Mainland China is a huge country! Let's look at the geography and demographic structure of this huge nation.

Mainland China

Total Land Area:
9,596,960 sq km
* Slightly smaller than the US

Land boundaries:
22,117 km

Coastline Boundaries:
14,500 km

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

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

Elevation extremes:
Lowest point: Turpan Pendi -154 m
Highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m

Natural resources:
Coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead, zinc, uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest)Natural hazards:
Frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts; land subsidence

Age structure:
0-14 years: 21.4% (male 148,134,928/female 131,045,415)
15-64 years: 71% (male 477,182,072/female 450,664,933)
65 years and over: 7.6% (male 47,400,282/female 51,886,182) (2005 est.)

Median age:
Total: 32.26 years
Male: 31.87 years
Female: 32.67 years (2005 est.)

Religion:
Daoist (Taoist), Buddhist, Muslim 1%-2%, Christian 3%-4%
note: officially atheist (2002 est.)

Languages:
Standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghaiese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, minority languages

Literacy:
Definition: age 15 and over can read and write
Total population: 90.9%
Male: 95.1%
Female: 86.5% (2002)

Source: CIA Worldbook