The People's Republic of China

Capital:  Beijing

Airports:  Go to the airports page for information about airports in China. 

Currency:  The yuan (= 10 jiao) is the basic monetary unit.  For the current rate of exchange visit the Olson and Anderson web site.

Languages:  Mandarin and other regional dialects.  English is spoken extensively in Hong Kong and in commercial centers in Beijing and Shanghai.

Visit the CIA World Fact Book for a large variety of particulars regarding China.

Travel Advisories:  Travelers should check the web sites listed on our international pages that provide advice of possible security and health risks when visiting this region.

People surfing Chinese-language web sites may find that these sites create a large load on their Internet cache and a slowing of access to other web sites.  This problem can be relieved by cleaning out the Internet cache of their computers frequently.  Without high-speed Internet access, downloading some Chinese web sites can demand patience.

The web site for the Embassy of China in Washington, DC has information about China, politics, commerce, trade and consular affairs.  There is also a collection of related links.

The China Internet Information Center is multi-lingual and offers information on a number of topics, including articles that will be of interest to visitors.

The official web site for the Hong Kong Tourism Board has a wide range of information about Hong Kong and other parts of China. The E-HongKong.com  and the ChinaTrade.com web sites are good sources for travel and commercial information.

China Central Television (CCTV) has a multi-lingual web site that is a good source for current events.

UNESCO has several sites in China on its World Heritage List.

One of the more popular tour routes for modern visitors to China follows the Yangzi (Yangtze) River from Shanghai through Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Chongqing and Sichuan provinces.  Shorter cruises take in a stretch of the river between Wuhan in Hubei Province and Chongqing that includes the Three Gorges Dam.

The Yellow River (Huang He) is another of China's major rivers having played an important role in many historical events.  There are many places of interest in the Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and Shandong provinces through which the river flows on its way to the Yellow Sea.

One of the world's most famous routes in the history of travel is the Silk Road, which still attracts modern adventurers to experience this long and arduous journey.  It began in eastern China in Chang'an, now modern Xi'an and headed west through Gansu province and the Yumen Pass to eventually reach the Mediterranean.  The route split at the Yumen Pass to form northern and southern routes.

The China Heritage Quarterly and the China Heritage Project of the Australian National University are excellent resources for historical information.  These sites have collections of links that provide articles on a variety of topics regarding China's past.

The International Dunhuang Project based at the British Library is an on-line source of information with extensive collections of images of many thousands of manuscripts, paintings, textiles and artifacts from Dunhuang and other Silk Road sites.

Recommended Reading:  Foreign Devils on the Silk Road by Peter Hopkirk ☼ The Cambridge Illustrated History of China by Patricia Ebrey.  A symphony of civilizations by David Gosset.

Guides:  Baedeker - China | Hong Kong; The Blue Guide to China; Let's Go - China; Lonely Planet - Beijing | Cantonese phrasebook | China | Hong Kong | Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou | Mandarin phrasebook | Tibet | Tibet phrasebook; Moon Handbooks - Hong Kong; Rough Guides - Beijing Miniguide | China | Hong Kong and Macau | Mandarin Chinese phrasebook

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