Chinese mainland

Mainland China
The highlighted orange area in the map is what is commonly known as "mainland China".
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Literal meaning	Continental China
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōnggúo Dàlù Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄍㄨㄛˊ ㄉㄚˋ ㄌㄨˋ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jonggwo Dahluh Wade–Giles Chung¹-Kuo² Ta⁴-lu⁴ Tongyong Pinyin Jhonggúo Dàlù MPS2 Jūng-gúo Dà-lù Wu Romanization tson平 koh入 du去 loh入 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping zung1 gwok3 daai6 luk6 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tiong-kok Tāi-lio̍k Eastern Min Fuzhou BUC Dṳ̆ng-guók Dâi-lṳ̆k
Alternative Chinese name
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Literal meaning	Inland
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Nèidì Wu Romanization ne去 di去 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping noi6 dei6 Southern Min Hokkien POJ lōe-tē / lōe-tōe

Mainland China, also known as the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is the geopolitical area under the direct jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It generally excludes the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau; however, it usually includes Hainan. The term "mainland China", which avoids calling the area simply "China" and thereby recognizing the founding of the PRC as the "China", was coined by the Kuomintang (KMT) after receiving control of Taiwan from Japan after World War II. By 1949, the KMT-led Republic of China (ROC) government was defeated in the Chinese Civil War in mainland China and fled to the island of Taiwan where the KMT pledged to "retake the Mainland". The KMT considers both sides of the Taiwan Strait (including Taiwan), as (one) "China" and one country, whereas Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) considers only mainland China as "China" and Taiwan (ROC) as "Taiwan" and maintains that they are different countries.

There are two terms in Chinese for "mainland":

In the PRC, the usage of the two terms are generally interchangeable and there is no prescribed method of reference in any jurisdiction. To emphasize "equal footing" in cross-strait relations, the term is used in official contexts with reference to Taiwan, with the PRC referring to itself as "the mainland side" (as opposed to "the Taiwan side"). But in its relations with Hong Kong and Macau, the PRC government refers to itself as "the Central People's Government".

"Mainland" area is the opposing term to "free area of the Republic of China" used in the ROC Constitution (as amended in April 2000). It treats the "mainland" as part of ROC's territory despite the lack of effective control.