China is administratively divided into 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 centrally administrative municipalities and 2 special administrative regions. Municipalities are directly under the administration of central government. A municipality has the same political, economical and jurisdictional rights as a province. The statistics of areas are from official information issued in mid 1997 (CHINA 1997, Published by New Star Publishers.).
Anhui Province
Area: 139,000 square kilometers
Population: 60.70 millions
Capital: Hefei
Major Cities: Huangshan; Bengbu; Tongling; Ma'anshan
Beijing
Area: 16,800 square kilometers
Population: 12.59 millions
Chongqing (Municipality) (Newly Promoted as Municipality in 1997)
Area: 82,000 square kilometers
Population: 30.02 millions
Fujian Province
Area: 120,000 square kilometers
Population: 32.61 millions
Capital: Fuzhou
Major Cities: Xiamen; Zhangzhou
Gansu Province
Area: 450,000 square kilometers
Population: 24.67 millions
Capital: Lanzhou
Major Cities: Dunhuang; Jiayuguan; Jiayuguan
Guangdong Province
Area: 186,000 square kilometers
Population: 69.61 millions
Capital: Guangzhou
Major Cities: Chaozhou; Dongguan; Shantou; Shenzhen; Shunde; Zhuhai;
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
Area: 236,300 square kilometers
Population: 45.89 millions
Capital: Nanning
Major Cities: Beihai; Guilin; Liuzhou
Guizhou Province
Area: 170,000 square kilometers
Population: 35.55 millions
Capital: Guiyang
Major Cities: Anshun; Zunyi
Hainan Province
Area: 34,000 square kilometers
Population: 7.34 millions
Capital: Haikou
Major Cities: Sanya
Hebei Province
Area: 190,000 square kilometers
Population: 64.84 millions
Capital: Shijiazhuang
Major Cities: Cangzhou; Chengde; Qinhuangdao(Including Beidaihe and Shanhaiguan);
Tangshan; Baoding; Zhangjiakou
Heilongjiang Province
Area: 469,000 square kilometers
Population: 37.28 millions
Capital: Harbin
Major Cities: Hailaer; Mohe; Mudanjiang; Qiqihar; Suifenhe
Henan Province
Area: 167,000 square kilometers
Population: 91.72 millions
Capital: Zhengzhou
Major Cities: Anyang; Kaifeng; Luoyang; Sanmenxia
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)
Area: 1,092 square kilometers
Population: 6.31 millions
Hubei Province
Area: 187,400 square kilometers
Population: 58.25 millions
Capital: Wuhan
Major Cities: Huangshi; Shiyan; Shashi; Xiangfan; Yichang;
Hunan Province
Area: 210,000 square kilometers
Population: 64.28 millions
Capital: Changsha
Major Cities: Changde; Dayong; Hengyang; Xiangtan; Zhangjiajie
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Area: 1,183,000 square kilometers
Population: 23.07 millions
Capital: Hohhot
Major Cities: Baotou; Chifeng; Wuhai
Jiangsu Province
Area: 102,600 square kilometers
Population: 71.10 millions
Capital: Nanjing
Major Cities: Lianyungang; Xuzhou; Suzhou; Wuxi; Zhenjiang
Jiangxi Province
Area: 166,600 square kilometers
Population: 41.05 millions
Capital: Nanchang
Major Cities: Jiujiang; Lushan; Jian, Jinggangshan
Jilin Province
Area: 187,000 square kilometers
Population: 26.10 millions
Capital: Changchun
Major Cities: Jilin; Tuman; Yanji
Liaoning Province
Area: 145,700 square kilometers
Population: 41.16 millions
Capital: Shenyang
Major Cities: Dalian; Dandong; Anshan, Wafangdian
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region
Area: 66,400 square kilometers
Population: 5.21 millions
Capital: Yinchuan
Major Cities: Shizuishan
Qinghai Province
Area: 720,000 square kilometers
Population: 4.88 millions
Capital: Xining
Shaanxi Province
Area: 205,000 square kilometers
Population: 35.43 millions
Capital: Xi'an
Major Cities: Xianyang; Baoji; Hanzhong;
Shandong Province
Area: 153,000 square kilometers
Population: 87.38 millions
Capital: Jinan
Major Cities: Dezhou; Linyi; Qingdao;Qufu; Tai'an; Yantai
Shanghai (Municipality)
Area: 6,200 square kilometers
Population: 14.19 millions
Shanxi Province
Area: 156,000 square kilometers
Population: 31.09 millions
Capital: Taiyuan
Major Cities: Datong; Linfen; Yangquan
Sichuan Province
Area: 488,000 square kilometers
Population: 84.28 millions
Capital: Chengdu
Major Cities: Emeishan; Zigong; Daxianshi
Taiwan Province
Area: 36,000 square kilometers
Population: 21.30 millions
Major Cities: Taipei; Gaoxiong; Tainan; Xinzhu
Tianjin (Municipality)
Area: 11,300 square kilometers
Population: 9.48 millions
Tibet Autonomous Region
Area: 1,220,000 square kilometers
Population: 2.44 millions
Capital: Lhasa
Major Cities: Xigaze
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
Area: 1,600,000 square kilometers
Population: 16.89 millions
Capital: Urumqi
Major Cities: Kashgar; Turfan
Yunnan Province
Area: 394,000 square kilometers
Population: 40.42 millions
Capital: Kunming
Major Cities: Dali; Simao; Xishuangbanna
Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR)
Area: 23.8 square kilometers
Population: 435,000
Zhejiang Province
Area: 101,800 square kilometers
Population: 43.43 millions
Capital: Hangzhou
Major Cities: Jiaxing; Ningbo; Shaoxing; Wenzhou;
There are 56 ethnic groups in China. The Han people form the largest, numbering 1.1 billion and making up 93.3 percent of the country's population. The other ethnic groups, that is the minority nationalities, total 160 million, only 6.7 percent of the Chinese nation.
