Health

Main article: Health in China

See also: Pharmaceutical industry in China

Chart showing the rise of China's Human Development Index from 1970 to 2010

The National Health and Family Planning Commission, together with its counterparts in the local commissions, oversees the health needs of the Chinese population.^[435] An emphasis on public health and preventive medicine has characterized Chinese health policy since the early 1950s. At that time, the Communist Party started the Patriotic Health Campaign, which was aimed at improving sanitation and hygiene, as well as treating and preventing several diseases. Diseases such as cholera, typhoid and scarlet fever, which were previously rife in China, were nearly eradicated by the campaign. After Deng Xiaoping began instituting economic reforms in 1978, the health of the Chinese public improved rapidly because of better nutrition, although many of the free public health services provided in the countryside disappeared along with the People's Communes. Healthcare in China became mostly privatized, and experienced a significant rise in quality. In 2009, the government began a 3-year large-scale healthcare provision initiative worth US$124 billion.^[436] By 2011, the campaign resulted in 95% of China's population having basic health insurance coverage.^[437] In 2011, China was estimated to be the world's third-largest supplier of pharmaceuticals, but its population has suffered from the development and distribution of counterfeit medications.^[438]
As of 2012, the average life expectancy at birth in China is 75 years,^[439] and the infant mortality rate is 12 per thousand.^[440] Both have improved significantly since the 1950s.^[s] Rates of stunting, a condition caused by malnutrition, have declined from 33.1% in 1990 to 9.9% in 2010.^[443] Despite significant improvements in health and the construction of advanced medical facilities, China has several emerging public health problems, such as respiratory illnesses caused by widespread air pollution,^[444] hundreds of millions of cigarette smokers,^[445] and an increase in obesity among urban youths.^[446][447] China's large population and densely populated cities have led to serious disease outbreaks in recent years, such as the 2003 outbreak of SARS, although this has since been largely contained.^[448] In 2010, air pollution caused 1.2 million premature deaths in China.^[449]

Religion

Main article: Religion in China

Freedom of religion is guaranteed by China's constitution, although religious organizations that lack official approval can be subject to state persecution.^[232][450] The government of the People's Republic of China is officially atheist. Religious affairs and issues in the country are overseen by the State Administration for Religious Affairs.^[451]
Over the millennia, Chinese civilization has been influenced by various religious movements. The "three teachings", including Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism (Chinese Buddhism), historically have a significant role in shaping Chinese culture,^[452][453] Chinese folk religion, which contains elements of the three teachings,^[454] consists in allegiance to the shen (神), a character that signifies the "energies of generation", who can be deities of the natural environment or ancestral principles of human groups, concepts of civility, culture heroes, many of whom feature in Chinese mythology and history.^[455] Among the most popular folk cults are those of Mazu (goddess of the seas),^[456][457] Huangdi (one of the two divine patriarchs of the Chinese race),^[456][458] Guandi (god of war and business), Caishen (god of prosperity and richness), Pangu and many others. China is home to many of the world's tallest religious statues, including the tallest of all, the Spring Temple Buddha in Henan.
Clear data on religious affiliation in China is difficult to gather due to varying definitions on "religion" and the unorganized nature of Chinese religious traditions. Scholars note that in China there is no clear boundary between religions, especially Buddhism, Taoism and local folk religious practice.^[452] A 2015 poll conducted by Gallup International found that 61% of Chinese people self-identified as "convinced atheist".^[459] According to one study from 2012, about 90% of the Chinese population are either nonreligious or practice some form of Chinese folk religions, Taoism and Confucianism.^[460] Approximately 6% are Buddhists, 2% are Christians, and 1% are Muslims.^[460] In addition to Han people's local religious practices, there are also various ethnic minority groups in China who maintain their traditional autochthone religions. Various sects of indigenous origin comprise 2—3% of the population, while Confucianism as a religious self-designation is popular among intellectuals. Significant faiths specifically connected to certain ethnic groups include Tibetan Buddhism and the Islamic religion of the Hui and Uyghur peoples.

Temple of the Great Buddha in Midong, Urumqi, Xinjiang. China has many of the tallest statues in the world, and most of them represent deities and buddhas.

