Short facts about the geography of China
| 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 |
| 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: 22,147.24 km
border countries: Afghanistan 76 km, Bhutan
470 km, Burma 2,185 km, Hong Kong 30 km, India 3,380 km, Kazakhstan 1,533 km,
North Korea 1,416 km, Kyrgyzstan 858 km, Laos 423 km, Macau 0.34 km, Mongolia
4,676.9 km, Nepal 1,236 km, Pakistan 523 km, Russia (northeast) 3,605 km, Russia
(northwest) 40 km, Tajikistan 414 km, Vietnam 1,281
km |
| Maritime
claims: |
contiguous zone:
24 NM
continental shelf: 200 NM or to the edge of
the continental margin
territorial sea: 12
NM |
| 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 (1999 est.) |
| 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: 10%
permanent crops: 0%
permanent pastures:
43%
forests and woodland: 14%
other: 33% (1993
est.) |
| Irrigated
land: |
498,720 sq km (1993
est.) |
| Natural
hazards: |
frequent typhoons (about five per year
along southern and eastern coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes;
droughts |
| Environment
- current issues: |
air pollution (greenhouse gases, sulfur
dioxide particulates) from reliance on coal, produces acid rain; water
shortages, particularly in the north; water pollution from untreated wastes;
deforestation; estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural land since 1949 to
soil erosion and economic development; desertification; trade in endangered
species |
| Environment
- international agreements: |
party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate
Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea,
Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but
not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Marine Life
Conservation |
| Geography -
note: |
world's fourth-largest country (after
Russia, Canada, and US) | Source: World Factbook |
