GEOGRAPHICAL HIGHLIGHTS
China, together with its northern neighbor Mongolia, covers 7.5 percent of the world’s land area, and is home to 20 percent of the world’s population. The region stretches from the coast of eastern Asia deep into central Asia and contains a wide variety of landscape and climatic types.
CHANG RIVER
The Chang River (or Chang Jiang) flows 3,915 miles (6,300 km) from the Kunlun Shan mountain range in western China, through central China, to reach the East China Sea in an estuary 120 miles (about 190 km) long. Formerly known as the Yangtze River, the Chang is the world’s third-longest waterway. The river drains a basin that is similar in size to Mexico.
The Chang is China’s principal navigable waterway, and its basin is the nation’s main cereal-growing region and home to nearly one-third of China’s people. The river flows from the borders of the Tibet Plateau through a narrow deep valley that is lined with mountains. Along its upper course, where it is known as the Jinsha (Chin-sha), the waterway flows parallel to, and only a few miles from, the valleys of the Mekong and Salween rivers.
The Chang descends over 17,000 feet (about 5,200 m) in 1,600 miles (over 2,500 km) before entering the midsection of its course, which flows through the province of Sichuan (formerly Szechuan). The hot summers and mild winters of the Sichuan Basin support rice farming. In eastern Sichuan, the river passes through the narrow Three Gorges, which cut deeply through limestone. At some places in the gorges, the Chang is between 500 and 600 feet (152–183 m) deep, making it the deepest river in the world. Since 2003, the Three Gorges Dam has created a long reservoir.
The lower section of the waterway crosses a vast lowland, where it flows through marshes and lakes and sometimes divides into several courses. The flow of the waterway and the size of the region’s many lakes vary by season and greatly increase in times of flood (from May through August), often resulting in loss of life. The Chang reaches a width of about 6,000 feet (over 1,800 m) in the east, where it flows through a delta to the sea.
EAST CHINA SEA
Known to the Chinese as the East Sea (Dong Hi, formerly given as Tung Hai), the East China Sea is connected to the Sea of Japan by the Korea Strait and to the South China Sea by the Taiwan Strait. The sea covers an area of about 290,000 square miles (752,000 sq. km) and is relatively shallow; around 75 percent of the East China Sea is less than 650 feet (200 m) deep.
China and Japan dispute ownership of the seabed and territorial waters of much of the East China Sea. China claims the area as a natural extension of its continental shelf, and Japan claims the area within 200 nautical miles (370 km) of its coast.