Temple of the White Sulde of Genghis Khan in the town of Uxin in Inner Mongolia, in the Mu Us Desert. Religion in Inner Mongolia blends Chinese and Mongolian folk religious traditions.

Xuanyuan Temple in Huangling, Yan'an, Shaanxi, dedicated to the worship of the Yellow Emperor (said to be the ancestor of all Chinese) at the ideal sacred centre of China.^[t]

Temple of Guandi in Chaoyang, Liaoning. Religion in Northeast China is characterised by the interaction of folk religions of Chinese and Manchus (Manchu folk religion). Confucian religious movements like Shanrendao are widespread.

Taoists of the Zhengyi order bowing during a rite at the White Cloud Temple of Shanghai. Taoism is a set of orders of philosophy and rite that operate as frameworks of Chinese religion, alongside vernacular ritual traditions.

Larung Gar Academy of Tibetan Buddhism in Sêrtar, Garzê, Sichuan. Founded in the 1980s, it is now the largest monastic institution in the world, with about 40,000 members of which 1/10 Han Chinese.

The City of the Eight Symbols in Qi, Hebi, is the headquarters of the Weixinist Church in Henan. Weixinism is a 21st-century renewal movement of Chinese religion and philosophy.

Culture

Main articles: Chinese culture and Culture of the People's Republic of China

The Temple of Heaven, a center of heaven worship and an UNESCO World Heritage site, symbolizes the Interactions Between Heaven and Mankind.^[462]

Since ancient times, Chinese culture has been heavily influenced by Confucianism and conservative philosophies. For much of the country's dynastic era, opportunities for social advancement could be provided by high performance in the prestigious imperial examinations, which have their origins in the Han Dynasty.^[463] The literary emphasis of the exams affected the general perception of cultural refinement in China, such as the belief that calligraphy, poetry and painting were higher forms of art than dancing or drama. Chinese culture has long emphasized a sense of deep history and a largely inward-looking national perspective.^[18] Examinations and a culture of merit remain greatly valued in China today.^[464]
The first leaders of the People's Republic of China were born into the traditional imperial order, but were influenced by the May Fourth Movement and reformist ideals. They sought to change some traditional aspects of Chinese culture, such as rural land tenure, sexism, and the Confucian system of education, while preserving others, such as the family structure and culture of obedience to the state. Some observers see the period following the establishment of the PRC in 1949 as a continuation of traditional Chinese dynastic history, while others claim that the Communist Party's rule has damaged the foundations of Chinese culture, especially through political movements such as the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, where many aspects of traditional culture were destroyed, having been denounced as "regressive and harmful" or "vestiges of feudalism". Many important aspects of traditional Chinese morals and culture, such as Confucianism, art, literature, and performing arts like Peking opera,^[465] were altered to conform to government policies and propaganda at the time. Access to foreign media remains heavily restricted.^[466]
Today, the Chinese government has accepted numerous elements of traditional Chinese culture as being integral to Chinese society. With the rise of Chinese nationalism and the end of the Cultural Revolution, various forms of traditional Chinese art, literature, music, film, fashion and architecture have seen a vigorous revival,^[467][468] and folk and variety art in particular have sparked interest nationally and even worldwide.^[469] China is now the third-most-visited country in the world,^[470] with 55.7 million inbound international visitors in 2010.^[471] It also experiences an enormous volume of domestic tourism; an estimated 740 million Chinese holidaymakers travelled within the country in October 2012 alone.^[472]

