China. A massive land of ancient history and beautiful culture.

It’s one of the largest countries in the world with a population of over one billion people.

I first fell in love with this country's culture through watching Hong Kong kung fu movies and enjoying the food at various local Chinese restaurants. I’m particularly partial to a bit of sweet and sour pork or chicken with rice, washed down with Chinese tea!

In 1999 I was lucky enough to visit China for two weeks travelling to the capital Beijing (formerly called Peking), Shanghai and Xi’an (pronounced See-an).

China is growing fast in all areas. They recently sent a man into space, only the third nation to do so after America and Russia.

Foreign investment is at an all time high and is at levels not seen since the 1920’s. It's economic growth has been steadily increasing since joining the World Trade Organization.

The country hosted the Olympic Games in 2008.

The success of Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon raised the bar for the Chinese wuxia film genre and Chinese cinema as a whole.

The head of one of these kingdoms, King Zheng of Qin had a vision to unite all the kingdoms under heaven and make one large empire.

He conquered the other states and founded the country of China with the intention of producing a unified language and currency.

As the first Imperial Emperor of China he named himself the Yellow Emperor (Qin shi Huang Di). He also instigated the building of the Great Wall of China to keep out the Mongol invaders of the north.

This entirely man-made wall is an enormous structure spanning hundreds of miles and can be seen from space.

The statues are over two thousand years old but are in incredible condition allowing us to see a slice of a culture long since extinct.

This story has been told in two recent films. Chen Kaige’s The Emperor and the Assassin starring the actress Gong Li and Yang Yimou’s Hero starring Jet Li.

China’s history has long had changes of dynasties brought on by the slow corruption of the old leading to overthrow by the new.

Other dynasties of note (there were more in-between) were the Han Dynasty who strengthened the unification of the country and the Tang Dynasty who were based in the then capital Xi'an (Chang An).

The Forbidden City was one of the highlights of my visit to China as this was the actual residence of the past Emperors kept in all it's glory. It was simply stunning to see and walk through.

The Manchu people of the north who formed the Qing Dynasty overthrew the Ming dynasty. This was to be the last Imperial Dynasty in China.

Many of the temples, buildings built during these periods of history remain intact and are a sight to see with ornate sculptures and detailed paintings. All the provinces have many historical areas.

China has eight main dialects with the main one being Mandarin Chinese. Cantonese is spoken more by the southern peoples and in Hong Kong.

The Chinese New Year celebrations held throughout the country, every January/February, are must see attractions with an amazing vibe.

Most tourism is generated by the Chinese themselves touring their own country and there are many people who still haven’t come into contact with people from other countries.

This was seen to great effect when I was in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Our tour group was often held up as people queued to take pictures of us.

People were queuing up to take my photo asking me to pose with them and their family and so forth.

Each of the three cities has it’s own distinct, visible identity and it was a joy to visit each. It was on this trip where I learnt how to use chopsticks (kuai zi).

Another fact about China is that surnames always come before first names. So a man’s name Hu Jintao would be Mr Hu not Mr Jintao.

Some basic phrases I’ve learned are 'ni hao' (knee how) meaning 'hello', 'ni hao ma?' (knee how ma) meaning 'how are you?' and 'zai jian' (zai jen) which is 'goodbye'.

In closing, I have to recommend China as a place to see and visit.