Chinese President Hu Jintao starts a state visit to the United Kingdom on Tuesday at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II. The following is a general introduction to the United Kingdom.

The full name of the country is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is called the United Kingdom (UK) for short.

Located on the fringe of Western Europe, the UK consists of the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland and a number of small islands such as the Western Isles off Scotland and the Isles of Scilly off southwest England. The country lies in the north Atlantic Ocean situated off the coast of northwest France, with a total area of 243,600 sq km and a population of 60.44 million (July 2005). It has 360-km land boundaries with Ireland and an 11,450-km coastline.

Britain has played an important role in the development of human societies. The country saw a historic bourgeois revolution in 1640 and the establishment of a republic in 1649. In 1668, the British constitutional monarchy was set up. Britain became the United Kingdom with the inclusion of Scotland and Northern Ireland in 1707 and 1801 respectively.

Britain realized its industrial revolution from 1760s to 1830s, becoming the world's first industrialized country. In the early 20th century, the United Kingdom became the biggest colonialist power of the globe and occupied a huge oversea colony more than 100 times larger than its metropolitan territory.

Great Britain was the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, playing a leading role in developing parliamentary democracy and in advancing literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one-fourth of the earth's surface and claimed to be "the empire on which the sun never sets."

The first half of the 20th century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted in two World Wars. The second half witnessed the dismantling of the empire and the rebuilding of the UK into a modern and prosperous European nation.

As one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and of the Commonwealth of Nations, the UK pursues a global approach to foreign policy; it currently is weighing the degree of its integration with continental Europe. A member of the European Union (EU), it chose to remain outside the Economic and Monetary Union for the time being.

Constitutional reform is also a significant issue in the UK. The Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly were established in 1999, but the latter has been suspended due to various disagreements over the peace process.

The United Kingdom recognized the People's Republic of China in 1950 and the two countries established bilateral ambassadorial level diplomatic relations in 1972. The two sides signed the Sino-British joint declaration on the question of Hong Kong on Dec. 19, 1984, which proclaimed that the Chinese government would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1, 1997.

The two countries held on schedule a handover ceremony to mark China's resumption of the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1, 1997.

In 1998, the two peoples witnessed the exchange of the visits of heads of government and the establishment of full partnership between the two states.

At the invitation of the British government, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao paid an official visit to Britain in 2004. The two nations forged full strategic partnership and a mechanism of regular meetings of leaders.

Last year, the UK was the biggest EU investor for China and the third biggest EU trade partner of China, as their total trade volume reached 19.73 billion US dollars, up 37.1 percent from one year earlier.