohism, and it was not until the Eastern Han dynasty that Taoism was officially set up by Zhang Daoling.

Buddhism

Emperor Ming dispatched high-learnt monks to make pilgrimage to India for Buddhist Sutra during Yongping Period of the Eastern Han dynasty, since when the Buddhism was introduced into China.
The people from all walks of life extensively seek for spiritual belief from Buddhism owing to social upheaval during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern dynasties, resulting in the prevalence of Buddhism, which was greatly influenced by metaphysics. Great progress was made in Buddhism owing to the profound tolerance of Confucian culture and Taoism, and it was greatly localized as well as a part of traditional Chinese culture then, which contributed a lot to the integration of Chinese culture (a perfect combination of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism).

Christianity

Nestorianism was introduced into China in the Tang dynasty, followed by Christianity and western scientific technology in the Yuan dynasty, and Christianity was greatly localized to adjust itself to the Chinese Confucian culture. The Roman pope forbade the Chinese Christian believers to offer sacrifice to heaven and their ancestors during the Qing dynasty, as a result, Emperor Yongzheng forbade all the Christian activities in China. The western invaders opened the gate of China with strong military attacks in 1840, followed by numerous missionaries flooding into China, who contributed a lot to the prosperity of Christianity in China later.

Islam

The uncle of Mohammed was sent to China on a diplomatic mission in the Tang dynasty, who founded the first mosque in China – Huaisheng Mosque. The Chinese Muslims controlled export & import business and had a substantial influence on imperial court during the Song dynasty. The descendants of the earlier Muslims integrated into the Han people in terms of language and folk customs in the Ming dynasty, among whom the most famous figure was Zheng He who took the lead to build Hanbali Mosque in Beijing. The main Moslemic groups in China include the Hui ethnic group, Uzbek ethnic group and Uyghur ethnic group.

China Facts – Topography

Covering an area of 9,600,000 square kilometers, China features higher in the west and lower in the east in terms of topography, with mountainous & hilly area taking up 67% and plain & basin area covering 33% of China’s land area respectively, where most mountains extend from northeast-to-southwest and east-west, including Altai Mountains, Tianshan Mountains, Kunlun Mountain, Karakorum Mountains, Himalayas, Yinshan Mountain, Qinling Mountains and Nanling Mountains, Great Khingan, Changbai Mountains, Taihang Mountain, Wuyi Mountain, Taiwan Mountains and Hengduan Mountains.

The highest plateau in the world – Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is titled the roof of the world with an average altitude of over 4,000 meters, forming the first step of the Chinese topography, where the Himalayas boasts the highest mountain in the world with 8,844.43 meters high above the sea level.

The Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Loess Plateau, Sichuan Basin and Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau comprise of the second step of the Chinese topography, where the average altitude ranges from 1,000 to 2,000 meters.

The plain area is mainly distributed along the east of Great Khingan – Taihang Mountains –Wushan Mountains – Wuling Mountains – Xuefeng Mountains – the coastal line, which comprise of the third step of the Chinese topography, with the average altitude ranging from 500 to 1,000 meters, including Northeast China Plain, North China Plain and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Along the continental shelf of the south and east Chinese coastal lines are distributed rich and varied marine resources.

China Facts – Rivers and Lakes

China is rich in rivers and lakes, which are not only an important part of the Chinese geographical environment, but they are also abundant in natural resources, and they are over 1,500 rivers with a drainage area of over 1,000 square kilometers in China, including Heilongjiang River, Songhuajiang River, Nenjiang River and Ussuri River.

Over 24,800 lakes are available throughout China, 2,800 of which have a drainage area of over one square kilometer, and they are unevenly distributed in different parts of China. Generally speaking, most fresh-water lakes are distributed along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, while most salt-water lakes scatter on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

As a result of being defeated during the opium war in 1842, the Qing government was forced to agree and sign the Chinese-English “Nanjing Treaty”, since when Guangzhou became a trading port.

