Geographical Culture
2 min readIntroduction
By territory，China is the third biggest country in the world，after Russia and Canada.It has an area of about 9.6million square kilometers which comprises about 6.5 per cent of the world total land area.Its population of more than one billion accounts for nearly 1/4 of the world population.
China is the oldest continuous civilization and one of the richest geography cultures in the world.
China is situated in the eastern part of Asia，on the westcoast of the Pacific Ocean.The distance from east to west measures over 5，200 kilometers，and from north to south，over 5，500 kilometers.When the sun shines brightly over the Wusuli River n the east，the Pamire Plateau in the west is in the very early morning.When blizzards wrap the north along the Heilongjiang River in the winter，spring sowing is already underway on Hainan Island in the south.There are various climates and sceneries in its vast areas.
（1）Four cities directly manipulated by the central government:Beijing ，Shanghai ，Tianjin and Chongqing ；
（2）Twent-three provinces:Guangdong ，Hunan ，Hubei ，Henan（ ，Hebei ，Shandong ，Shanxi ，Shaanxi ，Gansu ，Qinghai ，Heilongjiang ，Jilin ，Liaoning ，Zhejiang ，Anhui ，Jiangxi ，Jiangsu ，Yunnan ，Guizhou ，Sichuan ，Fujian ，Hainan and Taiwan ；
（3）Five autonomous regions:Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region ，Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region ，Tibetan Autonomous Region and Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region ，Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region ；
（4）Special Municipal Zones:Hongkong and Macao .
There is some uniqueness in China’s geography:Firstly，China has her own time system.Most of the nations in the world use the same system of measuring time，but China doesnot have time zones.China extends across five times zones，but the time is the same everywhere in China，i.e.”Beijing Time”.If you live in western or eastern China，the sun will not be directly overhead at noon at all.Secondly，China has a con-tinental and seasonal climate.Most parts are in the temperate zone but southern areas are in the tropical or subtropical zonewhile northern areas are in the frigid zone.Climates in different areas are complicated and they can never be classified.
China has a land border of 22，143.34 kilometers long and is bordered by twelve countries:Korea in the east；Russian inthe northeast and the northwest；Mongolia in the north；India，Pakistan，Bhutan and Nepal in part of the west and southwest；Burma，Laos and Vietnam in the south.
Besides the vast land area，there are also extensive neighboring seas and numerous islands.The coastline extends more than 14.500kilometers.Along the east coast in North China，there are two seas:Bo Sea and Huang Sea（Yellow Sea）.Across the East China Sea to the east，and South China Sea to the southeast，are Japan，the Philippians，Malaysia，and Indonesia.More than 5，000 islands are scattered over China’s vast territorial seas，the largest being Taiwan and the second largest，Hainan .One territorial sea and three neighboring seas altogether constitute 4.73 million square kilometers
