Chinese History Timeline

China, as one of the four oldest civilisations in the world, has a long and mysterious history of more than 5,000 years. China can trace her culture back to a blend of various city-states along the Yellow River, which have expanded and became the great country we are today.

China's early primitive human discovered so far is Yuanmou Man, who lived around 1.7 million years ago. Perhaps the most well-known is Peking Man, found in the Zhoukoudian area in the suburbs of Beijing in 1965. Peking Man lived about 60,000 years ago.

During the long process of rise and fall of dynasties, there emerged countless eminent people, cultural relics and historical sites. China is also the inventor of compass, papermaking, gunpowder and printing.

A Brief Chronology Timeline of Chinese History

Era	Dynasty	Years	Capital(s)	Remarks
Primitive Society		600,000-4,000 years ago
Slavery Society	Xia	2070-1600 BC	Luoyang, Dengfeng, Zhengzhou	The first dynasty of Chinese history
	Shang	1600–1046 BC	Anyang	The first dynasty in China with direct written records
	Zhou	1046–221 BC	Xi'an, Luoyang	The longest dynasty in the history of China
Feudal Society	Qin	221–207 BC	Xi'an	China came into unification as a country for the first time
	Han	202 BC to 220 AD	Xi'an, Luoyang	A golden age in the history of China
	Three Kingdoms	220-280 AD	Luoyang, Chengdu, Nanjing	Frequent changes of regime
	Jin	266-420 AD	Luoyang, Nanjing
	Southern and Northern Dynasties	420-589 AD	Nanjing, Datong, Luoyang, Anyang, Linzhang, Xi'an
	Sui	581-618 AD	Xi'an, Luoyang	A unified period after nearly 300-year-long division
	Tang	618-907 AD	Xi'an, Luoyang	The most glistening period in Chinese history
	Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms	907-979 AD	Kaifeng, Luoyang, Yangzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Changsha, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Jian'ou, Zigui, Taiyuan	A period of division in the history of China
	Song	960–1279 AD	Kaifeng, Hangzhou	The first government in world history to issue banknotes
	Yuan	1271-1368 AD	Beijing	The firstst regime in Chinese history ruled by a non-Han nationality
	Ming	1368–1644 AD	Nanjing, Beijing	The last dynasty in Chinese history ruled by Han group
	Qing	1636-1912 AD	Beijing	The last imperial dynasty in the history of China
Modern China	Republic of China	1912-1949 AD	Beijing, Wuhan, Nanjing
Modern China	People's Republic of China	1949–present	Beijing