East Asia

East Asia is the eastern subregion of Asia, defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region includes China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia and Taiwan. China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam belong to the East Asian cultural sphere.SeoulBeijingTaipei is the capital of the Republic of China and anchors a major high-tech industrial area in Taiwan.Kaohsiung is the Harbor Capital and largest city in southern Taiwan.Beijing is the capital of the People's Republic of China and the largest metropolis in northern China.Shanghai is the largest city in China and one of the largest in the world, and is a global financial centre and transport hub with the world's busiest container port.Guangzhou is one of the most important cities in southern China. It has a history of over 2,200 years and was a major terminus of the maritime Silk Road and continues to serve as a major port and transportation hub today.Xi'an or Chang'an is the oldest of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, having held the position under several of the most important dynasties. It has a significant cultural influence in East Asia.Hong Kong is one of the world's leading global financial centres and is known as a cosmopolitan metropolis.Tokyo is the capital of Japan and one of the largest cities in the world, both in metropolitan population and economy.Osaka is the second largest metropolitan area in Japan.Kyoto was the Imperial capital of Japan for more than one thousand years.Seoul is the capital of South Korea, one of the largest cities in the world and a leading global technology hub.Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea, and is a significant metropolis on the Korean Peninsula.Ulaanbaatar is the capital of Mongolia with a population of 1 million as of 2008. East Asia is the eastern subregion of Asia, defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region includes China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia and Taiwan. China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam belong to the East Asian cultural sphere. The region was the cradle of various ancient civilizations such as ancient China, ancient Japan, ancient Korea, and the Mongol Empire. East Asia was one of the cradles of world civilization, with China, an ancient East Asian civilization being one of the earliest cradles of civilization in human history. For thousands of years, China largely influenced East Asia (as it was principally the leading civilization in the region), exerting its enormous prestige and influence on its neighbors. Historically, societies in East Asia have been part of the Chinese cultural sphere, and East Asian vocabulary and scripts are often derived from Classical Chinese and Chinese script. The Chinese calendar preserves traditional East Asian culture and serves as the root to which many other East Asian calendars are derived from. Major religions in East Asia include Buddhism (mostly Mahayana Buddhism which came via trade routes from India.), Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, Ancestral worship, and Chinese folk religion in Greater China, Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan, and Christianity, Buddhism, and Sindoism in Korea. Shamanism is also prevalent among Mongols and other indigenous populations of northern East Asia such as the Manchus. East Asians comprise around 1.6 billion people, making up about 38% of the population in Continental Asia and 22% of the global population. The region is home to major world metropolises such as Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, and Tokyo. Although the coastal and riparian areas of the region form one of the world's most populated places, the population in Mongolia and Western China, both landlocked areas, is very sparsely distributed, with Mongolia having the lowest population density of any sovereign state. The overall population density of the region is 133 inhabitants per square kilometre (340/sq mi), about three times the world average of 45/km2 (120/sq mi). Like the Ancient Greeks and Romans and their profound influence on Europe and the Western World, China already possessed an advanced civilization nearly 1500+ years before its neighbors (c. 2000 BC) and through various Chinese dynasties has exerted cultural, economic, technological, political, and military influence across East Asia up to the present. For many centuries, especially between the 7-14th centuries, China stood as East Asia's most advanced civilization, commanding influence across the region up until the early modern period. China became the first literate nation in East Asia and has also provided Japan, Vietnam, and Korea with many loanwords and linguistic influences rooted in their writing systems (see Chinese characters). From around 200 BC to 200 AD, the Han dynasty hosted the largest unified population in East Asia, the most literate and urbanized as well as being the most technologically and culturally advanced civilization in the region. And China has always been the most populous epicenter in East Asia as well. China's impact and influence on Korea began with the Han dynasty's northeastern expansion in 108 BC when the Han Chinese conquered the northern part of the Korean peninsula and established a province called Lelang. Chinese influence would soon take root in Korea through the inclusion of the Chinese writing system, monetary system, rice culture, and Confucian political institutions.