Chinese Americans Dale Anderson AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS rourke publishing
CHAPTER ONE China and the Chinese People China is a huge country in East Asia stretching from the East China Sea into the interior of Asia The Chinese first settled thousands of years ago along rivers in the eastern part of the country They used the rich soil to grow crops like wheat and rice The land produced lots of food and the population grew Many separate kingdoms arose Building an Empire About 2,200 years ago one of those kings conquered the others His name was Shi Huangdi and he took the title Emperor For more than two thousand years China was ruled by powerful emperors Sons came after fathers and were followed by their sons This string of rulers from the same family is called a dynasty Several dynasties ruled China for hundreds of years Over time China developed into a brilliant civilization Craftspeople made beautiful silk clothing and delicate pottery Inventors made the first gunpowder coins paper and printing presses The philosopher Confucius taught his followers how to 4
Capital city City 600 miles 800 kilometers RUSSIA KAZAKHSTAN KYRGYZSTAN TAJIKISTAN PAKISTAN MONGOLIA Beijing CHINA Shanghai NORTH KOREA SOUTH KOREA East China Sea NEPAL INDIA BHUTAN Bay of Bengal Canton TAIWAN Hong Kong South China Sea MYANMAR BURMA VIETNAM LAOS China is a very large country in East Asia with well over a billion people This is the largest population of any country in the world live moral lives Laozi another philosopher taught how to live in harmony with nature Artists wrote beautiful poems and illustrated them with delicate drawings 5
