General China Information
Administrative divisions:
23 provinces (sheng,
singular and plural), 5 autonomous regions (zizhiqu, singular and plural), and
4 municipalities (shi, singular and plural)
provinces: Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei,
Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Qinghai,
Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang; (see note on Taiwan)
autonomous regions: Guangxi, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Xinjiang Uygur, Xizang
(Tibet)
municipalities: Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, Tianjin
special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau
|
Location:
|
Eastern Asia, bordering the East
China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and
Vietnam
|
|
Geographic coordinates:
|
35 00 N, 105 00 E
|
|
Map references:
|
Asia
|
|
Area:
|
total: 9,596,960 sq km
land: 9,326,410 sq km
water: 270,550 sq km
|
|
Area - comparative:
|
slightly smaller than the US
|
|
Land boundaries:
|
total: 22,117 km
border countries: Afghanistan 76 km, Bhutan 470 km, Burma 2,185 km,
India 3,380 km, Kazakhstan 1,533 km, North Korea 1,416 km, Kyrgyzstan 858 km,
Laos 423 km, Mongolia 4,677 km, Nepal 1,236 km, Pakistan 523 km, Russia
(northeast) 3,605 km, Russia (northwest) 40 km, Tajikistan 414 km, Vietnam
1,281 km
regional borders: Hong Kong 30 km, Macau 0.34 km
|
|
Coastline:
|
14,500 km
|
|
Maritime claims:
|
territorial sea: 12 nm
contiguous zone: 24 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin
|
|
Climate:
|
extremely diverse; tropical in south
to subarctic in north
|
|
Terrain:
|
mostly mountains, high plateaus,
deserts in west; plains, deltas, and hills in east
|
|
Elevation extremes:
|
lowest point: Turpan Pendi
-154 m
highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m
|
|
Natural resources:
|
coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural
gas, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium,
magnetite, aluminum, lead, zinc, uranium, hydropower potential (world's
largest)
|
|
Land use:
|
arable land: 14.86%
permanent crops: 1.27%
other: 83.87% (2005)
|
|
Irrigated land:
|
545,960 sq km (2003)
|
|
Natural hazards:
|
frequent typhoons (about five per
year along southern and eastern coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis;
earthquakes; droughts; land subsidence
|
|
|
|
Environment - international
agreements:
|
party to: Antarctic-Environmental
Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber
83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
|
|
Geography - note:
|
world's fourth largest country (after Russia, Canada, and US); Mount Everest on
the border with Nepal is the world's tallest peak |
| 
