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 The People's Republic of China is located in the eastern part of the Asian
continent, on the western Pacific rim. It is a vast land, covering 9.6 million
square kilometers. China is approximately seventeen times the size of
France, 1 million square kilometers smaller than all of Europe, and 600,000
square kilometers smaller than Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, and the islands
of the south and central Pacific). Additional offshore territory, including
territorial waters, special economic areas, and the continental
shelf, totals over 3 million square kilometers, bringing China's overall
territory to almost 13 million square kilometers.
Western China's Himalayan Mountains are often referred to as
the roof of the world. Mount Qomolangma (known to the West as Mount Everest), at
over 8800 meters in height, is the roof's highest peak. China stretches from its
westernmost point on the Pamir Plateau to the confluence of the Heilongjiang and
Wusuli Rivers, 5200 kilometers to the east.
 When inhabitants of eastern China are greeting the dawn, people in western
China still face four more hours of darkness. The northernmost point in China is
located at the midpoint ofthe-Heilongjiang River, north of Mohe in Heilongjiang
Province. The southernmost point is located at Zengmu'ansha in the Nansha
Islands, approximately 5500 kilometers away. When northern China is still
gripped in a world of ice and snow, flowers are already blooming in the balmy
south. The Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea border
China to the east and south, together forming a vast maritime area. The Yellow
Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea connect directly with the Pacific
Ocean, while the Bohai Sea, embraced between the two "arms" of the Liaodong and
Shandong peninsulas, forms an inland sea. China's maritime territory includes
5400 islands, which have a total area of 80,000 square kilometers. The two
largest islands, Taiwan and Hainan, cover 36,000 square kilometers and 34,000
square kilometers respectively.
From north to south, China's ocean straits consist of the
Bohai, Taiwan, Bashi, and Qiongzhou Straits. China possesses 20,000 kilometers
of land border, plus 18,000 kilometers of coastline. Setting out from any point
on China's border and making a complete circuit back to the starting point, the
distance traveled would be equivalent to circling the globe at the equator.
From China -- Past and
Present
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