China is located in the eastern part of Asia and the west coast of the Pacific Ocean. It has a land area of 9.6million square kilometers. The coast line of the south and the east is more than 18,000 kilometers. The inland seas and the coastal waters have a total area of more than 4.7million square kilometers A total of 7600 islands dot China’s vast territorial waters. The largest of these, with an area of about 35,798sq km, is Taiwan. China borders 14 countries on the continent and neighbors 8 countries across waters. At present, China was divided into 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities directly under the Central Government, and 2 special administrative region. The capital of China is Beijing. China has a population of 1.3billion.

China’s is high in the west and low in the east, with towering mountainous areas, plateaus and hills accounting for 67% of the land area , and basins and plains 33%. China’s terrain descends in four steps from west to east. The top of this four-step “staircase” is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Averaging more than 4,000 m above sea level, it is often called the “roof of the world.” Rising 8,848.43 m above sea level is Mt. Qomolangma, the world’s highest peak and the main peak of the Himalayas. The second step includes the Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Loess and Yunnan-Guizhou plateaus, and Sichuan basins. The third step, about 500-1,000 m in elevation, begins at a line drawn around the Greater Hinggan, Taihang, Wushan and Xuefeng mountain ranges and extends eastward to the coast. Here, from north to south, are the Northeast Plain, the North China Plain and the Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain. Interspersed amongst the plains are hills and foothills. To the east, the land extends out into the ocean, in a continental shelf, the fourth step of the staircase. The water here is less than 200 m deep.

Due to China’s vast area spanning various latitudes, different areas’ distances from the sea, numerous terrains and different directions of various mountain ranges, China has a marked continental monsoonal climate characterized by great variety. In terms of climate, the east belongs to monsoonal climate (It can be further divided into sub-tropical monsoonal, temperate monsoonal and tropical monsoonal), the northwest part belongs to continental climate and Qinhai-Tibetan Plateau belongs to high frigid climate. China’s complex and varied climate results in a great variety of temperature belts, and dry and moist zones. In terms of temperature, the nation can be sectored from south to north into equatorial, tropical, sub-tropical, warm-temperate, temperate, and cold-temperate zones; in terms of moisture, it can be sectored from southeast to northwest into humid, semi-humid, semi-arid and arid zones. Furthermore, in the same temperature belt, there may be different moisture zones and vice versa. Therefore, in the same climatic pattern, there are also differences regarding temperatures and moistures. Various terrains further complicate the climate.

China’s climate is characterized by high temperature and abundant rainfall in summer and low temperature and little rain in winter. The rainy season coincides with the hot season.  China is located in the largest continent—the east part of Euro-Asian continent. It is also on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean and the southwest part of China is not far from the Indian Ocean. Therefore, the climate is influenced a lot by the continent and oceans. The north wind which blows from the continent to ocean is prevalent in winter while the south wind from ocean to continent prevails in summer. The cold and dry winter monsoon originates from the inland Asia, resulting in cold and dry winters and great differences in temperature in most part of China. The humid and warm summer monsoons come from the Pacific Ocean in the southeast and the Indian Ocean in the southwest bring abundant rainfall and high temperatures. China is the country influenced most by monsoons in the world. Compared with other countries of the same latitude, the temperature in winter in China is relatively low while it is high in summer. The precipitation concentrates in summer, which is also the characteristic of the continental climate. Accordingly, China’s monsoonal climate is characterized with strong continental characters, and it is also called continental monsoonal climate.

The complicated climatic situations make China suitable for most agricultural products, animals and plants to grow. For example, since corn, whose hometown is Mexico, was imported and planted in China, it has become one of the most important agricultural products in China. Potato was first imported into Zhejaing Province and was plated there, and now it is a common agricultural product in China. Obvious monsoonal climatic characteristics in China provide advantages for China’s agriculture. Due to high temperature and abundant heat, many plants demanding large sum of heat can grow in much of China. The area is larger than other countries of the same latitude, e.g. rice can even be planted in Huma County, Heilongjiang Province, 52 degrees north. There is enough rainfall in summer, and the high temperature period coincides with the rainy season, which benefits the growth of agricultural products. For example, it is warm and humid in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which belongs to subtropical monsoonal climate. However most part of the area of the same latitude, north Africa and Arab Peninsular, presents arid and semi-arid desert sceneries.

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