Background Information
Vast Territory
China is situated in the eastern part of Asia, on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean. It is the third largest country in the world (after Canada and Russia). China has a total land area of 9.6 million squares kilometers.
The distance from east to west measures over 5,200 kilometers, and from north to south, over 5,500 kilometers. When the sun shines brightly over the Wusuli River in the east, the Pamire Plateau in the west is in the very early morning. When blizzards wrap the north along the Helongjiang River in the winter, spring sowing is under way on Hainan Island in the south.
China has a land border of 22,143.34 kilometers long and is bordered by twelve countries: Korea in the east; Russian in the northeast and the northwest; Mongolia in the north; India, Pakistan, Bhutan and Nepal in part of the west and southwest; Burma, Laos and Vietnam in the south. Here is anAsian map.
Besides a vast land area, there are also extensive neighboring seas and numerous island. The coastline extends more than 14.500 kilometers. Across the East China Sea to the east, and South China Sea to the southeast, are Japan, the Philippians, Malaysia, and Indonesia. More than 5,000 islands are scattered over China's vast territorial seas, the largest being Taiwan and the second largest, Hainan. One territorial sea and three neighboring seas altogether constitute 4.73 million square kilometers.
a map of china
The Geography of China
east asia
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Mountainous Topography
China is a mountainous country, with two-thirds of its total land area covered by mountains, hills and plateaus. Out of the world's twelve high peaks of more than 8,000 meters, seven are located in China.
The Highest peak in the world, Mount Qomolangma (8,828m) stands on the border between China and Nepal.
There are five major mountain systems in China. These mountain systems, together with numerous intermontane plateaus, basins, and plains are interwoven into three macrolandform complexes in China.
Therefore, the topography of China from the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau eastward, is broadly arranged into four great steps descending step- by-step from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the coastal area in the east.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the top of the staircase, covers 2.2 million square kilometers and averages 4,000 meters above sea level. It is the highest and largest plateau on earth and is popularly called "roof of the world".
From the eastern margin of Qinghai-Xizang Plateau eastward up to the Da Hinggan-Taihang-Wushan mountains line, composed mainly of plateau and basins with elevation from 2,000 to 1,000 kilometers.
From the above-mentioned line eastward up to the coast are the largest plains of China. The plains are also interspersed with hills generally below 500 kilometers in elevation.
The continental shelf, with an elevation that is generally less than 200 kilometers.
Rivers and Lakes
China has a great number of rivers. The inland river system accounts for 36 per cent of the total land area in China. more than 1,500 square kilometers of which have a catchment area exceeding 1,000 square kilometers.
Among these, the Yangtze River, Yellow River, Heilongjiang River, Pearl River, and Huaihe River are the major ones.
The Yangtze River is the longest river in China and the third longest in the world. it has a total length of 6,300 kilometer and a drainage area of more than 1,800,00 square kilometers. it is an arterial waterway connection such important cities as Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Chongqing.
The yellow river is the second longest river in China. It has a total length of 5,464 kilometers. On its banks lie Lanzhou, Baotou, Zhengzhou, Jinan and other important cities. The yellow river Valley is considered the cradle of Chinese civilization.
China is also a country with numerous lakes. , approximately 2,800 natural lakes with total area more than 80,000 square kilometers. Five major lake regions can be identified:
The Northern lake Region
The Northwester Lake Region
The Qinghai-Xizang lake Region
The Eastern Lake Region
The Southwest Lake Region
Climate
The climate of China is extremely diverse; tropical in the south to subarctic in the north.
Monsoon winds, caused by differences in the heat-absorbing capacity of the continent and the ocean, dominate the climate. Alternating seasonal air-mass movements and accompanying winds are moist in summer and dry in winter. The advance and retreat of the monsoons account in large degree for the timing of the rainy season and the amount of rainfall throughout the country. Tremendous differences in latitude, longitude, and altitude give rise to sharp variations in precipitation and temperature within China. Although most of the country lies in the temperate belt, its climatic patterns are complex.
China's northernmost point lies along the Heilong Jiang in Heilongjiang Province in the cold-temperate zone; its southernmost point, Hainan Island, has a tropical climate. Temperature differences in winter are great, but in summer the diversity is considerably less. For example, the northern portions of Heilongjiang Province experience an average January mean temperature of below 0°C, and the reading may drop to minus 30°C; the average July mean in the same area may exceed 20 °C. By contrast, the central and southern parts of Guangdong Province experience an average January temperature of above 10 °C, while the July mean is about 28 °C.
Precipitation varies regionally even more than temperature. China south of the Qin Ling experiences abundant rainfall, most of it coming with the summer monsoons. To the north and west of the range, however, rainfall is uncertain. The farther north and west one moves, the scantier and more uncertain it becomes. The northwest has the lowest annual rainfall in the country and no precipitation at all in its desert areas.
Natural resources
coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminium, lead, zinc, uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest)
Land use:
arable land: 10%
permanent crops: 0%
permanent pastures: 43%
forests and woodland: 14%
other: 33% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 498,720 km² (1993 est.)
Wildlife
China lies in two of the world's major zoogeographic regions, the Palearctic and the Oriental. The Qing Zang Plateau (Tibetan Plateau), Xinjiang and Nei Monggol (Inner Mongolia) autonomous regions, northeastern China, and all areas north of the Huang He are in the Palearctic region. Central, southern, and southwest China lie in the Oriental region. In the Palearctic zone are found such important mammals as the river fox, horse, camel, tapir, mouse hare, hamster, and jerboa. Among the species found in the Oriental region are the civet cat, Chinese pangolin, bamboo rat, tree shrew, and also gibbon and various other species of monkeys and apes. Some overlap exists between the two regions because of natural dispersal and migration, and deer or antelope, bears, wolves, pigs, and rodents are found in all of the diverse climatic and geological environments. The famous giant panda is found only in a limited area along the Chang Jiang.
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