In China, there is an idiom says although Chinese people may eat the same kind of rice, they can grow up into different kinds of people finally. China is a county with large numbers of people. It supports 21% of the world's population with 9% of the world's cultivable land. So it is easy to find unique characters in each regional inhabits in this vast land.

Population: China carried out its fifth national population census on November 1, 2000. It has a population of 1,295.33 million. Of which: the total population of the 32 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities (excluding Jinmen and Mazu islands of Fujian Province hereafter) and of servicemen on the mainland of China was 1,265.83 million; the population of Hong Kong SAR was 6.78 million; the population of Macao SAR was 440 thousand; the population of Taiwan Province and of Jinmen, Mazu and a few other islands of Fujian Province was 22.28 million.

Population of China is expected to reach at 1.4 billion by the late 2010s, and around 2030, population of country is anticipated to peak then start dropping slowly.

Ethnic groups: China has 56 ethnic groups. Of the people enumerated in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 1,159.40 million persons or 91.59 percent were of Han nationality, and 106.43 million persons or 8.41 percent were of various national minorities.