Of the minority nationalities, 15 have over a million people each; 13 over 100,000 each; 7 over 50,000 each; and 20 have fewer than 50,000 people each.
The Han people live all over the country but their compact communities are in the Huanghe, Changjiang and Zhujiang valleys and the Songhua-Liaohe Plain of the northeast. The minority nationalities inhabit 60 percent of the country's total area, and they live mainly in the border regions.
All nationalities in China are equal, as stipulated by the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, They take part in the administration of state affairs as equals, irrespective of their numbers or the size of areas they inhabit. Every minority nationality is represented in the National People's Congress, which is the highest organ of state power of the People's Republic of China.
National regional autonomy is practiced in areas where the minority nationalities live in compact communities. There are 5 national autonomous and 75 autonomous counties (or banners in Inner Mongolia). Local autonomous governments are established and local affairs are administered by the minorities themselves. All national autonomous regions are inalienable parts of the People's Republic of China.
At present, because of various historical factors the minority nationality areas are less developed than Han areas economically and culturally. Over the last three decades, the Chinese Government has adopted many policies and measures, including the provision of manpower, financial and technical support, to help develop these minority nationality areas. Such help, of course, is a two-way street, for minority nationality areas have also contributed to the economic development of the areas inhabited by the Han people.
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Year Total Population Urban Population Rural Population
1995 1.21121 billion
1996 1.22389 billion 359.5 million 864.39 million
1997 1.23626 billion 369.89 million 866.37 million
1998 1.24810 billion |
Year Birth Rate Death Rate Natural Growth Rate Unit: per thousand
1995 17.12 6.57
1996 16.98 6.56 10.42
1997 16.57 6.51 10.06
1998 16.30 6.50 9.53
The year of 1998 saw19.91 million births, 8.07 million deaths of the population, with a net growth polulation of 11.84 million (compared with 12.37 million in 1997).
China population is distributed unevenly with more in the east (more than 300 persons per square kilometer) and fewer in the west (about 40 persons per square kilometer. The national average density of population is 119 per square kilometer (1990 census). For basic urban population data, please visit "ChinaToday.com" Provinces and Cities page. The average size of household was 3.7 persons. The proportion of population aged at 0-14 was 26.4 percent, those aged 15-64 was 67.2 percent, and that of the people aged 65 and over was 6.4 percent. The Average Chinese Life-Span of the population was 70.8 years, that for male was 68.71, and female, 73.04.
(Some of the above data are based on the report from China National Statistics Bureau, FOR YOUR REFERENCE ONLY).
China is a multi-religious country. Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism, with the first three being more wide spread.Various religions exert different influence on different ethnic groups.
Islam is followed by the Hui, Uygur, Kazak, Kirgiz, Tatar, Dongxiang, Salar and Bonan nationalities;
Buddhism and Lamaism are followed by the Tibetan, Mongolian, Dai and Yugur nationalities;
Christianity is followed by the Miao, Yao and Yi nationalities;
Shamanism is followed by the Oroqen, Ewenki and Daur nationalities;
the majority Han nationality believes in Buddhism, Christianity and Taoism. |
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New China has witnessed in the past 50 years a tortuous development of its literature and art. The first Congress of Literary and Art workers held in 1949 set into motion what was known as "socialist art cause". In 1956, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party put forward the principle of "let one hundred flowers bloom and one hundred schools of though contend", a policy that promoted the development of arts. Things were in good shape up to 1966, when the "cultural revolution" broke out, with the exception of the excessive Anti-Rightist Movement of the late 1950's, which implicated a big number of writers and artists. During the 10-year "cultural revolution", many excellent works were labeled as "poisonous weeds", and writers and artists were persecuted, leaving China's garden of literature and art barren. |
Since 1978, China has seen a revival of artistic creation. Great progress has been made in the following areas:
1. The country's art performance troupes have been revamped as part of the effort to reshape China's cultural establishment.