Languages

Languages

Main articles: Languages of China and List of endangered languages in China

1990 map of Chinese ethnolinguistic groups

There are as many as 292 living languages in China.^[409] The languages most commonly spoken belong to the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, which contains Mandarin (spoken natively by 70% of the population),^[410] and other Chinese varieties: Yue (including Cantonese and Taishanese), Wu (including Shanghainese and Suzhounese), Min (including Fuzhounese, Hokkien and Teochew), Xiang, Gan and Hakka. Languages of the Tibeto-Burman branch, including Tibetan, Qiang, Naxi and Yi, are spoken across the Tibetan and Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau. Other ethnic minority languages in southwest China include Zhuang, Thai, Dong and Sui of the Tai-Kadai family, Miao and Yao of the Hmong–Mien family, and Wa of the Austroasiatic family. Across northeastern and northwestern China, minority ethnic groups speak Altaic languages including Manchu, Mongolian and several Turkic languages: Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Salar and Western Yugur. Korean is spoken natively along the border with North Korea. Sarikoli, the language of Tajiks in western Xinjiang, is an Indo-European language. Taiwanese aborigines, including a small population on the mainland, speak Austronesian languages.^[411]
Standard Mandarin, a variety of Mandarin based on the Beijing dialect, is the official national language of China and is used as a lingua franca in the country between people of different linguistic backgrounds.^[412]
Chinese characters have been used as the written script for the Sinitic languages for thousands of years. They allow speakers of mutually unintelligible Chinese varieties to communicate with each other through writing. In 1956, the government introduced simplified characters, which have supplanted the older traditional characters in mainland China. Chinese characters are romanized using the Pinyin system. Tibetan uses an alphabet based on an Indic script. Uyghur is most commonly written in a Perseo-Arabic script. The Mongolian script used in China and the Manchu script are both derived from the Old Uyghur alphabet. Modern Zhuang uses the Latin alphabet.

Urbanization

See also: List of cities in China, List of cities in China by population, and Metropolitan regions of China

Map of the ten largest cities in China (2010)

China has urbanized significantly in recent decades. The percent of the country's population living in urban areas increased from 20% in 1980 to over 50% in 2014.^{[413][414][415]} It is estimated that China's urban population will reach one billion by 2030, potentially equivalent to one-eighth of the world population.^[413][414] As of 2012, there are more than 262 million migrant workers in China, mostly rural migrants seeking work in cities.^[416]
China has over 160 cities with a population of over one million,^[417] including the seven megacities (cities with a population of over 10 million) of Chongqing, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Shenzhen, and Wuhan.^{[418][419][420]} By 2025, it is estimated that the country will be home to 221 cities with over a million inhabitants.^[413] The figures in the table below are from the 2010 census,^[3] and are only estimates of the urban populations within administrative city limits; a different ranking exists when considering the total municipal populations (which includes suburban and rural populations). The large "floating populations" of migrant workers make conducting censuses in urban areas difficult;^[421] the figures below include only long-term residents.

v t e Largest cities or towns in China Sixth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (2010)
	Rank	Name	Province	Pop.	Rank	Name	Province	Pop.
Shanghai Beijing	1	Shanghai	Shanghai	20,217,700	11	Chengdu	Sichuan	6,316,900	Chongqing Guangzhou
	2	Beijing	Beijing	16,446,900	12	Nanjing	Jiangsu	6,238,200
	3	Chongqing	Chongqing	11,871,200	13	Shenyang	Liaoning	5,718,200
	4	Guangzhou	Guangdong	10,641,400	14	Hangzhou	Zhejiang	5,578,300
	5	Shenzhen	Guangdong	10,358,400	15	Xi'an	Shaanxi	5,399,300
	6	Tianjin	Tianjin	9,562,300	16	Harbin	Heilongjiang	5,178,000
	7	Wuhan	Hubei	7,541,500	17	Suzhou	Jiangsu	4,083,900
	8	Dongguan	Guangdong	7,271,300	18	Qingdao	Shandong	3,990,900
	9	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	7,055,071	19	Dalian	Liaoning	3,902,500
	10	Foshan	Guangdong	6,771,900	20	Zhengzhou	Henan	3,677,000

Education

Main articles: Education in the People's Republic of China and List of universities in China

Beijing's Tsinghua University, one of the top-ranked universities in China^[422]

