The human activity in China can be traced back to remote antiquity millions of years ago. The Yuanmou Man, whose fossil remains, about 1,700,000 years old, were found in Yuanmou, Yunnan Province in Southwest China, was regarded the earliest human fossil remains ever found in China's remote antiquity. The well-known "Peking Man" dated back to about 400,000 to 500,000 years ago. China's cultural and historical activities originated from the Yellow River valley with a history of 6,000 years so far. Huang Di and Yan Di(about 4,500 years ago), the two legendary tribal leaders in the Yellow River valley in the prehistoric age have been regarded as the representatives of the ancestors of the Chinese nation. It was said that the Xia Dynasty (C. 21st century-C. 16th century B.C.) was the first dynasty of hereditary throne in the Chinese history. The Shang Dynasty (C. 16th century-C. 11th century B.C.), which had replaced the Xia Dynasty, was the first dynasty in China to have records of written language. The Shang Dynasty and Zhou Dynasty (C. 11th century-third century B.C.), after the Shang Dynasty, were the important period for the development of China's economy, culture and history. The cultural achievements during this period had laid a foundation for China's cultural development. The Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States (C. 8th century-third century B.C.), in particular, had witnessed the coming into existence of such great thinkers as Confucius, Lao Zi and Han Feizi. The influence of them and their Confucian, Taoist and Legalist schools on China's ideology, politics and culture ran through the Chinese history as a whole, and has maintained an important position in the present China and the world. Included was the Confucian school, which was respected as orthodoxy by rulers of different dynasties after the Han Dynasty becoming the foundation of values in the East. In 221 B.C., the Qin Dynasty, China's first centralized empire, was founded. Since then, the centralized empires had governed China for more than 2,000 years ranging from the Qin Dynasty to the Han, Jin, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and ended in the early this century. The development of China's history has been mixed together and closely linked with different ethnic groups. The activities of different ethnic minority groups and their foreign relations are major contents of the Chinese history. All ethnic groups, through thousands of years of contacts, have formed an unique country. China has created a brilliant culture and ancient civilization. It is regarded as one of the four major ancient countries of civilization. The four well-known major inventions by the Chinese -- compass, gunpowder, paper-making and printing -- were great contributions of the Chinese nation to the world civilization. Historical data have proven that China's economy, culture, science and technology and navigation had reached the peak level of the world up to the 16th century. China's developed navigation skill and the "Silk Road" linking western China with the western Asia had introduced advanced Chinese technology and civilization to Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, the middle West Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Years of wars, long period of centralized ruling and close-door policy had slowed down China's economic development. In the late period of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1614), the Western civilization and technology began to be introduced to China. The Sino-British "Opium Wars" took place in 1840 had revealed the modern history of China's resistance against foreign aggression and domination. Until early this century, the West imperialist powers, tsarist Russia and Japan had opened up the gate of China with "gunboat policy", and forced the corrupt Qing government to accept a package of unequal treaties. China had to cede territory and pay indemnities, and gradually was dominated by the imperialist powers and reduced to the status of a semi-colony. In 1911, the Qing Dynasty was overthrown ending the 2,000-year-old Chinese history of ruling by imperial dynasties, and the Republic of China was founded. In 1937, The Japanese imperialists mounted a large-scale invasion aggression against China, and the Chinese people launched an eight-year war of resistance against Japan and won the victory. The war had made China to become a main battlefield to resist Japanese aggressors in the Far East region during the Second World War. On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was founded.