Elevation extremes: lowest point: Turpan Pendi -154 m highest point:
Mount Everest 8,850 m (1999 est.)
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)
Land use: arable land: 13% permanent crops: 1% other: 86% (1998 est.)
Irrigated land: 525,800 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards: frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts; land subsidence
Environment - current issues: air pollution (greenhouse gases, sulfur dioxide particulates) from reliance on coal, produces acid rain; water shortages, particularly in the north; water pollution from untreated wastes; deforestation; estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural land since 1949 to soil erosion and economic development; desertification; trade in endangered species
Environment - international agreements: party to: Antarctic-Environmental
Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber
83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified:
Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol
Geography - note: world's fourth-largest country (after Russia, Canada, and US); Mount Everest on the border with Nepal, is the world's tallest peak
People China
Population: 1,284,303,705 (July 2002 est.)