Geography
China has an area of about 9.6 million square km and shares its borders with the deserts of Mongolia to the north, Tibetan plateau and the Himalayas to the west. The East and South China seas borders the eastern side of this country.

Climate
Most of the country's regional climate is temperate. However, the climate ranges from bitterly cold to scorching heat. Temperatures in the north can drop to as low as 40 degrees Celsius in Winter and rise to as high as 38 degrees in Summer. The southern part of China experiences more tropical climate than its northern counterpart. Typhoons occasionally hit the southeast coast.

People
China has a population of 1.24810 billion (1998), one-fifth of the world's total population. Han Chinese makes up 93 percent of the total population, while members of 55 minorities account for the remaining seven percent. The largest minorities are Moslem Uygurs of Xinjiang, the Tibetans and the Southeast Asian people of Yunnan.

History
China, one of the four oldest civilizations in the world, claims a history of 5000 years where there is a written history of 4,000 years. Its rich cultural history boasts of many myths and legends, kingdoms and dynasties. China is the inventor of compass, papermaking, gunpowder and printing. The Great Wall, Grand Canal and Karez irrigation system are among the three great ancient engineering projects built 2,000 years ago.

Culture
China is a land blessed with rich cultural diversity. The architectural style can still be seen from the imperial structures, and the colonial buildings. The Calligraphy, a form of handwriting styles, is highly regarded as China's highest form of visual art. The country's unique rural village and its temples, Chinese theatre, and the opera heavily influenced by Chinese music, has given birth to a diversity of arts including martial arts, acrobatics, and stylized dance.

Language
Mandarin, or Putonghua, is spoken as a first language by about 70% of the population. However, there are eight other major sub-languages, including Yuen (Cantonese), Northern Min (Fukienese), Southern Min, Kan (Hubei), Hakka, Xiang (Hunan) and Wu (Shanghai dialect). Chinese writing is all about pictures and alphabets called pictographs. There are thousands of characters, mostly constructed either of a root element, radical, or a phonetic element.

Administration
The country's administrative divisions are divided into three tiers. The first tier mainly comprise of twenty-one provinces, five autonomous regions, and three centrally governed special municipalities, middle tier consists of autonomous prefectures, counties, autonomous counties, cities, and municipal districts; and basic level comprises townships, and villages.

Religion
China is a multi-religious country. The two classic streams of thought, Confucianism and Taoism, emerged during the Zhou period. Various religions, such as Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism, exert different influence on different ethnic groups.