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China: Land Of Contrasts
Published: 18.2.2012
Huge China is a country of contrasts. It consists of several climatic zones, there you can find a noisy city full of glass skyscrapers and smog, but also the traditional mountain village with mud houses and rice plantations.
With the help of fabled Silk Road to Europe has always been filtered through only a few from the Chinese Confucian wisdom and still stay in China when you feel like a different planet. Peoples Republic of China, the world's most populous nation, exists in its present form since 1949, when the government took over the Communist Party of China. Two years later, China annexed Tibet.
Today, China is adjacent to 14 countries and its area of 9,600,000 km² is the third largest country in the world. So here you can experience almost all types of weather. Extreme icy Himalayan mountain landscape, which is coming from the world's tallest mountain Mount Everest, the Tibetan plateau turns, a bit farther north year by year spreading deserts and in southern China for a change, you can bathe in the sea and enjoy beautiful white beaches. Thanks to the massive economic development the Chinese landscape begins to solve serious environmental problems.
Many Chinese specifics stems from the fact, that in China there are more than 50 Chinese ethnic groups and there live 1, 3 billion people. Indeed, today land of China was inhabited two million years ago, the first unified state and with it the authority of the emperor was then in 221 BC, China has rapidly become a major power and around the 12th century was one of the most advanced civilizations ever. China gave to the world gunpowder, paper, porcelain, compass or silk that ancient Chinese can handle the have 4500 years already.
The old Chinese empire has long been the world for itself and the time ran quite differently. Today is no different - not only that China uses its own calendar with animal motifs, plus there is also valid time for whole country, so in all time zones in China is midnight at the same time. This results as the fact that somewhere the sun comes up at noon. But if you follow the traditional Chinese religions - Confucianism, then you can´t be surprised by a similar thing.
Author: Viola Kratochvílová, partner of travel agency Eso Travel. Enjoy holiday in China.
Photo: ESO travel
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