China in brief

Located in East Asia, on the western shore of the Pacific Ocean, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has a land area of about 9.6 million sq km, and is the third-largest country in the world, next only to Russia and Canada. The nation's border stretches over 22,000 kilometers on land and the coastline extends well over 18,000 kilometers. The mainland is flanked to the east and south by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas, with a total maritime area of 4.73 million sq km. In China today, 94.97 million ha of land are cultivated, mainly in Northeast Plain, the North China Plain, the Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain and the Sichuan Basin. Forests blanket 133.7 million ha of China.

China is the most populous country in the world, with 1.25909 billion people at the end of 1999, about 22 percent of the world's total. This figure does not include many Chinese in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Taiwan Province and Macao Special Administrative Region. However this population is unevenly distributed. Along the densely populated east coast there are more than 400 people per sq km; in the central areas, over 200; and in sparsely populated plateaus in the west there are less than 10 people per sq km.

China, one of the four oldest civilizations in the world, has a written history of 4,000 years and boasts rich cultural relics and historical sites. It is the inventor of compass, paper-making, gunpowder and printing. The Great Wall, Grand Canal and Karez irrigation system are three great ancient engineering projects built 2,000 years ago. Now they are the symbols of the rich culture of the Chinese nation. China has gone over a long history of primitive society, slavery society, feudal society and semi-feudal semi-colonial society and the present socialist society.