ABSTRACT
For centuries China was one of the leading lights of civilization. The country prospered in art, culture and economy to unprecedented heights. In the turn of the nineteenth century it began to change. Natural calamities, civil unrest and foreign occupation crippled the country. In the post-Second World War, the Communist uprising and eventual control brought the economic development to standstill. Since 1979 the country has been pursuing open-door policy in economic development. Significant achievements have been made up as China now has the second largest GDP in the world. According to CIA The World Factbook (2001) China is the most populous country
in the world, its population based on the 2001 census was 1,273,111,290. The proportion of males was slightly higher than that of females (1.06 males per female). In the past decades, China’s population was increasing in a phenomenal rate, though the growth rate had been reduced to 0.88 per cent (2001 est.). China is an ethnically diverse country. The majority Chinese belong to the Han ethnic community (91.9 per cent) while there are other ethnic communities such as Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol and Buyi; Korean constituting the remaining 8.1 per cent of the population. The country is officially atheist, but scattered Daoist (Taoist), Buddhist, Muslim (2-3 per cent) and Christian (1 per cent) religious practices can be found in China. The standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect) is the
official language in China with other recognized dialects such as Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan and Hakka. Over 80 per cent of China’s population is literate.
