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CHINA FACTS - 中国事实 CLICK HERE

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO CHINA

An outline of China


China is the abbreviation of the People's Republic of China. The "Five-Star Red Flag" is its national flag while the national emblem has Tian'anmen at its centre, illuminated by five stars and encircled by ears of grain and a cog wheel. Beijing is the capital of the People's Republic of china.

    1. China's position in the world

      A. Geology and Climate

China is situated in eastern Asia on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean. China has a varied topography, with highlands in the west and plains in the east. Sprawling over an area of approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, it comprises 6.5 per cent of the earth's land mass, making it the largest country in Asia and the third largest in the world.

Guilin  Of its territory, mountainous areas account for about 33 per cent, plateaus 26 per cent, rolling land 10 per cent, basins 19 per cent, and plains 12 per cent. Its land borders extend to about 200 ,000 kilometres and it shares frontiers with the following neighbours-the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Tadzhikistan, Kirghizstan, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Sikkim, Pakistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Viet Nam.

Its coastline is as long as 180,000 kilometres from the outlet of the Yalu River in the north to the outlet of the Beilun River in the south. The long coast it lashed by the salty waters of the Bohai Bay, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea. China's maritime neighbours are the Republic of Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia. Off the coast are no fewer than 5,000 is lands, the biggest being Taiwan Island, and the second largest Hainan Island.

With a total length of 6 , 300 kilometers, the Yangtze is China's longest river and the third longest in the world. The Yellow River, with a total length of 5 ,464 kilometers, is the country's second longest river. Other major rivers are the Heilongjiang River, the Haihe River, the Huaihe River, the Qiantangjiang River and the Pearl River. Lakes in China cover a total area of 80,000 square kilometres. The major fresh-water lakes are the Boyang Lake, the Dongting ILake, the Taihu Lake and the Hongzehu Lake. Major salt- water lakes include the Qinghai Lake, the Namu Lake, the Qilin Lake and the Luobupo Lake.

 

The Himalayan is the biggest and highest mountain range in the world, on the eastern section of which looms the 8,848.13-metre high Mount Qomolangma (Everest), the world's loftiest peak rising between China and Nepal, which is known as the " Roof of the World. " Other major mountainous ranges in China include: the Tianshan, the Kunlun, the Karakorum, the Hengduan, the Qilian, the Gangdise, the Yinshan, the Qinling, the Greater Xinganling, the Changbai, the Nanling and the Taiwan. The Qinghai- Tibet Plateau, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, the ILoess Plateau and the Inner Mongolia Plateau are the four major plateaus in China. The Qinghai- Tibet Plateau with an altitude of over 4,000 meters is the highest plateau in the World. The Northeast China Plain, the North China Plain and the Yangtze River Plain are China ' s three major plains.

Because of the immense size of the country, the climate varies very much in different parts of China, ranging from tropical, subtropical, warm-temperate, temperate to cool- temperate in character. A great part of China, however, lies within subtropical and temperate climatic zones and has a monsoon climate. The northern part of the northern Heilongjiang Province, for instance, has no summer while inhabitants in southern Hainan Island never experience winter condition.

Every winter from October to March, frigid winds sweep across China. As a result, winters in China are cold and dry. Between April and September, rainfall, high temperature and winds dominate. The rainfall in different parts of China also varies a great deal. The annual precipitation on the south eastern seaboard is 1,500 millimetres. And it is below 500 millimetres in north-western China.

B. Political Structure

The People's Republic of China is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants. The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China is the highest organ of state power. It exercises the legislative power of the State and elects the President and the Vice President of the People's Republic of China. It also decides on the choice of the Premier of the State Council upon nomination by the President of the People's Republic of China, and decides on the choices for the Vice Premiers, State Councillors, Ministers in charge of ministries or commissions and the Auditor-General and the Secretary General of the State Council. When the National People's Congress is not in session, its power is exercised by the Standing Committee. The State Council, that is the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, is the executive body of the highest organ of state powers and state administration. The Premier is the head of the State Council. The Supreme People's Court is the highest judicial organ and the Supreme People's Procuratorate is the highest procuratorial organ. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a broadly representative organization of the united front under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, plays an important role in the political life of the State .

China Military RocketsChina pursues an independent foreign policy and advocates the Five Principles of mutual respect of sovereignty and territorial integrity; mutual non-aggression; mutual non-interference in internal affairs; mutual benefit and peaceful co-existence. China seeks normal diplomatic relations with all countries and promotes economic, scientific and cultural exchanges with them. It opposes imperialism, hegemonism and colonialism. It is willing to work for the unity of all the peoples of the world and contribute to the world progressive cause. As a permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations, China has established diplomatic relations with most countries in the world and is playing an increasingly important role in world affairs.

C . Economic construction (registrar@china-tesol.org)

Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the once poverty-stricken and backward country has been built step by step into a prosperous socialist country. Remarkable progress has been made in its economic construction, especially after the country carried out an economic openness policy in the late 1970s. In rural areas, the effective system which contracts collectively-owned farmland to each household has been continued and perfected. In urban areas, new reform measures have been taken to improve the State owned enterprise's management and administration.

While strengthening the publicly-owned economy, the development of self-employed, private and foreign-funded sectors are encouraged; Macro-economic adjustment and control have been improved; the role of the market mechanism has been strengthened; the markets for consumer goods and means of production have been enlarged as the markets of monetary, technology, labour, information and real estate have come into being.

Transportation and energy industries, as well as domestic and foreign trade, have been greatly developed while impressive progress has been made in the development of science, education, culture, public health and sports.

2007 Complete Guide to Adoption in China

All these developments contribute to the raising of living standard in China. In the past few years, the country's industrial output value has registered an average annual increase of 15 per cent, and that of agriculture, 4.9 per cent. With its gross national product increasing at an average of 7.9 percent, China has become one of the countries in the world that have registered fast economic development.

However, because of its huge population and weak economic foundation, China's per capita gross national product is still low. In many fields, for instance, Science and technology, China, a developing country, still lags behind developed countries. To build China into a socialist country with Chinese characteristics, the country is deepening the economic reform and opening its door wider to the outside world. To solve problems such as shortage of funds, talented people and technology, China has been encouraging foreign investments and inviting foreign experts to work in China.

2. Administrative division system

China's administrative units are currently based on a three-level system dividing the nation into provinces, counties and townships as follows:

The country is divided into provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government;

Rural China- A province or an autonomous region IS divided into autonomous prefectures, and/or cities;

- A county or an autonomous county is divided into townships, national minority townships, and/ or towns.

- Municipalities directly under the Central Government and other large cities are divided into districts and counties. Autonomous prefectures are divided into counties, autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures, and autonomous counties are national autonomous areas.

- The Constitution of the People's Republic of China specifically empowers the State to establish special administrative regions when necessary. A special administrative region is a local administrative area directly under the Central Government.

At the end of 1999, China was divided into 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities directly under the Central Government, and 2 special administrative region (see the following table).

China's Provinces, Autonomous Regions, Centrally Administered Municipalities and Special Administrative Regions

Province Name
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register@china-business-register. com

Capital

Area
(10,000sq.km.)

Population*
(10,000 persons)

Beijing Municipality

Beijing

1.68

1,456

Tianjin

Tianjin

1.13

1,011

Hebei Province

Shijiazhuang