Picturesque Guangzhou

Guangzhou is the cradle of China’s modern revolution. The revolution led by Sun Yat-sen took place in Guangzhou in the autumn of 1911, which fired the first shot against the Qing feudal imperial regime, overthrowing the 270-year-old rule of the Qing dynasty and establishing the Republic of China. The old revolutionaries, He Ziyuan and Qiu Fengjia established a number of new-style schools in Guangzhou by breaking through the shackles of the old conventions, which not only fostered a batch of social elites who had progressive ideas and innovative spirit, but it led to the emergence of Ling Nan Painting School, bringing vigor to prosperity of Lingnan Culture as well as the Chinese culture, and it’s also a highlights of Guangzhou travel now.

Guangzhou

Sun Yat-sen launched the Constitution Protection Movement and established the Republic of China government in Guangzhou on 10 Nov. 1917, who was chosen as Da Yuan Shuai (generalissimo) later with Guangzhou as headquarter then. Guanghzou municipal public place was set up in 1918, followed by the establishment of Guangzhou gild-hall with Sun Ke as the first mayor.

Sun Yat-sen united all forces available and cast out Chen Jiongming, the traitor of revolution, in 1923, and he returned to Guangzhou and rebuilt Da Yuan Shuai Office, who established Republic of China government in Guangzhou, and with Guangzhou gild-hall served as Guangzhou Municipal Government Office in July of 1925.

The Japanese invaders seized Guangzhou on 21st Oct. 1938 and controlled it as long as 7 years, and it was not until 16th Sep. 1945 that Guangzhou was recovered from Japanese army. Guangzhou was among the 8 special cities in Republic of China along with Nanjing, Shanghai, Beiping (present Beijing), Tianjin, Qingdao, Hankou and Chongqing.

Guangzhou Photo

Guangzhou was liberated by the PLA on 14 Oct. 1949, and it still serves as an economic, political, cultural and military center in South China, which has a great influence on the Southeast countries in many aspects as well. In addition, Guangzhou is also known to the world as a tourist city, which is a must-see place during your Guangzhou travel.

With a history of over 2,200 years, Guangzhou has long been an economic, political and cultural center in South China since the Qin dynasty, which seceded administratively from Jiao’zhou under the order of Sun Quan in 226, hence its present name, and it served as capital for three dynasties in the Chinese history.

Guangzhou in Ancient Times

The thirteen-hongs (professional firms dealing with foreign trades) was set up in Guangzhou in Qing dynasty, earning Guangzhou a reputation of “the Thousand-Year Commercial City”. The Shipbuilding Site of Qin Dynasty and the Imperial Palace Site of Nanyue Kingdom have been successively discovered in Guangzhou, of which the latter is considered as among “China’s Top 10 New Discoveries on Archaeology”.

Initially known as Xuancheng in 214 B.C., Guangzhou was called Nanyue and Baiyue during the Shang and the Zhou dynasties respectively, when the locals had a close relation with the people from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and they collaborated to build the Chu Courtyard. Visitors can know this phrase of history by visiting the stone archway inscribed with inscriptions on it on Yuexiu Mountain, which reads “This is the very site of the ancient Chu Courtyard.”

Statues in Guangzhou

After putting down rebellion in Nanyue, Qin Shi Huang established Nanhai Prefecture in present Guangzhou with Panyu as capital in the Qin dynasty, which covered 140,000 square kilometers and stretched to Guangpingshi in the north, Zhangpu of present Fujian in the east and Zhanjiang in the west. Nanhai procurator Zhao Tuo annexed Guilin Prefecture and Xiang Prefecture in 204 B.C. during turmoil in the later times of Qin Empire, establishing Nanyue Kingdom with Panyu as capital; Lv Jia, prime minister (ancient term for secretary of state) of Nanyue Kingdom rebelled against the Han Empire and diademed Zhao De king in 113 B.C., followed by over 100,000 soldiers sent by Emperor Wu attacking Zhao De in the following year.

Ancient Guangzhou

Guangzhou was also known as Nanhai Prefecture in the Jin dynasty and Guangzhou Metropolis in the Tang dynasty, which covered 42,000 square kilometers with Bao’an to the south, Qingyuan to the north and Sihui to the west. Nanhan Kingdom was established by Liu Yan in 917 with Wangfu (present Guangzhou) as capital, and Zhu Lidi established his capital in Guangzhou in 1680. The one-port trade policy was carried by the Qin government in 22nd year (1757) of Emperor Qianlong’s reign, when Guangzhou became the only one trading port in China, resulting in the formation of the Thirteen-hongs.