The Qin was followed by the more stable Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), which established a model for nearly two millennia in which the Chinese empire was one of the world's foremost economic powers. In the third century BCE, Qin Shi Huang founded the first Chinese empire, the short-lived Qin dynasty. Chinese writing, Chinese classic literature, and the Hundred Schools of Thought emerged during this period and influenced China and its neighbors for centuries to come. The semi-legendary Xia dynasty in the 21st century BCE and the well-attested Shang and Zhou dynasties developed a bureaucratic political system to serve hereditary monarchies, or dynasties.

Modern Chinese trace their origins to a cradle of civilization in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and largest financial center is Shanghai. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two special administrative regions ( Hong Kong and Macau). With an area of approximately 9.6 million square kilometres (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the world's third largest country by total land area. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China ( Chinese: 中国 pinyin: Zhōngguó), officially the People's Republic of China ( PRC), is a country in East Asia.

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