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Handbook for the 2008 Olympic Games

I. Introduction to China

Formal name of the country: The People’s Republic of China (PRC)

Capital: Beijing

Head of state: President Hu, Jintao

National ag: Red ag with 5 golden stars.

National day: October 1st is the founding day of the People’s Republicof China.

Biggest holiday: Spring Festival is the celebration of the Chinese NewYear which falls between mid-January and mid-February each year.

Land size: 9,6 million km 2 - the third largest country in the world after Russia and Canada.

Population: China is the most populous country in the world with apopulation of 1.3 billion, about 1/5 of the world’s population.

Language: The of cial language is Mandarin, although there are manydifferent dialects spoken throughout the country.

History: China has a recorded history of nearly 5,000 years.

Political party: The Communist Party of China is the sole party inpower. It has more than 70.8 million members.

Foreign affairs:

China is a permanent member of the Security Council in theUnited Nations.China has diplomatic relations with more than 165 countriesaround the world.China is an active member in all major world and internationalorganizations.

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The Confucius Institute in Quebec

Canada-China relations:

Canada was the rst western country to recognize the PRCand diplomatic relations between Canada and China wereestablished on October 13th, 1970.

China is the second largest trading partner with Canada after theUnited States.The best known Canadians in China include Dr. NormanBethune, and actor Dashan (Mark Rowswell).Chinese is the largest ethnic group in Canada with one millionChinese people residing in Canada. Chinese is the third mostwidely used language in Canada after English and French.

Economy: China is the world’s fourth largest economy in terms of GDPafter the United States, Japan and Germany.

Money:

Chinese currency is called Renminbi. The base unit of the Renminbi isthe Yuan.

One Yuan is divided into 100 fen. The dollar sign for Chinese Yuan is a Ywith two crossbars (¥). For instance, a price tag marked: ¥99.50, wouldmean ninety nine Yuan and fty fen. There are no sales taxes in China.

The largest denomination of the Renminbi is the 100-yuan note and thesmallest is the 1-fen coin. All denominations are available as banknotes.

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One Canadian dollar is worth about 7.80 Yuan Renminbi and, conversely,10 Yuan Renminbi are equivalent to $1.30 CAN (October 2007)

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