Who are the Chinese?

We are in sub-zero Beijing. Dropped the first morning at the one end of Tian'an Men Square to walk across it to the Forbidden City.
It is so cold we cannot focus properly on anything but keeping ourselves together and hoping that the walking will generate some body heat.
But more than the cold, it is the vastness that overwhelms. The guide tells us that a million people have gathered here. I reflect that for a vast country with more than a billion people a very big heart of the empire is probably appropriate. But there is no human scale here.No trees. Just the massive Great Hall of the People at one end, the China National Museum opposite and the Mausoleum of Mau in the middle. We walk through the Ming dynasty gate of Tian'an Men where Mau proclaimed the People's Republic of China in 1949 and where his huge photograph still looms, into the Forbidden City. Past the still standing Red Guards and among thousands of visiting Chinese. Hardly a Westerner to be seen anywhere.
Again the feeling of structures so big that there seems to be no human scale. I think of royal palaces and imperial complexes built at about the same time, in the early 15th century, in England, Europe, the Middle East, South America and even Japan, but nothing as forbidding. We walk through the various gates from Gate of Supreme Harmony through several more until the Gate of Heavenly Purity and all the time a feeling of being diminished by the scale of the structures. And the superstitions. From the child-like, water suggesting animal figures to protect these wooden buildings from fire, to the ever-present dragons indicating the power of the Emporer and to ward off evil spirits. Still no trees. The guide tells us that the word for tree is similar to that of death, so no trees. Life at the Imperial court is dominated by staus and hierarchy. Only the Emporer may walk in the middle. No house or structure that he can see may be higher than his. Ministers and other court officials have offices that are substantially lower in the same complex .
If a significant purpose of travel is to understand something of other cultures, what am I experiencing and learning about China? And the Chinese personality? If these people are becoming a dominant force in the world owning increasingly big chunks of Africa and much else including a substantial part of the debt of America, what are we dealing with? The modern Chinese are obviously different from their early ancestors but the roots of their culture and the DNA of their values must be influenced by where they all come from. In looking at the psychology of people we conclude that if someone tries to be 'closed off' or tries to build a wall around himself that he is insecure and vulnerable. Someone making grand imposing gestures and focussing on status may be seen as hiding some sense of inferiority. Is any of this an indication of a 'Chinese Personality'?
When we finally settle into a warm tea house, we cautiously start questioning our guide. He tells us that he, like the many millions of modern Chinese has one son. No other children are allowed. If they have a daughter as a first child they may, with permission try again. (Any sense of gender-equality has a long way to go here..) If a 'secret' child is born the child may not claim an identity card or have access to national privileges such as education. In the country farm-and peasant-folk may have a second child. Presumably because they provide a source of labour. They say the Chinese have a much longer strategic view of leadership and political governance, but I wonder how they did not anticipate the need for wives of these one child boy-families who often abort girl-fetusses.
Perhaps one of the most impressive aspects of this country is that when a decision is made, somehow, everryone proceeds in lock-step to make it work. How could one man change the entire philosophical structure of such a populous country? With what seems like relatively little opposition. How do businesses manage to get everyone tp work together without dissenters and rebellion? Look at Chinese projects in Africa. They get things done!