The following is a timeline of the history of China: See also: China, History of China, History of the People's Republic of China, History of Taiwan, Chinese sovereign, Table of Chinese monarchs (very long) Date Ruling entity Ruler Events Other people/events 2500 BC Sanhuangwudi This period is part of the Chinese mythology 2205 BC[?] Xia Dynasty 1806 BC 1523 BC Shang Dynasty First records Chinese characters 1027 BC 1122 BC Zhou Dynasty 722 BC Spring and Autumn Period 551 BC Confucius 481 BC 479 BC 403 BC Warring States Period 256 BC 255 BC Qin Dynasty 246 BC Qin Shi Huang Di 221 BC Start of construction of the Great Wall 210 BC Burial of the Terracotta Army 207 BC 202 BC Han Dynasty Han Gao Zu 195 BC 105 Cai Lun, inventor of paper 106 Han Shangdi 184 Yellow Turban Rebellion 208 Battle of Red Cliff 220 Three Kingdoms 222 Sun Quan 250 Introduction of Buddhism in China 252 265 Jin Dynasty 383 Battle of Feishui 420 Southern and Northern Dynasties 475 Bodhidharma arrives in China 589 581 Sui Dynasty 618 Tang Dynasty 627 Li Shi Min 635 First Christian missionaries arrive in China: Nestorian monks from Asia Minor and Persia, building Da Qin temple. 649 684 Wu Ze Tian 705 845 Mass persecution of Buddhism 907 Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period 960 Song Dynasty 1254 Marco Polo 1260 Kublai Khan 1271 Yuan Dynasty 1273 Battle of Xiangyang 1279 Battle of Yamen 1289 Franciscan friars begin mission work in China 1294 1323 1368 Ming Dynasty 1371 Zheng He 1403 Yongle 1406 Construction of the Forbidden City begins 1424 1435 1449 Battle of Tumu Fortress 1516 First Portuguese settlement in Macau 1582 Jesuits begin mission work in China 1644 Qing Dynasty 1662 Kangxi 1680 First Portuguese governor in Macau 1722 1814 First recorded Chinese convert to Christianism 1839 First Opium War 1842 Treaty of Nanjing 1851 Taiping Rebellion 1854 1856 Second Opium War 1858 Treaties of Tianjin[?] 1860 Beijing Convention 1884 Franco-Chinese War 1885 1894 First Sino-Japanese War 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki 1900 Boxer Rebellion 1908 Pu-yi 1911 Republic of China Sun Yat Sen Wuchang Uprising Yuan Shikai 1914 1919 May Fourth Movement 1921 Foundation Communist Party of China 1926 Northern Expedition 1927 Kuomintang-Communist split 1928 1934 Long March 1935 1936 Xian incident 1937 Second Sino-Japanese War Marco Polo Bridge Incident Battle of Nanjing 1938 Battle of Tai er zhuang 1940 Battle of Hundred Regiments 1945 The nationalist government is one of the founding members of the UN 1949 Mainland China 1949 People's Republic of China Mao Zedong 1950 Battle of Chosin Reservoir Korean War 1951 Occupation of Tibet 1953 1956 Hundred Flowers campaign 1957 1958 Great Leap Forward 1960 Sino-Soviet split[?] 1962 Sino-Indian War 1964 State Council decrees it is acceptable to abbreviate most characters listed in the Plan for Character Simplification The PRC detonates its first atomic bomb 1966 Cultural Revolution The Little Red Book 1969 Opening of the first subway line in Beijing: 17 stations 1970 First satellite launch, using Long March rocket 1971 The PRC replaces the ROC as a permanent member of the UN Security Council 1972 Richard Nixon visits China 1974 Discovery of the Terracotta Army 1976 Tiananmen incident Death of Zhou Enlai Hua Guofeng 1977 Beijing Spring 1978 Start of Chinese economic reforms Democracy Wall Movement 1979 One child policy USA and PRC establish full diplomatic relations Visit of Deng Xiaoping to Washington, D.C. Border-war with Vietnam 1980 First Special Economic Zones Trial of the Gang of Four 1981 Hu Yaobang 1984 Margaret Thatcher in China, signs Sino-British Joint Declaration, to handover of Hong Kong to the PRC in 1997 1987 Zhao Ziyang 1989 Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 Jiang Zemin 1991 First McDonald's restaurant in Beijing 1996 Large PRC military maneuvers in Taiwan Strait 1997 Hong Kong handover, becomes a Special administrative region Death of Deng Xiaoping 1999 Macau handover 2000 The PRC passes Japan as the country with which the USA has the largest trade deficit 2001 Accession to World Trade Organization Beijing elected to hold the 2008 Summer Olympics 2002 16th Party Congress present Hu Jintao SARS outbreak Taiwan 1945 Republic of China (Continued) 1947 Chiang Kai-Shek February 28 Incident 1949 Kuomintang retreats to Taiwan 1971 The PRC replaces the ROC as a permanent member of the UN Security Council 1975 Yen Chia-jin 1978 Chiang Ching-Kuo 1988 Lee Teng-hui 1996 Large PRC military maneuvers in Taiwan Strait 2000 Chen Shui-bian 2001 Accession to World Trade Organization present SARS outbreak External Link Comparative timeline of Chinese, Japanese and Korean historical events (http://homepage1.nifty.com/history/history.html)
The following is a timeline of the history of China:
See also: China, History of China, History of the People's Republic of China, History of Taiwan, Chinese sovereign, Table of Chinese monarchs (very long)