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China (Simplified Chinese: 中国, Traditional Chinese: 中國, Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōngguó (help·info); Tongyong Pinyin: Zhongguó; Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Jonggwo) is a geographical region in East Asia. With just over one-fifth of the world's population, the majority of China exists today as a state known as the People's Republic of China, but it also refers to a long-standing civilization comprising successive states and cultures dating back to the legendary Xia Dynasty (2070 BC–1600 BC).
China has the world's second longest periods of mostly uninterrupted civilization (the longest being the Australian Aborigines) and one of the world's longest continuously used written language systems. The history of China has been largely characterized by repeated divisions and reunifications amid alternating periods of peace and war, and violent imperial dynastic change. The country's territorial extent expanded outwards from a core area in the North China Plain, and varied according to its changing fortunes to include multiple regions of East, Northeast, and Central Asia. (The term "China proper" is used by some historians to describe the territory historically dominated by the majority Han Chinese, as opposed to lands associated later with China). For centuries, Imperial China was also one of the world's most technologically advanced civilizations, and East Asia's dominant cultural influence, with an impact lasting to the present day.
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Portal:People's Republic of China or 
Portal:Republic of China.