This effort has achieved major breakthroughs over the last 20 years of reform and opening up. Since 1992, the Ministry of Culture, the country's chief regulator of cultural affairs, has responded to the Party's call to deepen structural reforms of cultural institutions by focusing first on performance groups directly under the central government. Measures taken include redefining the relationship between the State and the troupes by introducing performance-related subsidies, and redefining the relationship between the performance groups and performers by linking employment with performance. Thanks to the effective reforms, the number of performance groups directly under the central government has been reduced from 13 to 10, but annual performances by those troupes increased from nearly 400 of the pre-reform period to 1,928 in 1997. Financially, these troupes put an end to loss-making and posted a profit of 7.43 million yuan in 1997. This experience served as a model to be applied nationwide for reforming art troupes of various sizes.
Art education and culture-related science and technology have also undergone readjustments, and pilot programs have been undertaken in promoting rural cultural reforms and reorganizing popular cultural institutions.
2. Artistic creation has flourished.
To promote art development, the government has since 1987 held five Chinese art festivals featuring time-honored stage performances. These festivals have been hugely successful thanks to the participation of professional artists and the public at large. In 1991 the Ministry of Culture launched the Wenhua Award -- the highest award for professional artists given by the government. Recipients of that award include Grandpa Shangang, Remote Town, Barren land and The Geologist.
In stage productions, the government protects and supports classical art such as orchestral music, opera and music plays, and traditional Chinese arts such as Peking Opera. The most popular shows include the New Year's Peking Opera Night and the Chinese New Year Party organized by the Ministry of Culture. In 1997 alone, 417,000 shows were staged attracting a audience of 464 million.
3. A cultural market is fast emerging.
The reform program has given rise to a booming cultural market. That market encompasses performances, books, newspapers and magazines, fine arts, films, audio and video products, entertainment, historical relics, Sino-foreign cultural exchanges and art training. Meanwhile, problems have arisen along with the booming market. In 1993, a national working conference was held on regulating the burgeoning cultural market. At that meeting, the principle of "attaching equal importance to cultural prosperity and market regulation" was set forth. A series of related policies and regulations have been formulated and promulgated since. The promulgation of the Regulations on Commercial Performance Administration in 1997, in particular, represented a major milestone in cultural market legislation. Over the past years, a planned and step-by-step effort to tackle problems in the cultural market has been made and the result has been good. The macro-control measures taken to regulate the performance market, in particular, have created a positive market environment for the growth of traditional Chinese arts and classical Western arts. The rearrangement of the audio and video market has resulted in an obvious increase in the market share of authentic products. Since January 1997, a program-supply system has been introduced to ensure that video projection rooms all over the country play only authentic films, thereby ensuring the healthy development of the market.
Statistics show that by 1997 there were 257,378 business entities nationwide affiliated with cultural institutions, employing 1,160,385. That market represents not only a place for entertainment but also a source of employment and tax revenue. The cultural industry, as part of the service industry, is playing an increasingly important role.
4. Impressive progress has been made in the development of ethnic minority cultures.
To support the cultural development of ethnic minorities, the Ministry of Culture has mapped out a series of preferential policies for building cultural facilities in minority-inhabited areas, training ethnic artists, conducting cultural exchanges with foreign countries, and preserving cultural relics. With the assistance of the government, all the ethnic groups in China have formed their own art troupes. By 1997 those troupes numbered 526, including 59 singing and dancing troupes. In addition, there were 596 libraries, 658 cultural centers and 134 museums. The Ministry of Culture allocates more than 10 million yuan to minority-inhabited areas for building cultural facilities. To encourage artistic excellence, the government set up a Peacock Prize for ethnic artists, so far 166 have won the prize.
Also, 24 institutions of higher learning and secondary schools nationwide are designated to train minority artists. To support the cultural development of Tibet, for example, the Ministry of Culture mobilized 14 provinces and municipalities to aid Tibet's cultural development. The first 15 projects alone involved nearly 50 billion yuan of aid.
5. Art education has been strengthened.
Currently, the country now has 30 institutions of higher learning devoted to art education, with a combined enrollment of 6,673 students and a staff of 21,284. In addition, 137 secondary schools employ 13,959 staff members with an enrollment of 68,594. These schools have produced such great Chinese artists as singers Guan Mucun and Dong Wenhua, as well as comedians Shi Fukuan and Jiang Kun.
6. The cultural infrastructure has been consolidated.
The reform and opening up program has given rise to the emergence of a host of hallmark cultural facilities in various localities. These include the National Library of China (the largest in Asia; dedicated in October 1987); the museums of Shaanxi, Shanghai, Henan and Tibet; the libraries of Shanghai, Jiangxi, Fujian and Inner Mongolia; the Changan Grand Theater of Beijing and Tianhe Book Trading Center of Guangzhou. In 1997 alone, 1,043 cultural infrastructure projects were under construction, involving a construction area of 4.5 million square meters. By the end of that year, 361 projects had been completed, with a construction area of 934,000 square meters and a total investment of 2.84 billion yuan. The Ministry of Culture alone undertook more than 30 projects, most involving over 10 million yuan each. Eight projects involved more than 100 million yuan each. The construction of a National Opera House is under way, and a number of provinces and cities have built their own opera houses and concert halls. |
