Map references: Asia

Area:
total: 9,596,960 sq km
land: 9,326,410 sq km
water: 270,550 sq km

Area-comparative: slightly smaller than the US

Land boundaries:
total: 22,143.34 km
border countries: Afghanistan 76 km, Bhutan 470 km, Burma 2,185 km,
Hong Kong 30 km, India 3,380 km, Kazakhstan 1,533 km, North Korea
1,416 km, Kyrgyzstan 858 km, Laos 423 km, Macau 0.34 km, Mongolia
4,673 km, Nepal 1,236 km, Pakistan 523 km, Russia (northeast) 3,605
km, Russia (northwest) 40 km, Tajikistan 414 km, Vietnam 1,281 km

Coastline: 14,500 km

Maritime claims:
contiguous zone: 24 nm
continental shelf: claim to shallow areas of East China Sea and Yellow
Sea
territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate: extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north

Terrain: mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains,
deltas, and hills in east

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Turpan Pendi -154 m
highest point: Mount Everest 8,848 m

Natural resources: coal, iron ore, petroleum, mercury, tin, tungsten,
antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead,
zinc, uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest)

Land use:
arable land: 10%
permanent crops: 0%
permanent pastures: 43%
forests and woodland: 14%
other: 33% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land: 498,720 sq km (1993 est.)

Natural hazards: frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern
and eastern coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts

Environment-current issues: air pollution (greenhouse gases,
particulates) from the overwhelming use of high-sulfur coal as a fuel,
produces acid rain which is damaging forests; water shortages
experienced throughout the country, particularly in urban areas and in
the north; future growth in water usage threatens to outpace supplies;
water pollution from industrial effluents; much of the population does
not have access to potable water; less than 10% of sewage receives
treatment; deforestation; estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural
land since 1949 to soil erosion and economic development;
desertification; trade in endangered species

Environment-international agreements:
party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty,
Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species,
Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban,
Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
Timber 94, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: no