Religion in China

China is a multi-religious country, and Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Christian are the main religions in the country. China is also a multi-nationalities country that most of the 55 ethnic minorities observe a religion, for instance, Tibetans observe Buddhism, Hui people observe Islam. Incomplete statistics show that there are more than 100 million religious followers in China with over 85 000 religious sites, over 3000 religious groups and some 74 religious colleges. Chinese people enjoy the freedom of religious belief according to low, and regular religious activities are protected by the Constitution. All religious believers and non-religious people in the country respect for each other in beliefs and customs and live together in harmonies.

In the long history of China, the religious cultures have developed into an important part of Chinese traditional ideology and culture. Taoism and Buddhism are the two main religions that exerted great influence in the thinking of Chinese people just second to the Confucianism, which is a philosophy rather that a religion and is the basic but foremost belief that nearly all Chinese people follow with. Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism are called the Three Pillars of traditional Chinese culture; they have exerted great influence on the thinking of the Chinese people as well as on almost every aspect in political, economic and cultural life of the country.