And since China has such a long history...lets say...
1) China 1600 to Today.
2) Ancient China from lets say 300 BC to 300 AD more or less.
Those are the two main timelines I care about, but any good book is recommended. Especially if the book is visual in some way, I am a big fan of reading, but maps, timelines, diagrams, etc help me process and incorporate information in a more global and deeper way.
In the one I TAed for, we used this book in addition to some primary source materials. Students found the book helpful as it had lots of maps and images.
Amazon link is too long apparently.
https://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Chinese-Japanese-Civilizations-ebook/dp/B00B7L0A7Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1502819093&sr=1-1&keywords=A+Brief+History+of+Chinese+and+Japanese+Civilizations