China is known for its rich cultural history, large population and some of the grandest mountain ranges in the biosphere. This country is the third largest continent and contains the world's largest population. It is also home to one of the very first recorded civilizations. Thanks to its vast mountains, it is rich in natural resources that have come up from the earth. China produces a large variety of things from steel, to cameras and synthetic materials. Since the beginning of time, China has risen significantly in all aspects of life through agriculture, politics, economics, and population. The rapid development of such country has attracted worldwide attention in recent years.
Compared with the population of 1265825048 from the 2000 population census (zero hour of November 1, 2000), the total population of the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and the servicemen of the mainland of China increased by 73899804 persons, or 5.84 percent over the past 10 years. The average annual growth rate was 0.57 percent. In the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities of the mainland of China, there were 401517330 family households with a population of 1244608395 persons. The average size of family household was 3.10 persons, or 0.34 people less as compared with the 3.44 persons in the 2000 population census. Of the population enumerated in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 686852572 persons or 51.27 percent were males, while 652872280 persons or 48.73 percent were females. Of the population enumerated in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 222459737 persons were in the age group of 0-14, accounting for 16.60 percent of the total population; 939616410 persons in the age group of 15-59, accounting for 70.14 percent, and 177648705 persons in the age group of 60 and over, accounting for 13.26 percent, of which 118831709 persons were in the age group of 65 and over, accounting for 8.87 percent. As compared with the results of the 2000 population census, the share of people in the age group of 0-14 was down by 6.29 percentage points, that of the age group of 15-59 was up by 3.36 percentage points, that of the age group of 60 and over was up by 2.93 percentage points, and that of the age group of 65 and over was up by 1.91 percentage points. Of the population enumerated in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 261386075 persons lived in places other than the towns (townships or streets) of their household registration where they had left for over 6 months. Of this total, 39959423 were persons with current residence different from the place of their household registration in the same city, and the remaining were 221426652 persons. Compared with the 2000 population census, population in this category increased by 116995327 persons, or up by 81.03 percent (China, 2012).
China is a country with a large population but less arable land. With only 7 percent of the world’s cultivated land, China has to feed one fifth of the world’s population. Therefore, China’s agriculture is an important issue and draws wide attention of the world. Some foreigners once raised the question, “Who will feed China?” China leaders and agricultural experts’ reply was, “We Chinese will feed ourselves” (Government, 2012).
This sector has developed rapidly since reforms in the rural areas began in 1978. The major reforms were: the household contract responsibility system, which restored to the farmers the right to use land, arrange farm work, and to dispose of their output; canceling the state market monopoly of agricultural products, and of price controls over most of agricultural and ancillary products; abolishing many restrictive policies, allowing farmers to develop diversified business and set up township enterprises so as to fire their enthusiasm for production. The reforms emancipated and developed rural productive forces, promoted the rapid growth of agriculture - particularly in grain production - and the optimization of agricultural structure. The achievements have been remarkable (Government, 2012).
In the 1990s, China's agriculture and rural economy faced unprecedented difficulties and challenges. But development momentum maintained fairly good nonetheless, with most products in surplus and supply and demand basically in balance every year. The year 2004 was a turning point, with grain production of 469.47 million tons, reversing a five-year decline. Now China leads the world in output of grain, cotton, oil plants, fruit, meat, eggs, aquatic products and vegetables (Government, 2012).
Output per capita has risen significantly. In 2004, grain output was 362 kg per capita; per capita figures for meat (pork, beef, and mutton), milk, and aquatic products were above world averages, reaching 44.6 kg, 17.4 kg, and 37.8 kg, respectively (Government, 2012).
In recent years, investment in excess of three billion yuan has been devoted to furthering agricultural industrialization, an important part of the national program for enhancing the international competitiveness of Chinese agriculture. In 2004 alone the government set up 35 agricultural programs, supported by 30 million yuan from the Central Government, over 50 million yuan from local governments, some 100 million yuan of bank loans and more than 600 million yuan raised by enterprises and farmers (Government, 2012).
Now a pattern has been formed, with 582 key national enterprises and over 2,000 key provincial enterprises as spearhead, and agencies of various forms connecting farmers with the production base. Leading enterprises in certain sectors, e.g., corn processing, dairy industry and chicken production, have taken major market share and play an increasingly important role in the development and pricing of their respective industries (Government, 2012).
Since 2003, the state has set up six types of demonstration projects for the industrialization of modern agro-technology, so as to promote the use of advanced technology for agricultural production, and enhance foreign earnings from exports of farm products (Government, 2012).
These projects include industrialization of breeding and cultivation of excellent new varieties and fine strains; high-efficiency, eco-friendly planting and aquatic breeding technology; water-saving and precision technologies; downstream processing of agricultural and ancillary products; pollution-free inputs (e.g., fertilizer and fodder) and the establishment of an agricultural information platform. The "downstream processing of main agricultural products project" was listed as an important sci-tech project during the 2000-2005 Five-Year Plan period. It aims at developing key technologies and equipment for downstream processing of staple agricultural products, research into integrated quality control systems and the quick testing of agro-product technology and equipment. Once completed, some of China's technological aspects will meet the advanced international standard. Meanwhile, the "dairy industry development" and "water-saving agriculture" projects have been listed among important sci-tech application programs initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology (Government, 2012).
China, economically extremely backward before 1949, has become one of the world's major economic powers with the greatest potential, and the overall living standard has reached that of a fairly well-off society. In the 22 years following reform and opening-up in 1979 in particular, China's economy developed at an unprecedented rate, and that momentum has been held steady into the 21st century. In 2004, the government further strengthened and improved its macro control, and the economy entered its best ever development period of recent years. The gross domestic product (GDP) for 2004 amounted to 13,687.59 billion yuan, 9.5 percent higher than the previous year (Government, 2012).
China adopts the "five-year-plan" strategy for economic development. The 9th Five-Year Plan (1996-2000) was outstandingly successful, and the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-2005) mapped out the first plan for the new century, setting these main targets:
Sustaining fairly rapid growth, strategic restructuring, improving the quality and benefits of economic growth so as to lay firm foundations for doubling the 2000 GDP by 2010; substantial perfection of the socialist market economy and putting state-owned enterprises on a modern enterprise footing, thus allowing greater participation in international cooperation and competition.
During 2005, the GDP reached some 12,500 billion yuan, and per capita GDP 9,400 yuan by (at 2000 prices assuming annual economic growth of around 7 percent). A marked improvement in quality of life with 5 percent annual growth in the disposable income of urban residents and in the net income of rural residents; keeping the registered urban unemployment rate stable at around 5 percent; maintaining generally stable prices and basically balancing international revenue and expenditure. This began optimizing and upgrading the industrial structure to sharpen China's competitive edge.
By 2005, the added value of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries accounted for 13 percent, 51 percent and 36 percent, respectively, of GDP; employing 44 percent, 23 percent and 33 percent, respectively, of the labor force. Further improvement to infrastructure increased urbanization and bringing the widening development disparity between regions under effective control. Most of these targets had already been achieved ahead of schedule.

Works Cited
China. (2012, April 6). Figures of the population. Retrieved from National Bureau of Statistics China: http://www.stats.gov.cn/was40/gjtjj_en_detail.jsp?searchword=Migration&channelid=9528&record=3
Government, T. C. (2012, April 4). The Chinese Central Government. Retrieved from The Central People's Government of The People's Republic of China: http://english.gov.cn/about/agriculture.htm