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 China's profound and extensive culture demonstrates its various folds in a number of ways. Wushu, fengshui, Taiji, Qigong, architecture, as well as the traditional Chinese calendar and zodiac, all like prisms, reflect the colors and liveliness of the Chinese civilization in their own ways.
Traditional Chinese culture -- drawing from philosophy, religion, and ethics; art and literature; science and technology; and even ecology and the environment -- embodies the development and wisdom of the Chinese people. It is not only the priceless inheritance of the people of China, but also a great treasure belonging to all humanity.
China's many inventions (especially its Four Great Inventions of paper, printing, the compass, and gunpowder) and wide range of knowledge have had a far-reaching effect on human development.. When Christopher Columbus embarked on his great voyages to the New World, the Chinese compass provided him with vital assistance. Floating pontoon bridges were in use in China before 1100BC, and the world's earliest astronomical treatise, Gan Shi Xing Jing (The Classic of the Stars), was written in China during the Warring States Period.
Traditional Chinese culture is recorded not only in historical books and documents, but also in architectural records, such as ancient city walls, palaces, temples, pagodas, and grottos; artifacts, such as bronze objects, weapons, bronze mirrors, coins, clocks, jade and pottery objects, and curios; and folk culture, including song and dance, embroidery, cuisine, clothing, tea ceremonies, drinking games, lanterns, riddles, martial arts, chess, and kites.
Chinese civilization has its source far in the distant past. With a continuous history of 5,000 years, it has undergone frequent transformations to produce a rich and vital cultural heritage.
 .Overview
China, along with ancient Egypt, Babylon, and India, is known as one of the four great ancient civilizations of the world. The distinctive culture that arose in China was both far-reaching and highly refined.
 .Created in China
China, along with ancient Egypt, Babylon, and India, is known as one of the four great ancient civilizations of the world. The distinctive culture that arose in China was both far-reaching and highly refined......
 .Traditional Chinese Medicine
The basic theory of Chinese medicine attempts to explain the nature of life cycle and disease changes. It includes five theories:Yin and Yang, the five elements, how to direct one's strength, zangfu (internal body organs), and channels. It also researches dialectics, and explains why diseases occur, how to diagnose and prevent diseases, and how to keep the body healthy......
 .Chinese Painting
Ancient Chinese paintingscan be traced back to as early as 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, when people began to use minerals to draw simple pictures resembling animals, plants, and even human beings on rocks and produce drawings of amazing designs and decorations on the surface of potteries and later bronze containers. However, only a few of the works have survived over time. The earliest drawings that have been preserved till today were produced on paper and silk, which were burial articles with a history of over 2,000 years......
 .Character&Calligraphy
Chinese is the language with the largest number of users in the world, and the script with the longest history.
It is difficult to determine the specific time when Chinese characters emerged. The oldest characters we see today are the scripts on the tortoise shells and animal bones in the Shang Dynasty (17th- 11thcentury BC) and scripts carved on bronze wares. Characters of the Shang Dynasty have been much developed, so Chinese characters might have emerged long before the dynasty, perhaps as early as in the New Stone Age about four to five thousand years ago....
 .Musical Instruments
As Chinese saying goes: "Songs originated from the appearance of human being." "There are many kinds of music in Heaven and Earth." Chinese soli of instrumental music to a larger extent vividly reflects the long history, the diversity, strong local flavors and uniqueness of Chinese folk instrumental music culture......
 .Dance
Among the Chinese dances, the folk dance is the greatest in number, the most extensive and the deepest into life, and the closest to everyone's daily life. Folk dance has a wide range, including most of the dances involved in various ethnic and folk custom and activities, such as production, the occasions to mark the climate and other natural phenomena of the seasons, marriage and funerals, beliefs and religions.....
 .Opera
In Peking Opera, there are four roles: the male and female roles, the painted-face role, and the comedic role. These roles have the natural features of age and sex, as well as social status, and are artificially exaggerated by makeup, costume and gestures.....
 .Religion
The exact time of the introduction of Buddhism into China is hard to be ascertained. At its early years after introduction, Buddhism did not have much influence.
It is said that in the year 2BC, Yi Cun, an emissary of Dayuezhi Kingdom (an ancient mid-Asian country established by a strong Chinese minority originally living in northern China and later moved to the west), arrived in Chang'an (today's Xi'an City), capital of China at the time. He dictated Buddhism to Doctor Jing Lu. And this is the first record about the introduction of Buddhism into China......
