China

China, like India, was cut off from the rest of the world by mountains and deserts. But from China's point of view the rest of the world did not matter. They developed their own philosophy, Confucianism, and built a wall to try to keep the nomads out. The Ching (Ch'ing) Dynasty developed a powerful government system run by the Man people, who gave stability to the country, but were very conservative and resisted any new ideas which did not give them any obvious benefit. Therefore, although some valuable ideas were developed, China deliberately took little part in world history.

The dominant race of China is the Han people, but China includes over 50 minority groups.

China is a major site of Homo Erectus fossils. Peking Man used caves near Beijing 460,000 to 230,000 years ago. The reduction of the size of their teeth suggests that the people of South China were the first human beings to eat cooked food, perhaps 12,000 years ago. The transition to farming occurred about 9000 years ago, somewhat later than in the Middle East. Rice, millet, soybean, yam, taro and pigs were the early farmers' main diet.