Location and Territory

The People's Republic of China is located in the eastern part of the Asian Continent. With a land area of over 9.6 million square km, it is the third largest in the world, behind Russia and Canada.

The Chinese territory stretches about 5,500 km north to south and around 5,000 KM east to west. China is adjacent to many vast seas, including the Boahai Swa, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea.

Countries that border China include North Korea, Russia, Mongolia, Tajijistan, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Laos and Viet Nam. Countries neighboring China across the sea include South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Geographical Features

Much of China is either mountainous or terraced. Of China's total landforms, 33% is mountains, 26% is plateaus, 19 percent is basins, 12 percent is plains, and 10 percent is hills.

The first, or the highest, terrace is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as the "roof of the world," with an average elevation of over 4,000 meters.

Due to its topographical features, most rivers flow east or south into the ocean, thus forming vast outflow river valleys that constitute nearly two-thirds of the national total area. These abundant rivers also provide much of China's electricity. China's rivers, in order of their electrical output (highest to lowest) are: the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, Pearl River, Heilongjiang River, and Yarlung Zangbo.

National Resources

China has abundant natural resources including:

Mineral Resources (petroleum, natural gas, goal, uranium, iron, copper, phosphorous, sulfur)

Marine Resources (Salt Fields, Mariculture, Marine Energy Utilization)

Plant and Animal Resources (Forests, plains, various animal and plant species including valuable birds and insects)

Land Resources (Farm lands, forests, grass lands, rivers)

Climate

China is a huge country, so climate varies greatly from region to region. Moving from the south of China to the north, the climate zones are: Tropical zone, subtropical zone, temperate zone, medium temperate zone, and frigid temp