China is one of the largest countries in the world. With a land area of 9.6 million sq km, it occupies one- fifth of the Earth's and one fourth of Asia's total area. It is almost as big as the European continent. Only Russia and Canada have a larger land area than China. The country also has about 3 million sq km of sea area under its jurisdiction, based on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and China's proposal.

At present, China has 23 provinces, 4 municipalities, 5 ethnic autonomous regions and two special administrative regions.In history and custom, all provincial administrative regions have short names, such as Beijing referred to as "Jing", and Jiangsu Province referred to as "Su". Beijing is the country's capital and the seat of the Central People's Government.

China's superior natural environment is reflected in mul-tiple aspects, from climate to landforms and topography. It is among the few countries whose longitudinal span runs across the highest number of climate zones. From the north- ern part of Heilongjiang to the southern tip of Hainan, China has six climate zones: cold temperate, mid-temperate, warm ftemperate, subtropical, tropical and equatorial.

Natural resources constitute an integral part of China's natural environment, which mainly includes land, water, climate, and biological and mineral resources. China has rich land resources, most of which can be used. Its arable land area is 1.3 million sq km, accounting for 13.5 percent of its total area. The arable areas are distributed mainly in the plains of the northeast, north and the middle-lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Sichuan Basin and the Pearl River Delta region.