Climate: extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north

Terrain: mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains,
deltas, and hills in east

Natural resources: coal, iron ore, petroleum, mercury, tin, tungsten,
antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead,
zinc, uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest)

Land use:
arable land: 10%
permanent crops: 0%
meadows and pastures: 31%
forest and woodland: 14%
other: 45%

Irrigated land: 478,220 sq km (1991 - Chinese data)

Environment:
current issues: air pollution from the overwhelming use of high-sulfur
coal as a fuel, produces acid rain which is damaging forests; water
shortages experienced throughout the country, particularly in urban
areas; future growth in water usage threatens to outpace supplies;
water pollution from industrial effluents; much of the population does
not have access to potable water; less than 10% of sewage receives
treatment; deforestation; estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural
land since 1957 to soil erosion and economic development;
desertification; trade in endangered species
natural hazards: frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern
and eastern coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts
international agreements: party to - Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species,
Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer
Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Wetlands, Whaling;
signed, but not ratified - Desertification, Law of the Sea

Note: world's third-largest country (after Russia and Canada)

@China:People

Population: 1,203,097,268 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 26% (female 151,266,866; male 167,234,782)
15-64 years: 67% (female 391,917,572; male 419,103,994)
65 years and over: 7% (female 39,591,692; male 33,982,362) (July 1995
est.)

Population growth rate: 1.04% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 17.78 births/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Death rate: 7.36 deaths/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 52.1 deaths/1,000 live births (1995 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 68.08 years
male: 67.09 years
female: 69.18 years (1995 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.84 children born/woman (1995 est.)

Nationality:
noun: