Provide guide rental service only. If you want to “hire” a professional and licensed guide in Chengdu, China Exploration is ready to help. We are local in Chengdu and have done inbound travel servi......
search for a Trip
China history
-
The History of China
Chinese civilization has a unique position in world history through its continuity through over 4,000 years to the present century. The written history of China dates back some 3,300 years.
Traditionally the northern Yellow River area has been recognized as the cradle of the Chinese civilization. However, in the last decades this view has been challenged by recent finds in the Yangtse River area where modern archaeological studies provide evidence of ancient cultures flourishing more than 10 000 years ago.
Chinese history until the twentieth century was meant to provide the ruler with precedents to guide his policies and justify his authority. The accounts focused on dynastic politics and colorful court histories. The historians described a Chinese political pattern of dynasties, one following another in a cycle of ascent, achievement, decay, and rebirth under a new family.
A salient trait has been the capacity of the Chinese to absorb the people of surrounding areas into their own civilization. Over the centuries Confucian scholars proved to be a resource to manage the vast country no ruler could dispose of. Since the wealth of the country was based on farming the nature itself gave very little room for experiments.
Over the ages a recurrent historical theme has been the unceasing struggle of the Chinese against the threat posed by non-Chinese peoples on the margins of their territory in the north, northeast, and northwest. In this the Great Wall can besides it military value be seen as an important tool for unifying those "inside" against those "outside".
From the earliest times The Great Wall could at times of draughts also easily keep out the grassing herds of the nomads from the cultivated river walleyes and the fields on the Chinese lowland.
In the thirteenth century, the Mongols from the northern steppes became the first alien people to conquer all of China. Although basically nomadic they left some imprint on Chinese civilization while heightening Chinese perceptions of threat from the north.
China came under alien rule for the second time in the mid-seventeenth century; the conquerors-the Manchus-came again from the north and northeast.
For thousands of years virtually all the foreigners that Chinese rulers saw came from less developed societies which conditioned the Chinese view of their domain as the center of the universe and derived from this image the traditional (and still used) Chinese name for their country-Zhongguo, the Middle Kingdom.
To understand the problems that occurred in the Chinese contacts with the rapidly industrializing Western countries one have to consider the Chinese focus on farming as the one activity that actually produced something of value, that most business of the state was run by-as well as the Emperors advisors were-Confician scholars with an age old view of the merchant class as the lowest possibly class, and the huge distance between the governmental center in the North of China and the more trade and commercially oriented Southern China.
Since most contacts with the Western powers were run with the Southern Hong merchants as middlemen, the key problem was that no tradition of contacts and understanding between China and the West ever came to be, on the ruling level.
Lacking information and understanding China took it for granted that its relations with Europeans would be conducted according to the tributary system that had evolved over the centuries between the emperor and representatives of the lesser states on China's borders as well as between the emperor and some earlier European visitors.
But by the mid-nineteenth century, humiliated militarily by superior Western weaponry and technology and faced with imminent territorial dismemberment, China began to reassess its position with respect to Western civilization. By 1911 the two-millennia-old dynastic system of imperial government was brought down by its inability to make this adjustment successfully.Related Tours
1 Day Traditional Chengdu Life Tours
1 Day Museum and Cultural Sites Tours in Chengdu
3 Days Three Kingdoms Tour in North Sichuan
18 Days Ancient China Culture Tours
28 Days All China Around Exploration
Fixed Overland tour from Kyrghyzstan to Laos in 2015
2015 China Overland Tour of Self driving From Laos To Mongolia by Own Vehicle
More Attractions
-
The general name of various performing arts( such as cycling, gastriloquism, Pagoda of Bowl...... -
Situated in Songpan County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, ...... -
Spring Festival Solar Term of Pure Brightness Dragon Boat Festival Festival on the Seventh ......
Recommended Tours
8 Days Classic Tour of Jiuzhaig
The classic 8 Days tours of Jiuzhaigou,Leshan and Chengdu, which covered almost all of the top attractions of Sichuan. ......
3 Days Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong
The daily package tours to Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong, please inquire us before your booking because prices may vary every day. Jiuzhaigou National Parks and Huanglong National Parks are most famous tour......
3 Days Chengdu Emeishan and Les
Offering classic 3 days' tour to Chengdu, Leshan and Emeishan. Chengdu is the home of giant Panda, also famous for the Emeishan mountain and Leshan Giant Buddha. ......
3 Days Three Kingdoms Tour in N
Sichuan plain is a paradise for tourist, and a lot of beautiful nature reserves and historical sites are scattered in the cities and mountains around it. Mianyang, Guangyuan and Nanchang prefecture are......
Jiuzhaigou Private Tours depart
Provide private tours to Jiuzhaigou valley for tourist both by flights or overland bus tours, and just tell your need, and we will tailor-made a private package for your tour to Jiuzhaigou and Huanglon......