Since 1986, compulsory education in China comprises primary and junior secondary school, which together last for nine years.^[423] In 2010, about 82.5 percent of students continued their education at a three-year senior secondary school.^[424] The Gaokao, China's national university entrance exam, is a prerequisite for entrance into most higher education institutions. In 2010, 27 percent of secondary school graduates are enrolled in higher education.^[425] Vocational education is available to students at the secondary and tertiary level.^[426]
In February 2006, the government pledged to provide completely free nine-year education, including textbooks and fees.^[427] Annual education investment went from less than US$50 billion in 2003 to more than US$250 billion in 2011.^[428] However, there remains an inequality in education spending. In 2010, the annual education expenditure per secondary school student in Beijing totalled ¥20,023, while in Guizhou, one of the poorest provinces in China, only totalled ¥3,204.^[429] Free compulsory education in China consists of primary school and junior secondary school between the ages of 6 and 15. In 2011, around 81.4% of Chinese have received secondary education.^[430] By 2007, there were 396,567 primary schools, 94,116 secondary schools, and 2,236 higher education institutions in China.^[431]
As of 2010, 94% of the population over age 15 are literate,^[432] compared to only 20% in 1950.^[433] In 2009, Chinese students from Shanghai achieved the world's best results in mathematics, science and literacy, as tested by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a worldwide evaluation of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance.^[434] Despite the high results, Chinese education has also faced both native and international criticism for its emphasis on rote memorization and its gap in quality from rural to urban areas.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of China

A 2009 population density map of the People's Republic of China. The eastern coastal provinces are much more densely populated than the western interior

The national census of 2010 recorded the population of the People's Republic of China as approximately 1,370,536,875. About 16.60% of the population were 14 years old or younger, 70.14% were between 15 and 59 years old, and 13.26% were over 60 years old.^[394] The population growth rate for 2013 is estimated to be 0.46%.^[395]
Although a middle-income country by Western standards, China's rapid growth has pulled hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty since 1978. Today, about 10% of the Chinese population lives below the poverty line of US$1 per day, down from 64% in 1978. In 2014, the urban unemployment rate of China was about 4.1%.^[396][397]
With a population of over 1.3 billion and dwindling natural resources, the government of China is very concerned about its population growth rate and has attempted since 1979, with mixed results,^[398] to implement a strict family planning policy, known as the "one-child policy." Before 2013, this policy sought to restrict families to one child each, with exceptions for ethnic minorities and a degree of flexibility in rural areas. A major loosening of the policy was enacted in December 2013, allowing families to have two children if one parent is an only child.^[399] In 2016, the one-child policy was replaced in favor of a two-child policy.^[400] Data from the 2010 census implies that the total fertility rate may be around 1.4.^[401]

Population of China from 1949 to 2008^{[needs update]}

The policy, along with traditional preference for boys, may be contributing to an imbalance in the sex ratio at birth.^[402][403] According to the 2010 census, the sex ratio at birth was 118.06 boys for every 100 girls,^[404] which is beyond the normal range of around 105 boys for every 100 girls.^[405] The 2010 census found that males accounted for 51.27 percent of the total population.^[404] However, China's sex ratio is more balanced than it was in 1953, when males accounted for 51.82 percent of the total population.^[404]

Ethnic groups

Main articles: List of ethnic groups in China, Ethnic minorities in China, and Ethnic groups in Chinese history

A trilingual sign in Sibsongbanna, with Tai Lü language on the top.

China officially recognizes 56 distinct ethnic groups, the largest of which are the Han Chinese, who constitute about 91.51% of the total population.^[10] The Han Chinese – the world's largest single ethnic group^[406] – outnumber other ethnic groups in every provincial-level division except Tibet and Xinjiang.^[407] Ethnic minorities account for about 8.49% of the population of China, according to the 2010 census.^[10] Compared with the 2000 population census, the Han population increased by 66,537,177 persons, or 5.74%, while the population of the 55 national minorities combined increased by 7,362,627 persons, or 6.92%.^[10] The 2010 census recorded a total of 593,832 foreign citizens living in China. The largest such groups were from South Korea (120,750), the United States (71,493) and Japan (66,159).^[408]

Infrastructure

Telecommunications

Main article: Telecommunications in China

China currently has the largest number of active cellphones of any country in the world, with over 1 billion users by February 2012.^[361] It also has the world's largest number of internet and broadband users,^[362] with over 688 million internet users as of 2016, equivalent to around half of its population.^[363] The national average broadband connection speed is 9.46 MB/s, ranking China 91st in the world in terms of internet speed.^[363] As of July 2013, China accounts for 24% of the world's internet-connected devices.^[364] Since 2011 China is the nation with the most installed telecommunication bandwidth in the world. By 2014, China hosts more than twice as much national bandwidth potential than the U.S., the historical leader in terms of installed telecommunication bandwidth (China: 29% versus US:13% of the global total).^[365]
China Telecom and China Unicom, the world's two largest broadband providers, accounted for 20% of global broadband subscribers. China Telecom alone serves more than 50 million broadband subscribers, while China Unicom serves more than 40 million.^[366] Several Chinese telecommunications companies, most notably Huawei and ZTE, have been accused of spying for the Chinese military.^[367]
China is developing its own satellite navigation system, dubbed Beidou, which began offering commercial navigation services across Asia in 2012,^[368] and is planned to offer global coverage by 2020.^[369]

