本书内容主要有：朝代历史纪元，民族及少数民族政策。宗教，儒家思想对中国的影响，科举与教育体制，节日与民俗，图腾，饮食文化，文学与戏剧，书法及绘画，园林与建筑，音乐，工艺品，中医药，旅游景点与世界文化遗产等等。接受培训的外国学生在亲眼看到和亲身感受到中国文化所具有的不同特点和独特魅力之时，也实际感受到世界文化的多元性，自觉增进跨文化交流的意识，从而帮助他们真切地了解中国人的观念、学习、工作和生活，进而对中国产生真实的认知。

本书力求深入浅出，通俗易懂，为初步接触中国历史与文化的外国朋友提供一个生动有趣的读物；同时也希望成为在进一步探索中国历史与文化道路上游兴正浓的中外朋友们的一个尽职向导。

Part 1 Basic National Conditions and History

Chapter 1 Geography of China

Section 1 Area and Position

Section 2 Physical Features

Section 3 Climatic Characteristics

Section 4 General Introduction of Rivers

Chapter 2 Chinese Culture's Formation and Development

Section 1 Prehistoric Culture

Section 2 The Xia, the Shang and the Western Zhou Dynasties

Section 3 The Spring and the Autumn Period, the Warring States Period

Section 4 The Qin and the Han Dynasties

Section 5 The Wei and the Jin, the Northern and the Southern Dynasties

Section 6 The Sui and Tang Dynasties

Section 7 The Song, Liao, Xia, Jin and Yuan Dynasties

Section 8 The Ming and the Qing Dynasties

Part 2 Ancient Capital Cities--Epitome of the History

Chapter 3 Beijing--an Ancient and Modern Capital City

Section 1 Beijing as an Ancient Capital

Section 2 Beijing as a Modern City

Section 3 Beijing's World Cultural Heritage

Section 4 Beijing's Hutong and Siheyuan

Section 5 Museums

Chapter 4 Xi'an-- an Ancient Capital City, the World's 8th Wonder

Section 1 Ancient Capital Xian'yang

Section 2 Ancient Capital Chang'an (present Xi'an)

Section 3 Qin Mausoleum

Section 4 the World's 8th Wonder

Section 5 Secret of Famen Temple

Part 3 Philosophy and Religion

Part 4 Civilization and Culture

Part 5 Science and Technology

Part 6 Literature and Art

Part 7 Tradition and Customs

Part 8 China--a Big Family of 56 Nationalities

Reference