China

With almost 1.4 billion inhabitants China is the world's most populous country and the second largest by size.

Its topography is very diverse with deserts, tropical forests, towering mountains and long rivers like the Yangtze.

Homo Erectus fossils were found in the Zhoukoudian Caves near Beijing and sturdy Denisovans left a jaw bone and DNA in the Tibetan high altitude Baishiya Caves.

First modern humans arrived here 100.000 years ago.

Much later the Jiahu people cultivated rice and developed the world's first writing.

From 3000 BC onwards dynasties came and went, from the Yellow till the end of Qing in 1912.

In 221 BC First Emperor Qin Shi Huang united China for the first time in history.

In 1912 Sun Yat-sen established the Republic of China but soon the country fell in disarray and a Civil War started, shortly interrupted by the Japanese invasion during WWII.

The People's Republic of China was created in 1949 after the communists defeated the Kuomintang who hastily retreated to Taiwan.

Mao Zedong launched the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, killing millions in the process.

Deng Xiaoping introduced economic reforms in 1976 and initiated a real great leap forward.

Xi JinPing is turning the country into a totalitarian state that has set its eye at conquering Taiwan.

China is the world's second largest economy, well on its way to overtake the USA in a few of decades.