China has a very diverse society and the image that all Chinese portrays is all true. As mentioned more detailed in our “Why Study in China” section, China has a very multicultural society and is very open to new cultures and races.
Over the last two decades, China has changed greatly and has become much more multicultural and cosmopolitan. China is seen as a destination of great diversity with Beijing and Shanghai being the hub for many internationals.
At the last census in 2010, there were about 1.3 billion people in China.
Religion
The main religion in China is the Chinese Religion which makes up about 81.1% of the entire population, largely split between the Confucianism and Taoism.
China has long been a cradle and host to a variety of the most enduring religio-philosophical traditions of the world. Confucianism and Taoism, later joined by Buddhism, constitute the "three teachings" that historically have shaped Chinese culture. There are no clear boundaries between these intertwined religious systems, which do not claim to be exclusive, and elements of each enrich popular or folk religion. The emperors of China claimed the Mandate of Heaven and participated in Chinese religious practices. Since 1949, China has been governed by the Communist Party of China, an atheist institution that prohibits party members from practicing religion while in office. Religious movements and institutions were first placed under government control, then during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) suppressed. Under following leaders, religious organizations were given more autonomy. The government formally recognizes five religious doctrines: Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism (though enforcing a separation of the Chinese Catholic Church from the Roman Catholic Church). In the early twenty-first century there has been increasing institutional recognition of Confucianism and Chinese folk religion.
In addition to the Chinese Religion, China has good numbers of other major world religions, as follows:
Buddhism (6.2%)
Christianity (2.3%)
Salvationist religions (2.2%)
Islam (1.7%)
Kindly visit Religion in China for more information on religion in China.
The main language in China is, of course, Chinese, which is spoken throughout the whole country. For such a relatively great country, there are a lot of dialects in China, and some of them can be hard to understand, even for Chinese speaking people. There are a lot of Chinese dialects but these are the official Chinese dialects. They include:
Standard Mandarin (Mainland and Taiwan)
Cantonese (Hong Kong and Macau)
English (Hong Kong)
Portuguese (Macau)
For more information on languages, please see the Languages of China.
