It was discovered in 1928 by Chinese astronomer Zhang Yuzhe at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, in the United States.
[2] While studying in Chicago, Chinese astronomer Zhang Yuzhe observed an unknown asteroid, provisionally designated 1928 UF for the first time on 25 October 1928.
Zhongguo is classified as a T-type and X/k-subtype in the Tholen- and SMASS-like taxonomy of the Small Solar System Objects Spectroscopic Survey (S3OS2), respectively.
[7][8] According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Zhongguo measures 14.01 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.099,[5] while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for a carbonaceous asteroidof 0.057 and calculates a diameter of 12.71 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 13.21.
[2] In January 2012, a rotational lightcurve of Zhongguo obtained from photometric observations by astronomers at the Palomar Transient Factory in California.