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Geography and Environment of China
Terrain, climate, natural resources, hazards, and environmental conditions of China.
Overview
Occupying an area of about 3.7 million square miles, the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) is the third-largest country in the world, after Canada and Russia. It shares borders with North Korea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, Laos, and Vietnam. Hong Kong and Macau (Aomen), situated on China’s southern coast, are now Special Administrative Regions of the P.R.C. Two-thirds of China’s area is mountainous or semidesert; only about one-tenth is cultivated. Ninety percent of its people live on one-sixth of the land, primarily in the fertile plains and deltas of the east.
Detailed geography
Physical Features
- Terrain
- mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas, and hills in east
- Climate
- The country lies almost entirely in the temperate zone. Only Hainan Province and the southernmost portions of Yunnan and Guangdong Provinces and the Zhuang Autonomous Region of Guangi lie within the tropics. A monsoon climate is a major influence in the south, but the north and west have a typical continental climate, although winters are extremely dry and summers quite rainy. During summer, warm, moist, maritime air masses bring heavy rains to eastern China, and hot, humid, summer weather is typical. Winter offers a sharp contrast, when cold, dry Siberian air masses dominate and often reach the southern provinces. Little precipitation falls during the colder months; clear days with low humidity and low temperatures are the norm.
- Weather Patterns
- http://voap.weather.com/weather/oap/CHXX0008?template=TRVLH&par=1003114983&unit=0&key=5b85ae1d85877a1b34827fba743e2133
- Highest Point
- 8850 — Mount Everest 8,850 m
- Lowest Point
- -154 — Turpan Pendi -154 m
Borders and Area
- Area (Comparative)
- slightly smaller than the US
- Border Countries
- Afghanistan 76 km, Bhutan 470 km, Burma 2,185 km, India 3,380 km, Kazakhstan 1,533 km, North Korea 1,416 km, Kyrgyzstan 858 km, Laos 423 km, Mongolia 4,677 km, Nepal 1,236 km, Pakistan 523 km, Russia (northeast) 3,605 km, Russia (northwest) 40 km, Tajikis
Natural Resources and Hazards
- 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)
- Natural Hazards
- frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts; land subsidence
Environment and Land Use
- Current Environmental 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
- International Agreements
- Party To: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling Signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements