General Information of China

• China Geography

  • Total area: 9,596,960 km2
  • Land area: 9,326,410 km2
  • Land boundaries: 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
  • Disputes: boundary with India; bilateral negotiations are under way to resolve disputed sections of the boundary with Russia; boundary with Tajikistan under 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, as does Taiwan, (Senkaku Islands/Diaoyu Tai)
  • 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, crude oil, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead, zinc, uranium, world's largest hydropower potential
  • Land use: arable land 10%; permanent crops NEGL%; meadows and pastures 31%; forest and woodland 14%; other 45%; includes irrigated 5%
  • Environment: frequent typhoons (about five times per year along southern and eastern coasts), damaging floods, tsunamis, earthquakes; deforestation; soil erosion; industrial pollution; water pollution; air pollution; desertification
  • Note: world's third-largest country (after Russia and Canada)

• China People
  • Population: 1,169,619,601 (July 1992), growth rate 1.6% (1992)
  • Birth rate: 22 births/1,000 population (1992)
  • Death rate: 7 deaths/1,000 population (1992)
  • Net migration rate: 0 migrants/1,000 population (1992)
  • Infant mortality rate: 32 deaths/1,000 live births (1992)
  • Life expectancy at birth: 69 years male, 72 years female (1992)
  • Total fertility rate: 2.3 children born/woman (1992)
  • Nationality: noun - Chinese (singular and plural); adjective - Chinese
  • Ethnic divisions: Han Chinese 93.3%; Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, Korean, and other nationalities 6.7%
  • Religions: officially atheist, but traditionally pragmatic and eclectic; most important elements of religion are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism; Muslim 2-3%, Christian 1% (est.)
  • Languages: Standard Chinese (Putonghua) or Mandarin (based on the Beijing dialect); also Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, and minority languages (see ethnic divisions)
  • Literacy: 73% (male 84%, female 62%) age 15 and over can read and write (1990 est.)
  • Labor force: 567,400,000; agriculture and forestry 60%, industry and commerce 25%, construction and mining 5%, social services 5%, other 5% (1990 est.)
  • Organized labor: All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) follows the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party; membership over 80 million or about 65% of the urban work force (1985)

• China Communications
  • Railroads: total about 54,000 km common carrier lines; 53,400 km 1.435-meter standard gauge; 600 km 1.000-meter gauge; of these 11,200 km are double track standard-gauge lines; 6,900 km electrified (1990); 10,000 km dedicated industrial lines (gauges range from 0.762 to 1.067 meters)
  • Highways: about 1,029,000 km (1990) all types roads; 170,000 km (est.) paved roads, 648,000 km (est.) gravel/improved earth roads, 211,000 km (est.) unimproved earth roads and tracks
  • Inland waterways: 138,600 km; about 109,800 km navigable
  • Pipelines: crude oil 9,700 km (1990); petroleum products 1,100 km; natural gas 6,200 km
  • Ports: Dalian, Guangzhou, Huangpu, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, Shanghai, Xingang, Zhanjiang, Ningbo, Xiamen, Tanggu, Shantou
  • Merchant marine: 1,454 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 13,887,312 GRT/20,916,127 DWT; includes 25 passenger, 42 short-sea passenger, 18 passenger-cargo, 6 cargo/training, 801 cargo, 10 refrigerated cargo, 77 container, 19 roll-on/roll-off cargo, 1 multifunction/barge carrier, 177 petroleum tanker, 10 chemical tanker, 254 bulk, 3 liquefied gas, 1 vehicle carrier, 9 combination bulk, 1 barge carrier; note - China beneficially owns an additional 194 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling approximately 7,077,089 DWT that operate under Panamanian, British, Hong Kong, Maltese, Liberian, Vanuatu, Cyprus, and Saint Vincent registry
  • Civil air: 284 major transport aircraft (1988 est.)
  • Airports: 330 total, 330 usable; 260 with permanent-surface runways; fewer than 10 with runways over 3,500 m; 90 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 200 with runways 1,220-2,439 m
  • Telecommunications: domestic and international services are increasingly available for private use; unevenly distributed internal system serves principal cities, industrial centers, and most townships; 11,000,000 telephones (December 1989); broadcast stations - 274 AM, unknown FM, 202 (2,050 repeaters) TV; more than 215 million radio receivers; 75 million TVs; satellite earth stations - 4 Pacific Ocean INTELSAT, 1 Indian Ocean INTELSAT, 1 INMARSAT, and 55 domestic