An updated China guide please?

[Genghis Khaiser]

Playing as China can be pretty frustrating, especially in the 3000 BC scenario. India keeps being ahead of me, there are constant barbarian invasions, and Confucianism and Taoism are auto-founded, so I can't have a pagan strategy for too long.
My questions:
Which cities should I found (besides Luoyang)? What technologies should I go for? What should I build in my cities? Which Wonders should I build? Which civics should I adopt?

 

[Novicenoble]

In my last (normal/Regent) game, I've gone straight to Oracle, took some techs for the calendar. I started major expansion when my plantations could afford my city costs. Build the Great wall when your northern cities got good culture radius, so you can defeat nomads easily in Beijing. Send lots of spears and horses into Beijing and 2 Swordmen/Chukonu to the Tibet side (Chang'an, 2s of the iron tile in my case.) Took Manila, Hanoi, and pagan (1N of city spawn). Burnt Shimyang, captured Rassa and vassalized Korea, SE Asia, and Japan. Go for tributaries and get conquistador event for more vassal cities. Send some scouts to the west and keep trading techs. If you once achieved tech advantage from the others, it would be easy to keep it with your massive commerce production.

 

[Genghis Khaiser]

In my last (normal/Regent) game, I've gone straight to Oracle, took some techs for the calendar. I started major expansion when my plantations could afford my city costs. Build the Great wall when your northern cities got good culture radius, so you can defeat nomads easily in Beijing. Send lots of spears and horses into Beijing and 2 Swordmen/Chukonu to the Tibet side (Chang'an, 2s of the iron tile in my case.) Took Manila, Hanoi, and pagan (1N of city spawn). Burnt Shimyang, captured Rassa and vassalized Korea, SE Asia, and Japan. Go for tributaries and get conquistador event for more vassal cities. Send some scouts to the west and keep trading techs. If you once achieved tech advantage from the others, it would be easy to keep it with your massive commerce production.

After Calendar, what technologies did you go for? Did you go for Compass, Paper, or Architecture?

 

[Novicenoble]

After Calendar, what technologies did you go for? Did you go for Compass, Paper, or Architecture?

As far as I remember, I've gone for 2 ancient Confucianism wonders first then ran straight to the Paper and then the Compass.

 

[Hightower]

I've never done a paganism-oriented game as China. The most effective strategy in my mind is still to more or less beeline to Taixue, build them everywhere and use Scientist specialists to run your research for a long time. After you have Taixue, focus on the Confucian wonders and setting up your economy. You will be behind the other civs for a while, but, once you can trade techs with the Mediterranean civs, you'll accelerate, and you should be able to pull ahead around the late Classical period and then never surrender the tech lead. Do be careful not to leave Gunpowder too late, though, as unless India collapses there's a good chance they'll get it before you if you're not paying attention, since the AI generally prioritizes military techs. As a general matter, though, learning which techs the AIs prefer and focusing on other branches of the tech tree will be highly rewarding both in terms of being able to take advantage of China's UP and to be able to trade advantageously.

This advice holds true for Regent, anyway. At higher difficulty levels, more novel strategies are probably needed.