PRC flag before a rapidly modernizing Shanghai.

ROC flag before a busy commercial street in Taipei.

Neolithic Yangshao culture ewer, 2100 BCE.

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China (Traditional Chinese: 中國; Simplified Chinese: 中国; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōngguó (help·info); Tongyong Pinyin: Jhongguó) is a cultural region and ancient civilization in East Asia. China refers to one of the world's oldest civilizations, comprised of states and cultures dating back more than six millennia. The stalemate of the last Chinese Civil War following World War II has resulted in two separate states using the name \"China\": the People's Republic of China (PRC), administering mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau; and the Republic of China (ROC), administering Taiwan and its surrounding islands.

China has the world's longest continuously used written language system. For centuries, China was the world's most advanced civilization, and the cultural center of East Asia, with an impact lasting to the present day. China is also the source of many of the world's great inventions, including the four great inventions of ancient China: Paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing.

Name

China is called Zhongguo (also Romanized as Chung-kuo or Jhongguo) in Mandarin Chinese. The first character zhōng (中) means \"middle\" or \"central,\" while guó (国 or 國) means \"country\" or \"kingdom\". The term can be literally translated into English as \"Middle Kingdom\" or \"Central Kingdom.\"

English and many other languages use various forms of the name \"China\" and the prefix \"Sino-\" or \"Sin-\". These forms are thought to be probably derived from the name of the Qin Dynasty that first unified the country (221-206 BCE). The Qin Dynasty unified the written language in China and gave the supreme ruler of China the title of \"Emperor\" instead of \"King,\" thus the subsequent Silk Road traders might have identified themselves by that name.

History

China was one of the earliest centres of human civilisation. Chinese civilisation was also one of the few to invent writing independently, the others being ancient Mesopotamia (Sumerians), Ancient India (Indus Valley Civilization), the Mayan Civilization, and Ancient Egypt. The Chinese script is still used today by the Chinese and Japanese, and to a lesser extent by Koreans and Vietnamese. This script is one of the few logographic scripts still used in the world, and the only major one.