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East Asia
The Far East: China, Korea, Japan and other nearby civilizations
China and East Asia
Often considered to be the longest continuous civilization on earth, China has a remarkable history. Notable civilization around the Huang He began at around 2500 BC, and by 1700 BC well-established dynasties such as the Shang and later the Zhou, appeared. In 221 BC, the Qin conquered all other states and formed the first "Empire" in China. Over the next two millenia, the pattern of dynasties falling and rising continued, but civilization was never severely disrupted. Thus, many innovations and inventions came out of China (such as Confucianism, paper, gunpower, the compass, etc) and to other parts of the world through the silk road, and later, in the Indian Ocean trade routes. Neighboring regions such as Japan, Korea, Vietnam were highly influced by Chinese culture, and more or less incorporated it into their own civilization (architecture, buddhism, etc). In the good part of its history, China was one of the most advanced civilization in the world, but towards the late Imperial Ages, isolationist policies left the Qing Dynasty dangerously behind the west. This and more internal problems led to the collapse of dynastic rule in 1911.AD.