China

I

Introduction

China, officially People’s Republic of China (in Chinese, Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo), country in East Asia, the world’s third-largest country by area (after Russia and Canada) and the largest by population. Officially the People’s Republic of China, it is bordered on the north by the Mongolian Republic and Russia; on the north-east by Russia and North Korea; on the east by the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea; on the south by the South China Sea, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), India, Bhutan, and Nepal; on the west by Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan; and on the north-west by Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. China includes more than 3,400 offshore islands, of which Hainan, in the South China Sea, is by far the largest. The total area of China is about 9,571,300 sq km (3,695,500 sq mi), not including Taiwan. The capital of China is Beijing; the country’s largest city is Shanghai.

More than a fifth of the world’s total population lives within China’s borders. China gave birth to one of the world’s earliest civilizations and has a recorded history that dates from some 3,500 years ago. Zhongguo, the Chinese name for the country, means “central land”, a reference to the Chinese belief that their country was the geographical centre of the Earth and the only true civilization.

II

Land and Resources

China encompasses a great diversity of landscapes and a corresponding variety of natural resources. Generally speaking, China’s higher elevations are found in the west, where some of the world’s loftiest mountain ranges are located, including the Tian Mountains, the Kunlun Mountains, and the Himalaya. Devastating earthquakes tend to occur in a broad arc extending from the western edge of the Sichuan Basin north-east towards Bo Hai, the gulf on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea.

The country’s numerous mountain ranges enclose a series of plateaux and basins and furnish a notable wealth of water and mineral resources. A broad range of climatic types, from subarctic to tropical, and including large areas of alpine and desert habitats, supports a magnificent array of plant and animal life.

Mountains occupy about 43 per cent of China’s land surface; mountainous plateaux account for another 26 per cent; and basins, predominantly hilly and located mainly in arid regions, cover approximately 19 per cent of the area. Only 12 per cent of the total area may be classed as flatlands.

China may be divided into six major geographical regions, each of which contains considerable geomorphological and topographical diversity.

A

The North-West

This region consists of two basins—the Junggar Pendi (Dzungarian Basin) on the north and the Tarim Basin on the south—and the lofty Tian Mountains. The Tarim Basin contains the vast sandy Takla Makan (Taklimakan Shamo), the driest desert in Asia. Dune ridges in its interior rise to elevations of about 100 m (330 ft). The Turfan Depression (Turpan Pendi), the largest area in China with elevations below sea level, commands the southern entrance of a major pass through the Tian Mountains. The Junggar Pendi (or Dzungarian Basin), although containing areas of sandy and stony desert, is primarily a region of fertile steppe soils and supports irrigated agriculture.

B

The Mongolian Borderlands

Located in north-central China, this is a plateau region consisting mainly of sandy, stony, or gravelly deserts that grade eastwards into steppe lands with fertile soils. This is a region of flat-to-rolling plains, partitioned by several barren flat-topped mountain ranges. Along its eastern border is the higher, forested Greater Khingan Range (Da Hinggan Ling).