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
2 China Has Diverse Environments The climate in different areas of China varies Icy winter winds blow across the deserts Summer ocean winds in the south bring heat and rain The weather changes with the seasons in the river valleys In the northeast summer is short and hot Winter is long and chilly The Himalayan Mountains are cold and snowy year-round In southern China rainforests are home to giant pandas tigers monkeys and elephants Rare snow leopards live in Tibet Thousands of species of fish and hundreds of types of amphibians and reptiles live in the rivers and coastal waters Yaks and gazelle roam the grasslands between Tibet and Mongolia More than 30,000 plant species are native to China Some are used to make medicine Many serve to decorate landscapes Some plants Tropical rainforests can be found on Hainan Island and in Yunnan Province 6
Pandas eat up to 84 pounds 38 kgs of bamboo every day provide food for people In forests and rainforests plants are homes for wildlife In the north temperatures in winter range from 4 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit 20 C to 40 C Sometimes snow falls on the sand dunes in the desert In summer the temperature in Beijing China’s capital can be as high as 100 degrees Fahrenheit 38 C 86 Annual temperature range in F 48 C between the south and north China has different A variety of animals live climates in China There is a wide range of temperatures ONLY IN CHINA Over 100 wild animal species are unique to China The best-known is the giant panda Pandas average 77 pounds 135 kg They eat the leaves and shoots of bamboo trees These bears are a symbol of the world’s endangered animals There are only about 1,500 left 7
