Considered the cultural heart of Asia since the dawn of civilization, the vast and densely populated People's Republic of China beckons the inquisitive traveler to explore the wonders of her 3,000 years of history. Your journey to this ageless, timeless empire will unfold as an enticing, marvelous journey through legend, fantasy and fact.

China is not so much another country as another world. Cut off from the rest of Asia by the Himalayas to the south and the Siberian steppe to the north, the country has grown up alone and aloof. Apart from a few ruling elites of Mongol and Manchu origin, who quickly became assimilated, China did not experience a significant influx of foreigners until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, something which still colors the experience of today's visitors to China.

While empires, languages, nations and entire peoples in the rest of the world have risen and blossomed - then disappeared without trace - China has spent the past two millennia largely recycling itself. It is as though the Roman empire had survived intact into the twenty-first century, with a billion people speaking a language as old as classical Latin.