Transport

The Baling River Bridge is one of the world's highest

Main article: Transport in China

Since the late 1990s, China's national road network has been significantly expanded through the creation of a network of national highways and expressways. In 2011 China's highways had reached a total length of 85,000 km (53,000 mi), making it the longest highway system in the world.^[370] In 1991, there were only six bridges across the main stretch of the Yangtze River, which bisects the country into northern and southern halves. By October 2014, there were 81 such bridges and tunnels.
China has the world's largest market for automobiles, having surpassed the United States in both auto sales and production. Auto sales in 2009 exceeded 13.6 million^[371] and may reach 40 million by 2020.^[372] A side-effect of the rapid growth of China's road network has been a significant rise in traffic accidents,^[373] with poorly enforced traffic laws cited as a possible cause—in 2011 alone, around 62,000 Chinese died in road accidents.^[374] In urban areas, bicycles remain a common mode of transport, despite the increasing prevalence of automobiles – as of 2012, there are approximately 470 million bicycles in China.^[375]

Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport is the 2nd-largest airport terminal in the world

China's railways, which are state-owned, are among the busiest in the world, handling a quarter of the world's rail traffic volume on only 6 percent of the world's tracks in 2006.^[376][377] As of 2013, the country had 103,144 km (64,091 mi) of railways, the third longest network in the world.^[378] All provinces and regions are connected to the rail network except Macau. The railways strain to meet enormous demand particularly during the Chinese New Year holiday, when the world's largest annual human migration takes place.^[377] In 2013, Chinese railways delivered 2.106 billion passenger trips, generating 1,059.56 billion passenger-kilometers and carried 3.967 billion tons of freight, generating 2,917.4 billion cargo tons-kilometers.^[378]
China's high-speed rail (HSR) system started construction in the early 2000s. Today it has over 19,000 kilometers (11,806 miles) of dedicated lines alone, a length that exceeds rest of the world's high-speed rail tracks combined,^[379] making it the longest HSR network in the world.^[380] With an annual ridership of over 1.1 billion passengers in 2015 it is the world's busiest.^[381] The network includes the Beijing–Guangzhou–Shenzhen High-Speed Railway, the single longest HSR line in the world, and the Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway, which has three of longest railroad bridges in the world.^[382] The HSR track network is set to reach approximately 16,000 km (9,900 mi) by 2020.^[383] The Shanghai Maglev Train, which reaches 431 km/h (268 mph), is the fastest commercial train service in the world.^[384]

The Shanghai Maglev Train

Since 2000, the growth of rapid transit systems in Chinese cities has accelerated. As of January 2016, 26 Chinese cities have urban mass transit systems in operation and 39 more have metro systems approved^[385] with a dozen more to join them by 2020.^[386] The Shanghai Metro, Beijing Subway, Guangzhou Metro, Hong Kong MTR and Shenzhen Metro are among the longest and busiest in the world.

The China Railways CRH380A, an indigenous Chinese bullet train

There were 182 commercial airports in China in 2012. With 82 new airports planned to open by 2015, more than two-thirds of the airports under construction worldwide in 2013 were in China,^[387] and Boeing expects that China's fleet of active commercial aircraft in China will grow from 1,910 in 2011 to 5,980 in 2031.^[387] With rapid expansion in civil aviation, the largest airports in China have also joined the ranks of the busiest in the world. In 2013, Beijing's Capital Airport ranked second in the world by passenger traffic (it was 26th in 2002). Since 2010, the Hong Kong International Airport and Shanghai Pudong International Airport have ranked first and third in air cargo tonnage.
Some 80% of China's airspace remains restricted for military use, and Chinese airlines made up eight of the 10 worst-performing Asian airlines in terms of delays.^[388] China has over 2,000 river and seaports, about 130 of which are open to foreign shipping. In 2012, the Ports of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Ningbo-Zhoushan, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Tianjin, Dalian ranked in the top in the world in container traffic and cargo tonnage.^[389]

