More useful facts about Shanghai

For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest
of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th
centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines,
military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the
Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system
that, while ensuring China’s sovereignty, imposed strict controls over
everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After
1978, his successor DENG Xiaoping and other leaders focused on
market-oriented economic development and by 2000 output had quadrupled.
For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically
and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls
remain tight.

Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam

35 00 N, 105 00 E

Asia

total: 9,596,960 sq km

land: 9,326,410 sq km

water: 270,550 sq km

slightly smaller than the US

total: 22,117 km

border countries:
Afghanistan 76 km, Bhutan 470 km, Burma 2,185 km, India 3,380 km,
Kazakhstan 1,533 km, North Korea 1,416 km, Kyrgyzstan 858 km, Laos 423
km, Mongolia 4,677 km, Nepal 1,236 km, Pakistan 523 km, Russia
(northeast) 3,605 km, Russia (northwest) 40 km, Tajikistan 414 km,
Vietnam 1,281 km
regional borders: Hong Kong 30 km, Macau 0.34 km

14,500 km

territorial sea: 12 nm

contiguous zone: 24 nm

exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north

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

lowest point: Turpan Pendi -154 m

highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m

coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten,
antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead,
zinc, uranium, hydropower potential (world’s largest)

arable land: 15.4%

permanent crops: 1.25%

other: 83.35% (2001)

525,800 sq km (1998 est.)

frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern
coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts; land
subsidence

air pollution (greenhouse gases, sulfur dioxide particulates) from
reliance on coal produces acid rain; water shortages, particularly in
the north; water pollution from untreated wastes; deforestation;
estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural land since 1949 to soil
erosion and economic development; desertification; trade in endangered
species

party to:
Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity,
Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification,
Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

world’s fourth largest country (after Russia, Canada, and US); Mount
Everest on the border with Nepal is the world’s tallest peak