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Location and Geography
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The People's
Republic of China is the full official name. The capital of China
is Beijing. It has a land area about 9. 6 million square kilometers
and it is one of the largest countries in land size in the whole world.
China is located in East Asia, on the western shores of the Pacific
Ocean. It has a continental land boundary of more than 20,000 kilometers
and adjoins Korea in the east, the People's Republic of Mongolia in
the north, Russia and Kazakhstan in the northeast and northwest, Afghanistan,
Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan in the west and southwest
and Burma, Laos and Vietnam in the south. The continental coastline
is more than 18,000 kilometers long, and looks across the seas towards
Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Over 66% of
China is upland hill, mountains and plateaus while the highest mountains
and plateaus are found to the west. To the north and east of the Tibetan
Plateau the land decreases to the desert or semidesert areas of Xinjiang
and Inner Mongolia. To the northeast the broad fertile Northeastern
Plains are separated from North Korea by the densely forested of Changbai
Mountain. East of the Tibetan Plateau isthe Sichuan Basin which is
drained by the Yangtze River that flows east across the southern plains
to the East China Sea, The southern plains along the east coast of
China have rich, fertile soils and are protected from the north wind.
Both Hong Kong and Macao are enclosed on the southeast coast.
China is a country with many mountain ranges and highlands , which
form the basic features of China's topography. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
is the highest and largest plateau which is commonly known as "the
roof of the world". Qomolangma in the Himalayas Mountains is
located on the border between China and Nepal, being the world's highest
peak, having an elevation of 8, 848. 13 meters.
The main administrative division in China today are the four municipalities
directly under the central government, the twenty-three provinces
and the five autonomous regions. Hong Kong and Macao are the two special
administrative zones.
The four municipalities directly under the central government are
Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing. The twenty-three provinces
are Hebei and Shanxi in the North; Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang
in the Northeast; Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai in the Northwest; Shandong,
Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi in the East; Fujian and Taiwan
in the Southeast; Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan in the Southwest; Henan,
Hubei and Hunan in the central South and Guangdong, Hainan in the
South. The five autonomous regions are the Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Region (north); the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (north); the Xinjiang
Uygur Autonomous Region (northwest); the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous
Region (south) and the Tibet Autonomous Region (southwest).
The longest river in China, and the third longest river in the world,
is the 6,300-kilometer-long Changjiang, more commonly known in the
West as the Yangtze River. The Changjiang River rises in the Tanggula
Mountains of Qinghai Province.
The Changjiang River is China's lifeline. Its estuary is north of
Shanghai, where it is 13-km wide when it flows into the Yellow Sea.
The river flows through nine provinces, with its 700 tributaries,
covers an area of 1. 8 million km2 which is 19 percent of the total
area of China. The river flows through most of the important industrialized
area in China. It also forms a delta where the density of the population
is the highest in the south. This shows how important a role this
river has played.
Next is the Yellow River, or Huanghe River, which is the second longest
river in China. Tracing to a source in the nation's far west, it loops
north, bends south, and flows east for 5,464 km until it empties into
the sea, draining a basin of 745, 000 km2, which nourishes 120 million
people. Millennia ago the Chinese civilization emerged from the central
region of this basin.
As the most heavily silt-laden river in the world, the Yellow River
got its name from the muddiness of its water, which bears perennial
ochre-yellow color.
The most challenging engineering aspect of taming the Yellow River
is without doubt the control of the exceptionally high sediment load
that the river carries in its lower reaches, averaging 37 kg of sediment
per cubic meter of water at the present time. An average of 1. 6 billion
tons of sediment enters the river channel at Zhengzhou annually, of
which about 1. 2 billion tons is carried out to sea, leaving behind
a substantial amount to contribute to the silting of the river channel.
Throughout history much of the river management effort was devoted
to improving the flood prevention capability.
Other long rivers in China include Heilongjiang with a length of 2,
965 km; Zhujiang with a length of 2, 129 km; Songhuajiang with a length
of 1,840 km.
Lakes of all sizes are scattered throughout China. The largest fresh
water lakes are the Poyang in Jiangxi, the Dongting in Hunan, the
Hongze in western Jiangsu and the Taihu in southern Jiangsu. The most
important of the salt lakes are the Qinghai Lake in Qinghai and the
Lop Nur in Xinjiang; the latter covers an area of more than 2,500
km2 but is not fixed either in area or shape. Lake Xingkai is a fresh
water lake straddling the Sino-Soviet border.
Except the natural rivers and lakes, there are also many canals in
China. The most famous is the Grand Canal between Beijing and Hangzhou,
1,782 kilometers in length, which passes through the city of Tianjin
and four provinces (Hebei, Shan-dong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang) and links
up with five major rivers; the Haihe, Huanghe, Huaihe, Changjiang
and Qiantangjiang.
The continent of China faces east and south towards the seas. In the
east, the most well-known sea is Bohai: the Liaodong peninsula and
the Shandong peninsula confront each other to form a natural gateway
known as the Bohai straits. Southeast of Bohai is the Huanghai (Yellow
Sea), south of the mouth of the Changjiang is Donghai (East China
Sea) , and south of the Taiwan Straits is Nanhai (South China Sea).
Over 5,000 islands are scattered across the seas, with half of them
located in Donghai, forming a total area of about 80, 000 square kilometers.
The largest island in China is Taiwan, about 35,700 square km. The
next is Hainan Island (over 34,000 square km). And Chongming Island
(1,083 square km) is the third largest. The most southerly islands
are the coral reefs known as the Dongsha, Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha
archipelagos.
Many seaports are built along China's long and winding coastline.
The river estuary ports of Tianjin, Shanghai, Guanzhou and Qingdao
are important centers for foreign trade and economic exchange within
China.
China lies in two of the world's major zoogeographic regions, the
Palearctic and the Oriental. The Qing Zang Plateau, Xinjiang and Inner
Mongolia Autonomous regions, northeastern China, and all areas north
of the Huanghe are in the Palearctic region. Central, southern, and
southwest China lie in the Oriental region. In the Palearctic zone
are found such important mammals as the river fox, horse, camel, tapir,
mouse hare, hamster, and jerboa. Among the species found in the Oriental
region are the civet cat, Chinese pangolin, bamboo rat, tree shrew,
and also gibbon and various other species of monkeys and apes. Some
overlap exists between the two regions because of natural dispersal
and migration, and deer or antelope, bears, wolves, pigs, and rodents
are found in all of the diverse climatic and geological environments.
The famous giant panda is found only in a limited area along the Changjiang. |
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