The Port of Shanghai's deep water harbor on Yangshan Island in the Hangzhou Bay became the world's busiest container port in 2010

Water supply and sanitation

Main article: Water supply and sanitation in China

Water supply and sanitation infrastructure in China is facing challenges such as rapid urbanization, as well as water scarcity, contamination, and pollution.^[390] According to data presented by the Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation of WHO and UNICEF in 2015, about 36% of the rural population in China still did not have access to improved sanitation.^[391] In June 2010, there were 1,519 sewage treatment plants in China and 18 plants were added each week.^[392] The ongoing South–North Water Transfer Project intends to abate water shortage in the north.^[393]

Science and technology

Main articles: Science and technology in China and Chinese space program

History of science and technology in China
Inventions Four Great Inventions Discoveries
By subject
Mathematics Astronomy Calendar Units of measurement Cartography Printing Ceramics Metallurgy Coinage Chinese Alchemy Traditional medicine herbology Agriculture Sericulture Silk industry Architecture Classic gardens Bridges Transport Navigation Military Navy
By era
Han Tang Song People's Republic Agriculture
v t e

Historical

China was a world leader in science and technology until the Ming Dynasty. Ancient Chinese discoveries and inventions, such as papermaking, printing, the compass, and gunpowder (the Four Great Inventions), later became widespread in Asia and Europe. Chinese mathematicians were the first to use negative numbers.^[333][334] However, by the 17th century, the Western world had surpassed China in scientific and technological development.^[335] The causes of this Great Divergence continue to be debated.^[336]
After repeated military defeats by Western nations in the 19th century, Chinese reformers began promoting modern science and technology as part of the Self-Strengthening Movement. After the Communists came to power in 1949, efforts were made to organize science and technology based on the model of the Soviet Union, in which scientific research was part of central planning.^[337] After Mao's death in 1976, science and technology was established as one of the Four Modernizations,^[338] and the Soviet-inspired academic system was gradually reformed.^[339]

Modern era

Since the end of the Cultural Revolution, China has made significant investments in scientific research,^[340] with $163 billion spent on scientific research and development in 2012.^[341] Science and technology are seen as vital for achieving China's economic and political goals, and are held as a source of national pride to a degree sometimes described as "techno-nationalism".^[342] Nonetheless, China's investment in basic and applied scientific research remains behind that of leading technological powers such as the United States and Japan.^[340][341] Chinese-born scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Physics four times, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Physiology or Medicine once respectively, though most of these scientists conducted their Nobel-winning research in western nations.^[r]

The launch of a Chinese Long March 3B rocket

China is developing its education system with an emphasis on science, mathematics and engineering; in 2009, China graduated over 10,000 Ph.D. engineers, and as many as 500,000 BSc graduates, more than any other country.^[348] China is also the world's second-largest publisher of scientific papers, producing 121,500 in 2010 alone, including 5,200 in leading international scientific journals.^[349] Chinese technology companies such as Huawei and Lenovo have become world leaders in telecommunications and personal computing,^{[350][351][352]} and Chinese supercomputers are consistently ranked among the world's most powerful.^[353][354] China is also expanding its use of industrial robots; from 2008 to 2011, the installation of multi-role robots in Chinese factories rose by 136 percent.^[355]
The Chinese space program is one of the world's most active, and is a major source of national pride.^[356][357] In 1970, China launched its first satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, becoming the fifth country to do so independently.^[358] In 2003, China became the third country to independently send humans into space, with Yang Liwei's spaceflight aboard Shenzhou 5; as of 2015, ten Chinese nationals have journeyed into space, including two women. In 2011, China's first space station module, Tiangong-1, was launched, marking the first step in a project to assemble a large manned station by the early 2020s.^[359] In 2013, China successfully landed the Chang'e 3 probe and Yutu rover onto the Moon; China plans to collect lunar soil samples by 2017.^[360]