Mapping Out
China: Some
Numbers and
Statistics
A
ccording to official data posted on the China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
website, China’s territory measures north to south—from the center of the
Heilongjiang River north of the town of Mohe (latitude 53°30’ north), to
the Zengmu Reef at the southernmost tip of the Nansha Islands (latitude 4° north)—a
distance of some 5,500 kilometers (about 3,449 miles). From west to east, China extends
from the Pamir Mountains (longitude 73°40’ east) to the confluence of the Heilongjiang
and Wusuli rivers (longitude 135°05’ east), about 5,200 kilometers (about 3,231 miles).
China borders fourteen countries—Mongolia, Russia, India, Myanmar (Burma),
Kazakhstan, North Korea, Vietnam, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Bhutan, Laos,
Tajikistan, and Afghanistan. Russia borders fourteen countries as well, although the
length of China’s borders (22,117 kilometers, about 13,743 miles) exceeds Russia’s by
about 2,000 kilometers (or 1,243 miles).
A topographical map shows that China’s terrain descends, for the most part, in
four steps from west to east: (1) Qīnghǎi-Tibet Plateau is called the “roof of the world,”
with an average elevation of more than 4,000 meters (nearly 2.9 miles) above sea level.
(2) The second step, with elevations between 1,000 and 2,000 meters (about 0.6 and
1.2 miles), includes the Inner Mongolia, Loess, and Yúnnán-Guìzhōu plateaus, and
the Tarim, Junggar, and Sìchuān basins. (3) The third step begins at the perimeters of
the Greater Hinggan (Xīn’gān), Tàiháng, Wūshān, and Xuěfēng mountain ranges and
extends eastward to the coast, with an elevation of about 500 to 1,000 meters (about
0.3 to 0.6 mile). (4) The fourth step comprises the coastal lowlands and the continental
shelf extending into the ocean in the east. The water there is less than 200 meters (656
feet) deep.
China’s highest point is Mount Everest, at 8,850 meters (about 5.5 miles) above
sea level), while its lowest is Turpan Pendi, at –154 meters (or –505 feet) below sea
level. Turpan Pendi, a depression in the Tarim Basin in northwest China, also holds the
1
2 This Is China : The First 5,000 Years
这
就
是
中
国
R
Kazakhstan
Mongolia
Urumqi
Kyrgyzstan
Xinjiang
Tajikistan
新疆维吾尔自治区
Gansu
Afghanistan
甘肃
Pakistan
宁夏回族自治区
Ningxia
Qinghai
Xining
Lanzhou
青海
S
Xizang
N
India
(Tibet)
ep
西藏自治区
al
Chengdu
Lhasa
Sichuan
四川
Bhutan
Ch
Gu
貴
G
Bangladesh
Kunming
Yunnan
雲南
Myanmar
(Burma)
�ailand
Vietnam
L ao s
广
Mapping Out China: Some Numbers and Statistics 3
N
Russia
Hailar
Hei long jiang
黑龙江
Harbin
Changchun
Nei Monggol
Ji l i n
(In n er Mo ngol ia)
内蒙古自治区
Liaoning
Beijing
Tianjin
Hebei Tianjin
Shanxi 河北 Jinan
山西
Shandong
治区
ia
North
Korea
辽宁
Beijing
Hohhot
吉林
Dalian
Japan
South
Korea
Y ELLOW
Jiangsu SE A
山东
Xi'an
Zhengzhou
Shaanxi Henan
陝西
Guizhou Hunan
貴州
Guiyang
安徽
湖北
Changsha
Nanjing
Nanchang
Jiangxi
湖南
江西
Hangzhou
Fujian
福建
Nanning
浙江
Fuzhou
Guangzhou
Macao
CHINA
E A ST
C HIN A
SE A
Zhejiang
Guang x i Guangdong 广东
广西 壮 族 自 治 区
Shanghai
Anhui
Hubei
Chongqing
江苏
Hefei
河南
中华
Taipei
Taiwan
台湾
Hong Kong
m
0
Haikou
Hainan
海南
SOUTH
0
C HIN A
SE A
Phi l ip p in es
300
300
600 Miles
600 Kilometers
4 This Is China : The First 5,000 Years
这
就
是
中
国
record for the hottest temperature (48.9ºC, or 120ºF); Mohe, aptly called China’s “Arctic
Village,” has seen the lowest temperature (–52.3ºC, or –62ºF).
China’s two longest rivers are the Yangzi (Chang) at 6,300 kilometers (3,915 miles),
with a catchment area of 1.809 million square kilometers (698,459 square miles); and
the Huang (Yellow), at 5,464 kilometers (3,395 miles), with a catchment area of 752,000
square kilometers (290,349 square miles). Looking at the rivers in relationship to each
other on a map, they run loosely parallel from the east to west, the Huang on top, the
Yangzi below, until the Huang bends sharply north and then makes a wide U-turn,
while the Yangzi, at just about the same longitude, dips slightly south to follow,
roughly, a wide V-shaped path.
Lake Poyang, China’s largest freshwater lake, measures about 3,585 square kilo-
meters (about 1,384 square miles), while the largest inland saltwater body in China,
Qinghai Lake, is about 4,300 square kilometers (about 1,660 square miles). Given
China’s enormous size, both are just small blue dots on the map; to put their size into
perspective, remember that Lake Superior in the United States, the world’s second
largest freshwater lake, measures 82,100 square kilometers (about 31,700 square miles).
Speaking of maps, the whole of China can be seen through the Google Satellite
Map Viewer (http://52ditu.googlepages.com/english.htm).
Learn more about China by reading:
This Is China
The First 5, 0 0 0 Years
BERKSHIRE PUBLISHING GROUP
Great Barrington, Massachusetts