| 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)
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