BASIC
INFORMATION
Full
Country Name: CHINA
Capital
Beijing
Largest city Shanghai
Official language
Chinese
Government
Peoples Republic of China
Area 9.59 Million
SQ KM
Population
- 2005 est. 1,306,313,812
Currency yuan (CNY)
Time
zone (UTC+8)
Internet
TLD .cn
Calling
code +86
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GEOGRAPHY
& BACKGROUND
China
(Traditional Chinese: ??; Simplified Chinese:
??; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhongguó (help·info);
Tongyong Pinyin: Jhongguó; Gwoyeu
Romatzyh: Jonggwo) is a cultural region
and ancient civilization in East Asia. As
a result of the 1949 Chinese Civil War,
China today is administratively divided
into two states: the People's Republic of
China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC).
The PRC administers and governs the majority
of China (mainland China, Hong Kong, and
Macau), while the ROC administers the island
groups of Taiwan, the Pescadores, Kinmen,
Matsu, and the disputed islands of Pratas,
and Taiping in the South China Sea. However,
the People's Republic of China considers
Taiwan a "renegade province" and
does not recognize the Republic of China
(Taiwan). In contrast, the Taipei-based
Republic of China (Taiwan) administers themselves
as an independent sovereign state and does
not recognize the Beijing-based People's
Republic of China.
China
has one of the world's longest periods of
mostly uninterrupted civilization and one
of the world's longest continuously used
written language systems. The successive
states and cultures of China date back more
than six millennia. For centuries, China
was the world's most advanced civilization,
and the cultural center of East Asia, with
an impact lasting to the present day. China
is also home to many of the great technical
inventions in world history, including the
four great inventions of ancient China:
paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing.
China
is composed of a vast variety of highly
different landscapes, with mostly plateaus
and mountains in the west, and lower lands
on the east. As a result, principal rivers
flow from west to east, including the Yangtze
(central), the Huang He (central-east),
and the Amur (northeast), and sometimes
toward the south (including the Pearl River,
Mekong River, and Brahmaputra), with most
Chinese rivers emptying into the Pacific
Ocean.
In
the east, along the shores of the Yellow
Sea and the East China Sea there are extensive
and densely populated alluvial plains;.
On the edges of the Inner Mongolian plateau
in the north, grasslands can be seen. Southern
China is dominated by hills and low mountain
ranges. In the central-east are the deltas
of China's two major rivers, the Huang He
and Yangtze River (Chang Jiang). Most of
China's arable lands lie along these rivers;
they were the centers of China's major ancient
civilizations. Other major rivers include
the Pearl River, Mekong, Brahmaputra and
Amur.
In
the west, the north has a great alluvial
plain, and the south has a vast calcareous
tableland traversed by hill ranges of moderate
elevation, and the Himalayas, containing
our planet's highest point Mount Everest.
The northwest also has high plateaus with
more arid desert landscapes such as the
Takla-Makan and the Gobi Desert, which has
been expanding. During many dynasties, the
southwestern border of China has been the
high mountains and deep valleys of Yunnan,
which separate modern China from Burma,
Laos and Vietnam.
The
Paleozoic formations of China, excepting
only the upper part of the Carboniferous
system, are marine, while the Mesozoic and
Tertiary deposits are estuarine and freshwater
or else of terrestrial origin. Groups of
volcanic cones occur in the Great Plain
of north China. In the Liaodong and Shandong
Peninsulas, there are basaltic plateaus.
The
climate of China varies greatly. The northern
zone (containing Beijing) has winters of
Arctic severity. The central zone (containing
Shanghai) has a temperate climate. The southern
zone (containing Guangzhou) has a subtropical
climate.
Due
to a prolonged drought and poor agricultural
practices, dust storms have become usual
in the spring in China.[2] Dust has blown
to southern China and Taiwan, and has even
reached the West Coast of the United States.
Water, erosion, and pollution control have
become important issues in China's relations
with other countries.
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