China is situated in eastern Asia, bounded by the Pacific in the east. The third largest country in the world, next to Canada and Russia, it has an area of 9.6 million square kilometers, or one-fifteenth of the world’s landmass. The Chinese border stretches over 22,000 kilometers on land and its coastline extends well over 18,000 kilometers, washed by the waters of the Bohai Sea, the Huanghai, the East China and the South China Seas. The Bohai Sea is China’s only inland sea. There are 6,536 islands larger than 500 square meters, the largest being Taiwan, with a total area of about 36,000 square kilometers, and the second, Hainan. The South China Sea Islands are the southernmost island group of China.
History
China, one of the four oldest civilizations in the world, has a written history of 4,000 years and boasts rich cultural relics and historical sites. It is the inventor of compass, paper, gunpowder and printing. The Great Wall, the Grand Canal and the Karez irrigation systems are three great ancient engineering projects built 2,000 years ago. Now they are the symbols of the rich culture heritage of the Chinese nation. China has gone over a long history of primitive society, slavery society, feudal society and semi-feudal semi-colonial society and the present socialist society.
Education
University in Shanghai
Shanghai is the buzzing epicenter of the new, young China. The sharpest minds in business, economics and finance are now coming from, and studying in, the largest city in China. While Beijing represents to many the old ways of old China, studying abroad at a university in Shanghai can put you smack in center of one of the great study aboad communities in the world.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
One of the best research universities in Asia or the world, Shanghai Jiao Tong University has been teach Chinese and foreign students for over 120 years. Despite being one of the most prestigious and revered universities in China, one in every ten undergraduates in an international student.
Shanghai Jiao Tong is especially recommended for science students, because SJTU releases its annual ranking of World Universities based on their empirical research faculties and abilities. Chinese history and Mandarin are also very strong, as SJTU has been the standard bearer of higher education in Shanghai for over a century.Fudan University
Another of the most prestigious traditional universities in all of China, Fudan Universityhas been accepting international students since the 1950s – one of the first in China to do so. Today, Fudan University enrolls the second-most international student in the country, and offers one of the best intensive Mandarin programs in the city.
Fudan also has several campuses around the city which makes finding classes near your residence easier. At last ranking, Fudan was named in the top 100 universities worldwide and in the top five in China, so if you want to sharpen up your Mandarin at a world-class university, Fudan might be the place for you.
University in Beijing
Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University is the best of the best of Chinese universities. Alma mater of Nobel laureates and China’s last two presidents, Tsinghua has the second-ranked MBA program in the whole world. Those looking to pad their resume in business or in business Mandarin should check out what Tsinghua – and the Tsinghua name – can do for them.
Peking University
Peking University in Beijing is the oldest national university in China, and home to over two thousand international students. Peking University has established partnerships with Cornell University, Stanford University, and Yale University, with faculty from the latter even teaching some classes in Beijing. Peking University offers some of the most progressive thought fostered anywhere in academic China, so sociology and government students have a unique chance to peek inside the mind of modern Beijing, from a more open-minded viewpoint.
