About 1.4 billion people live in China, according to the World Bank, representing 56 ethnic minority groups. The largest group is the Han Chinese, with about 900 million people. Other groups include the Tibetans, the Mongols, the Manchus, the Naxi, and the Hezhen, which is smallest group, with fewer than 2,000 people.   

"Significantly, individuals within communities create their own culture," said Cristina De Rossi, an anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in London. Culture includes religion, food, style, language, marriage, music, morals and many other things that make up how a group acts and interacts. Here is a brief overview of some elements of the Chinese culture. 

About a quarter of the people practice Taoism and Confucianism and other traditional religions. There are also small numbers of Buddhists, Muslims and Christians. Although numerous Protestant and Catholic ministries have been active in the country since the early 19th century, they have made little progress in converting Chinese to these religions.

The cremated remains of someone who may have been the Buddha were discovered in Jingchuan County, China, with more than 260 Buddhist statues in late 2017. Buddha was a spiritual teacher who lived between mid-6th and mid-4th centuries B.C. His lessons founded Buddhism.
Statue of Confucius at Confucian Temple in Shanghai, China

Many musical instruments are integral to Chinese culture, including the flute-like xun and the guqin, which is in the zither family. 

Eastern-style martial arts were also developed in China, and it is the birthplace of kung fu. This fighting technique is based on animal movements and was created in the mid-1600s, according to Black Belt Magazine.

Ancient Chinese were avid writers and philosophers — especially during the Ming and Qing dynasties — and that is reflected in the country's rich liturgical history.

Recently, archaeologists discovered detailed paintings in a 1,400-year-old tomb in China. "The murals of this tomb had diversified motifs and rich connotations, many of which cannot be found in other tombs of the same period," a team of archaeologists wrote in an article recently published in a 2017 issue of the journal Chinese Archaeology. 

Traditional Chinese buildings have tile roofs with swooping eaves. Walls are usually made of brick or wood. The tile roofs are gray for ordinary buildings, yellow for imperial palaces and blue or green for other important structures. The upturned eaves are elaborately carved with extraordinary detail and are works of art in their own right. Sometimes bells hang from the eaves.

Traditional arch gate features include carved flowering trees, peacocks and lucky bats. Painted red and gold, they are placed at city gates and in stores and restaurants. Not merely decorative, they were strategically placed to ward off evil spirits. The carvings, spirals and swirls are meant to confuse them further.

Some Chinese buildings feature balconies covered with elaborate iron and woodwork. They are often painted bright red, gold and green, colors associated with good luck, and hung with signs, tasseled lanterns, and silk banners.

The entrance to palace often had a large water tower. Palaces of the Machu emperors at Chengte featured exposed unadorned cedarwood beams which gave of a fragrant scent that is also a natural insect repellant. For example ,

 Feng shui is the practice of bringing about good fortune among the living, the dead and the spiritual world by making sure objects placed in a landscape or space are in harmony with the universe in such a way that they optimally draw on sources of qi (cosmic energy or life force). Also known as geomancy, ifeng shui is often expressed in terms of Chinese and Taoist cosmology and is said to be over 3,500 years old.

 The five directions of Chinese cosmology and feng shui are north, south, east, west and center. South represents light and brings good luck. North represents darkness and brings bad luck. Accordingly, doors of houses should not face north of northwest: they should face south. The entire house should be oriented towards the south with mountains to the north to block the bad luck from entering and keep good luck from escaping. The best location is at the foot of a mountain, facing a river. Waters helps attract qi. Buildings with a square plan help hold it firmly.

 The location of the family alter, the orientation of the house and the arrangement of the furniture should be in harmony. Bedrooms should face the sun and stairway should’t be visible from the front entrance. Qi is believed to enter through the front door and exit through the toilet.

 Walls can be constructed at certain angles to attract positive energy. Doors can be adorned with coins bearing the names of famous emperors to attract good luck. Fountains in corners are sometimes used to deflect bad energy from the sharp angles of nearby buildings. Mirrors are also used to deflect bad energy. Cell phones are believed to disrupt feng shui. Thriving plants are signs that qi is plentiful.

 Chinese temples are often comprised of many buildings, halls and shrines. They tend to be situated in the middle of towns and have north-south axises. Large halls, shrines and important temple buildings have traditionally been dominated by tiled roofs, which are usually green or yellow and sit atop eaves decorated with religious figures and good luck symbols. The roofs are often supported on magnificently carved and decorated beams, which in turn are supported by intricately carved stone dragon pillars. Many temples are entered through the left door and exited through the right.

 Pagodas are towers generally found in conjunction with temples or viewed as temples themselves. Some can be entered; others can not. The Chinese have traditionally believed that the heavens were round and the earth was square. This concept is reflected in the fact that pagodas have square bases rooted to the earth but have a circular or octagonal plans so they look round when viewed by the gods above in the sky.

 Early Chinese-style pagodas were modeled after Indian stupas. Pagoda architecture arrived with Buddhism but over the centuries developed a distinctly Chinese characteristics that influenced the architecture in Japan and Korea and other places.