Location: Eastern Asia, between India and Mongolia

Map references: Asia, Southeast Asia, Standard Time Zones of the World

Area:
total area: 9,596,960 sq km
land area: 9,326,410 sq km
comparative area: slightly larger than the US

Land boundaries: total 22,143.34 km, 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 4,673 km, Nepal 1,236 km, Pakistan 523 km, Russia (northeast) 3,605 km, Russia (northwest) 40 km, Tajikistan 414 km, Vietnam 1,281 km

Coastline: 14,500 km

Maritime claims:
continental shelf: claim to shallow areas of East China Sea and Yellow Sea
territorial sea: 12 nm

International disputes: boundary with India; bilateral negotiations are under way to resolve disputed sections of the boundary with Russia; boundary with Tajikistan in dispute; a short section of the boundary with North Korea is indefinite; involved in a complex dispute over the Spratly Islands with Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and possibly Brunei; maritime boundary dispute with Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin; Paracel Islands occupied by China, but claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan; claims Japanese-administered Senkaku-shoto (Senkaku Islands/Diaoyu Tai), as does Taiwan

Climate: extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north

Terrain: mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas, and hills in east

Natural resources: coal, iron ore, petroleum, 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%
meadows and pastures: 31%
forest and woodland: 14%
other: 45%

Irrigated land: 478,220 sq km (1991 - Chinese statistic)

Environment:
current issues: air pollution from the overwhelming use of coal as a fuel, produces acid rain which is damaging forests; water pollution from industrial effluents; many people do not have access to safe drinking water; less than 10% of sewage receives treatment; deforestation; estimated loss of one-third of agricultural land since 1957 to soil erosion and economic development; desertification
natural hazards: frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes
international agreements: party to - Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber, Whaling; signed, but not ratified - Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Law of the Sea

Note: world's third-largest country (after Russia and Canada)

NOTE: The information regarding China on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of China Geography 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about China Geography 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.