China is seen variously as an ancient civilization extending over a large area in East Asia, a nation and/or a multinational entity.

China is one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations and for most of the last two millennia was one of the largest and most advanced civilizations in the world, until the 1850s when it missed the industrial revolution. Subsequently, imperialism, wars and civil wars damaged the country and its economy up to the end of the civil war in 1949. In the 1950s, change to economic policies in the Republic of China (Taiwan) transformed the island into a technology-oriented industrialized developed economy. It became known as one of the Four Asian Tigers along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore. In mainland China, in the 1970s, reforms known as the Four Modernizations modernized the agriculture, industry, technology and defense, eventually making the PRC one of the major powers. China is viewed as the source of many major inventions. It has also one of the world's oldest written language systems.

China has become a major tourist destination, especially since its opening to the world in the late 1970s. In 1978, China received about 230,000 international foreign tourists, mostly because of the severe limitations that the government placed on who was allowed to visit the country and who was not. In 2006, according to the World Tourism Organization, China received 49.6 million international visitors, making it the fourth most visited countries in the world.

While the gap between the massive luxury hotels in the big cities and the more limited facilities elsewhere, hotel building continues apace. The number of tourist hotels shot up from 5,782 in 1998 to 8,880 by 2002.

By 2003 China had some 9,751 tourist hotels and a burgeoning hospitality industry, much of it joint ventures with foreign partners.

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