Total area: 9,596,960 km2
land area: 9,326,410 km2

Comparative area: slightly larger than the US

Land boundaries: 23,213.34 km total; Afghanistan 76 km, Bhutan 470 km, Burma 2,185 km, Hong Kong 30 km, India 3,380 km, North Korea 1,416 km, Laos 423 km, Macau 0.34 km, Mongolia 4,673 km, Nepal 1,236 km, Pakistan 523 km, USSR 7,520 km, Vietnam 1,281 km

Coastline: 14,500 km

Maritime claims:

Territorial sea: 12 nm

Disputes: boundary with India; bilateral negotiations are under way to resolve four disputed sections of the boundary with the USSR (Pamir, Argun, Amur, and Khabarovsk areas); a short section of the boundary with North Korea is indefinite; Hong Kong is scheduled to become a Special Administrative Region in 1997; Portuguese territory of Macau is scheduled to become a Special Administrative Region in 1999; sporadic border clashes with Vietnam; involved in a complex dispute over the Spratly Islands with Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam; 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 (Senkaku Islands)

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: 10% arable land; NEGL% permanent crops; 31% meadows and pastures; 14% forest and woodland; 45% other; includes 5% irrigated

Environment: frequent typhoons (about five times per year along southern and eastern coasts), damaging floods, tsunamis, earthquakes; deforestation; soil erosion; industrial pollution; water pollution; desertification

Note: world's third-largest country (after USSR and Canada)

NOTE: The information regarding China on this page is re-published from the 1990 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of China Geography 1990 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about China Geography 1990 should be addressed to the CIA.