EXPLORE CHINA 12 KEY FACTS by Marne Ventura STORY LIBRARY
1 China Is a Huge Country China covers a vast area It is the fourth-largest country in the world It is the largest country in Asia It has mountains deserts and rivers China shares borders with 14 countries There are islands along its coastlines These coastlines meet the East China Sea and the South China Sea Both seas are part of the Pacific Ocean The Himalayas rise in China’s west Mountains make up one-third of the land of China The Himalayans rise 20,000 feet 6,000 m above sea level in the west Mount Everest is the world’s tallest mountain It is on the border between China and Nepal One-fifth of China is deserts Deserts stretch across northwestern China The Gobi Desert runs through Mongolia and northern China 4
Much of the Gobi is bare rock The Taklamakan Desert is southwest of the Gobi It is one of the world’s biggest sandy deserts Thousands of rivers flow through China The two most important are the Yellow and the Yangtze Both start in the Tibetan Plateau The Yellow River is the sixth longest in the world It winds eastward through northern China to the Yellow Sea The Yangtze River is the longest in China and third longest in the world It flows eastward to the East China Sea The Yangtze is also called the Chang Jiang for Long River 3 7 million Area in square miles 9 6 million km of China China is a huge country with many land types Mountains are one-third of the area Deserts make up one fifth of China The Yellow and Yangtze rivers flow through China 5
