1.   A lot of Chinese want to go to Europe and America..

Do a lot of Americans and Europeans want to move to China?

2.  America and Europe are very important places in the eyes of Chinese people.

Is China an appealing place for Europeans and Americans?

Ancient Chinese history was mentioned in my HS textbooks, but it was never part of the lessons. From newer history Opium Wars, Mao opening up and Tiananmen were all mentioned very briefly in class. 

I also recall that world history was taught very sparsely in history class. Even the American Indians got more coverage. Perhaps it's due to political dislike, perhaps it's a precaution to not offend the CCP and its propagandized history edits. Or, perhaps China wasn't really the hub of culture throughout the ages that we've been led to believe. Their greatest literature contains stories that seem written by children, their kingdoms were rife with cruelty and atrocities, and they never really achieved military successes abroad. Maybe we weren't told much because there's not much to tell. Or maybe Chinese hisory was censored for excessive violence, as it was deemed unfit for impressionable young minds...

Alexander the Great couldn't be bothered going there. Marco Polo brought them noodles and they stared at him. China built a big wall that fell apart while the pyramids are still standing.

In French middle-school and high-schools circa 1990-2000. We learned not that much about Chinese history before 1850, just that they had dynasties and that brought a lot of social and technical innovations. Basically, while it was the Dark Ages in Europe, they were much better off. Then, maybe the lack of competition, they had a snooze while in Europe things were (violently) flourishing

Then, from 1850 to 1950, we had several classes, going through in several hours (I would say 4 to 6 hours):

* the end-of-Qing mess and their not-quite-adequate handling of the situation

* the various sacks and outright theft from foreign powers, the Unfair Treaties

* the Boxer's Rebellion, the Taiping Rebellion

* The First Republic and immediate fall
* The Warlord era

* The raise of Chiang Kai Sheck and the communists

* Japanese invasion and the stalemate
* Civil war, Chiang Kai Sheck and his cronies goes to Taiwan with the family jewels

We had some words about Deng's reform, but it was back in the 90's, so things were still too fresh to be history

I worked in a North Carolina High School as a history teacher before coming to China and students were given a brief overview of the Qing, Ming, Tang, and Han dynasties. Mao Zedong was only mentioned in passing as well as Tiananmen. The reason for not including more Chinese history was because in NC there is not state exam for world history only US history therefore it is up to the history department to decide which era's to focus on and how long to talk about each is left up to the individual teacher. Much more time was spent talking about Greece, the Roman Empire, the influence of the Church and ancient Egyptian society later in the school year World War II and the Cold War were covered extensively. Teaching world history is a massive undertaking and like it or not certain aspects are pushed to the back burner especially in rural North Carolina.

We spent two days on it in my sophomore year world history class. I remember hearing about the Cultural Revolution and Deng Xiaoping, and also the Boxer Rebellion, but these just seemed like little irrelevant tidbits to be memorized for the exam. Only coming here do I understand what they are about, but Ch. has very little influence on the development of western civilization so it is a little bit like devoting time to the study of Martian history.

In my school we studied the Opium Wars and the dastardly dealings of the east india company, but only as part of our studies of the British empire... what I find most appalling is that we don't really touch on the many many atrocities committed by the British Empire and how the way we haphazardly drew borders and chopped up random countries still causes so many problems today.

Back in the early 90's when I had to do a year of high school to get into uni, I did Modern  History.

That was quite some time back, but I do clearly remember the build up to WWI & WWII, and the Cold War Era, etc. This, therefore, included some background such as the Boxer Rebellion, Opium Wars, etc etc, as well as the more recent Chinese Civil War, the Long March  by Mao and the KMT fleeing to Taiwan (and gaining its independence), and then the Cultural De-evolution, and a bit of the opening up and Deng XiaoPeng., the Russia/China communist alliance against the big bad evil capitalist empire., Vietnam & the Korean Wars - and China's role in them.. etc  etc.

Many Chinese I've talked history about are surprised when I can tell them such things (though, usually, they don't like the stance/interpretation I take on those issues ).

In primary/secondary school history is a pretty fixed curriculum. national history, some European and world history. China is touched in the world history section, but just a bit about different dynasties, nothing about recent Chinese history. The teachers are allowed to adjust how much time is spent on different parts.

In high school, the teacher started day one with listing stuff on the blackboard that he thought could be fun to teach us. He listed both things he was well versed in, and things he'd like to study so he could teach us. As high school back home also has a force class on ancient Greece, this is not part of History, we ended up having a thorough section on Roman history, Byzantine history, and a very interesting section on "though history",/"history of ideas". My high school history teacher is one of the really great teachers I've had. And on Fridays of 3rd year of high school, history was last, so, as per tradition in open minded countries, some of us would go shoot pool with teacher and have beers. 

I can't remember having studied much or any Chinese history up to at the very least high school in the Swedish education system. As with Scandinavian, most of the focus would have been (and probably still is) on national history and European history. Most world history is primarily that which might be interesting for the students and the teacher, in other words mainly history in relation to the ancient and more modern empires of Greece, Rome, Britain and France. 

We did however come to the Opium War and particularly modern Chinese history towards the end of high school with some classes on the Cultural Revolution even. SO I don't think there is too much political sensibility towards controversial topics. Chinese history was  and is just not very popular either with teachers or students. Most of it just seemed repetitive with one dynasty after the other and then the various wars that the Chinese usually lost. 

Lol. I had just started school as much of China's history was being made.  I was in P1 when Nixon was chatting to Mao by his swimming pool.

I can't remember being taught anything about China when I was young, but the Iron curtain was still up in those days. China was still the number 2 potential enemy after the USSR.

Come to think about it, we were fed some horrendous popaganda back then.  Much the same as now really, except these days it's the Islamic militants who fill the gap of the people to be scared of.

When I think back to just a few decades ago, it's amazing that we actually learned anything. The only images I really ever saw of China was under C in the kids Encyclopedia. And I think most pictures were of the cormorant fishermen.

Now almost every smidgeon of information is at one's fingertips.  But not in China of course 

High school history. All I remember from it is something about a peasant uprising and a looong walk. If I knew at the time I would live in China one day I might have paid a bit more attention.

Here are some sites to check out:

www.eslance.com
www.odesk.com

I heard if you go to daves esl cafe and search for the key word "online" then you'll find stuff.

I also teach english online which pays as much or more than the local training schools while saving me from the traffic and taxis.

yes, they do. some basic historical facts know to every country I guess. than you come here and you are surprised, that all the known facts are not very warmly welcomed and they have own versions of all ...

We were not allowed to study Chinese history because of communism at that time. All we had was European history - The Roman Empire and stuff like that. Only after the 80s was Chinese history allowed but not detailed.