 .Acrobatics
The Chinese acrobatics has a long history and rich national flavor. It is one of the art forms most popular among the Chinese people. In a broad sense, acrobatics is the collective name of various kinds of feats. In the primitive society, acrobatics was closely related with music and dance, and became dominant of cultures at that time......
 .Architecture
An ancient civilized nation and a great country on the East Asian continent, China possesses a vast territory covering 9.6 million square kilometers, and a population accounting for over one-fifth of the world's total, with 56 nationalities and a recorded history of 3,000 years, during which it has created a unique, outstanding traditional Chinese Culture. China's architectural art is a particularly beautiful branch in the tree of Chinese civilization
Traditional Chinese architecture is based mainly on Han architecture, comprising roughly 15 types such as city, palace, temple, mausoleum, monastery, Buddhist pagoda, grottoes, garden, government office, folk public building, landscape, tower and pavilion, imperial palace, residential house, great wall and bridge......
 .Crafts
The Chinese were master craftsmen and produced fine sculpture, especially in bronze. Although bronze casting existed a thousand years earlier, it was in the Chou period (1122-221 BC) that China developed the art to its peak.
The folk artist is at its best in understanding and depicting life in its wholeness, and apt to show its rhythms and melodies. It relies on its intuition, impressions and memories, as well as experience and understanding of life to grasp the essence of the phenomena or objects he depicts, thus making the artistic images quite different from their original models. In artistic representation and expression, works of folk art are straightforward, natural, flexible, free from affectedness, vivid and intimate
 .Chinese Food
China's long history, vast territory and extensive contact with other nations and cultures have given birth to the distinctive Chinese culinary art. With several thousand years of creative and accumulative efforts, the Chinese cuisine has become increasingly popular among more and more overseas gourmets, virtually functioning as an envoy of friendship in China's cultural exchanges with foreign countries.
Modern Chinese enjoys a worldwide reputation as the Kingdom of Cuisine. The exquisite Chinese culinary art, regarded indisputably as one of the world's finest culinary traditions, has prevailed all over the world. The nearly endless variety of natural ingredients and methods of preparation employed in Chinese cuisine stand out unequaled in the world, which may very well account for the universal popularity of Chinese restaurants and Chinese cooking overseas......
 .Tea Culture
China is the homeland of tea. It is believed that China has tea-shrubs as early as five to six thousand years ago, and human cultivation of tea plants dates back two thousand years. Tea from China, along with her silk and porcelain, began to be known over the world more than a thousand years ago and has since always been an important Chinese export. At present more than forty countries in the world grow tea, with Asian countries producing 90% of the world's total output. All tea trees in other countries have their origin directly or indirectly in China. The word for tealeaves or tea as a drink in many countries is derivatives from the Chinese character "cha." The Russians call it "cha'i", which sounds like "chaye" (tea leaves) as it is pronounced in northern China, and the English word "tea" sounds similar to the pronunciation of its counterpart in Xiamen (Amoy). The Japanese character for tea is written exactly the same as it is in Chinese, though pronounced with a slight difference. The habit of tea drinking spread to Japan in the 6th century, but it was not introduced to Europe and America till the 17th and 18th centuries. Now the number of tea drinkers in the world is legion and is still on the increase......
 .Traditional Sports
China is well known as an ancient country with a civilization several thousand years old. But few people know that sports in China claim a history as long and honorable as the country's civilization. Ancient relics that have been un-earthed indicate that people in China 4,000 to 10,000 years ago already knew how to do physical exercises to limber up themselves. Such physical activities as shejian (shooting arrows) and juding (lifting metal tripods) which were carried out as far back as in the Western Zhou Dynasty (c 1,066- 771 BC) may well be compared to what we call sports today.
China is well known as an ancient country with a civilization several thousand years old. But few people know that sports in China claim a history as long and honorable as the country's civilization. Ancient relics that have been un-earthed indicate that people in China 4,000 to 10,000 years ago already knew how to do physical exercises to limber up themselves. Such physical activities as shejian (shooting arrows) and juding (lifting metal tripods) which were carried out as far back as in the Western Zhou Dynasty (c 1,066- 771 BC) may well be compared to what we call sports today......
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