[FateAmenableToChange]

What do they mean by "civilization?" I thought that there were several periods over the last 5000 years where China had descended into complete chaos, been conquered by Mongols and red haird Irishmen, and so on. I'll believe that there's been someone living there for 5000 years, but that's true of a lot of places, including Iraq/Persia, Egypt, India, and probably portions of the Sahara now covered by sand.

[jimtorr]

""What do they mean by "civilization?" ""

They mean the essential elements of the culture. Language, Religion, folk beliefs, food, clothing, legends and stories, etc. All of these and many other elements of the Chinese culture have varied from time to time, but are largely the same as 3,000 years ago.

Before that it gets a lot murkier, but Chinese characters have been found that are nearly 5,000 years old, and are recognizable and readable and clearly the predecessors of todays characters.

Somehow, with all of the invasions and war, the culture has not drifted far from its roots. As far as we can tell.

There is an ancient tradition in China that the Han Chinese, which is the predominant tribe, came into central China from the west, from or through the desert areas of today.