React js is a JavaScript library created by Facebook in 2013 for building user interfaces and rendering UI components. It uses a virtual DOM to efficiently update the real DOM and allow building of reusable UI components. React code can be written directly in HTML or using JSX syntax and by setting up a React app with Node.js and NPM. Components are the building blocks of React and can be class or function based. Props and state allow passing data to components and re-rendering components on state changes.