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.

As a natural consequence, agriculture in these regions, where rice, wheat and corn are grown, is highly developed.

China's forest cover area is 1.75 million sq km, or 18.2 percent of its total land area. The forests are distributed mainly in (i) Daxing' anling, Xiaoxing' anling and Changbai mountains in the northeast, which is the country's larg-est forested area, dominated by Korean pines, larches and broad-leaved trees, (ii) the Hengduan Mountain areas on the border of Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet, which is the second largest forest area and is dominated by spruces and firs, and (iii) Hainan Province and Xishuangbanna in Yunnan Province that have tropical rainforests, rare in other parts of China.

Data Link

"Three North" Protection Forest Project

The "Three North" protection forest project, an ecological construction project implemented in the North China, is intended to prevent sand from northern China to drift southward, reducing the effects of high velcity winds, improving agricultural production and helping save the environ-ment. The project covers the northeastern, northern and northwestern parts of China, comprising 551 counties (banners, cities and districts) in 13 provinces. The forests start from Binxian county in Heilongjiang in the east and end at the pass of the Wuzibieli Mountain in Xinjiang in the west. They extend 4,480 km from east to west and 560-1,460 km from north to south, covering an area of 4.069 millin sq km, 42.4 percent of China's total teritorial land.

The country's grasslands are spread over 4 million sq km, or 41.6 percent of its total land area. They can be found mainly on the Inner Mongolia and the Loess plateaus, and in areas north and south of the Tianshan Mountain in Xinjiang and on the Tibetan Plateau. Such grasslands serve as stock-raising bases, and offer livestock, meat, milk, wool and other products.[1]

China's lakes and pools cover 67,500 sq km and serve as natural bases for a huge variety of aquatic products like fish and shrimps.

China enjoys an annual rainfall of about 6 trillion cubic meters and a river water flow of 2.7 trillion cubic meters. With 2.8 trillion cubic meters of water resources, China ranks the sixth in the world, preceded by Brazil, Russia, Canada, the US and Indonesia. But its huge population reduces its per capita water resource to only one- fourth of the world's average.

On paper, the country has a hydraulic energy reserve of 676 million kW, and an installed hy-dropower capacity of 378 million kW, the highest in the world. But its water resources are unevenly distributed, being more abundant in the southern and eastern areas.[2]

The country has nearly 160 categories of mineral reserves, including more than 20 of the most prized ones. Twelve of the mineral reserves-of tungsten, antimony, titanium, vanadium, zinc, rare earth, magnesite, pyrite, fluorite, barite, gypsum and graphite-are the highest in the world. Its reserves of six minerals-stannum, hydrargyrum, asbestos, talcum, coal and molybdenum-are the second and third in the world. It has the world's fourth largest reserves of nickel, lead, iron, manganese and platinum. China has the third largest com-bined reserves of the world's 45 major minerals.

China is home to a huge variety of biological resources, too, with 32,800 kinds of higher plants and 104,000 kinds of animals. Many of its rare species such as the giant panda, golden monkey, Yangtze alligator, Yangtze dolphin, metase-quoia and Chinese dove tree are living fossils exclusive to the country. It has set up many natural reserves to protect its flora and fauna and the ecology, 19 of which are part of the UN's Man and the Biosphere Program.

China has a vast sea area, including 133,000 sq km of shal-low sea and sea beaches (26,000 sq km of water suitable for pisciculture) and 4,300 sq km of salt land area. This makes it rich in marine resources with more than 2,600 kinds of fish, including 50-odd commercial ones, and has helped develop its aquiculture sector to a high level.

More than 30 natural resources, including oil, natural gas, iron, copper, apatite and glauconite can be found in China's seas, some of which have been exploited in the offshore oilfields in Bohai Sea and the North Bay. China's potential ocean energy is expected to be about 540 million kW, part of which has been developed, with its tide- using hydropower project being a case in point.

Though China has huge resources, its large population greatly reduces its per capita resources level of land, water and mineral. The amount of resources varies from region to region. The combined coal reserve of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia, for example, accounts for more than 70 percent of the national total (760 billion tons), while the nine southern provinces have only 1.4 percent. Most of the identified recoverable oilfield reserves are distributed in the northeastern, northwestern and northern coastal areas. Seventy percent of the natural gas reserves are in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Xinjiang.

Data Link

The South-to-North Water Diversion Project

The construction South-to-North Water Diversion Project is aimed at di-verting surplus water of the Yangtze River to the dry areas of the northern and northwestern parts of China. Water will be carried through canals from the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to meet the agri-cultural and industrial needs of the northern and northwestern areas.

Water will be carried through three roures: east, middle and west. On the east route, water will be diverted from the lower reaches of the Yang-tze River to the eastern part of the North China Plain along the Bejing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The middle route will sart from the middle reaches of the Yangtze Rver and the Hanjiang Rver, a branch of the Yang-tze, and end on the western part of North China Plain. On the west route, water will be diverted from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to the upper reaches of the Yellow River, which are intended to supply water for the areas on the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River and the western regions.

Water resources, too, are unevenly ditributed and concen-trated in areas south of the Qinling Mountain-Huaihe River in the eastern part of China. The arable land area there is only 36.3 percent of the national total, but it has 82.3 percent of the country's water resources. On the other hand, the ar-eas north of the Qinling Mountain-Huaihe River have 63.7 percent of the arable land, but only 17.75 percent of the wa-ter resources; The northwestern part of China has even less water resources. Its land area comprises one-third of the na-tional total, while it has just 5 percent of the water resources. Hydropower, too, varies from region to region, 70 percent of which is concentrated in southwestern China.

Because of the uneven distribution of resources, China is trying to intensify its scientific research and overall plans, and take steps to build new and double railway lines to make transporting coal from the northern to the southern areas easier. It is also working on a large-scale South-to-North Water Diversion Project, which will divert water from the Yangtze water to North China in order to meet the shortage there.

Note: 

[1] Left: Tibetan antelope is on top of the list of animals under State protection. The face of adult male Tibetan antelope is blackish, its legs have black marks and it has harp-like horns.

Right: The silver fir, one of the rare tree species found in China, is among the first grade plants under State protection. It gets its name for its silvery stomas on the back of the green, linear leaves that will sparkle with breezes.

[2] Yunnan golden monkeys, one of the most rare animals in China, are distributed mainly in high mountains in the northwestern part of Yunnan and southwestern part of Tibet.