Geography and Climate |
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China is the second largest country in Asia by area after Russia, and is
considered the third or fourth largest in the world by the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency in respect to land-and-sea area. The uncertainty over
size is related to the validity of claims by the PRC on territories such
as Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract (both territories also claimed by
India), and a recent change in the method used by the United States to
calculate its surface area. It borders 14 nations (counted clockwise from
south): Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia and
North Korea. Additionally the border between PRC and ROC is located in
territorial waters. The territory of the PRC contains a large variety of landscapes. In the east, along the shores of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, there are extensive and densely populated alluvial plains, while on the edges of the Inner Mongolian plateau in the north, grasslands can be seen. Southern China is dominated by hill country and low mountain ranges. In the central-east are the deltas of China's two major rivers, the Huang He and Yangtze River (Chang Jiang). Other major rivers include the Xijiang River, Mekong, Brahmaputra and Amur. To the west, major mountain ranges, notably the Himalayas, with China's highest point at the eastern half of Mount Everest, and high plateaus feature among the more arid landscapes such as the Taklamakan and the Gobi Desert. A major issue is the continued expansion of deserts, particularly the Gobi Desert. Although barrier tree lines planted since the 1970s have reduced the frequency of sandstorms, prolonged drought and poor agricultural practices result in dust storms plaguing northern China each spring, which then spread to other parts of East Asia, including Korea and Japan. Water, erosion, and pollution control have become important issues in China's relations with other countries. China has some relevant environmental regulations: the 1979 Environmental Protection Law, which was largely modelled on U.S. legislation. But the environment continues to deteriorate. While the regulations are fairly stringent, they are frequently disregarded by local communities while seeking economic development. Twelve years after the law, only one Chinese city was making an effort to clean up its water discharges. This indicates that China is about twenty years behind the U.S. schedule of environmental regulation. Water pollution has increased as an issue along with industrial production. The Chinese government has chosen a discharge standard measuring the concentration of a pollutant rather than the total pollutant load (as is done in the U.S. and many Western countries). As a result many industrial dischargers in China simply dilute the effluent with river water taken from the same source as the receiving waters. Consequently the outcome has been to create considerable water pollution in many of the country's rivers. With regard to carbon emissions, China has ratified the Kyoto Protocol but it is not required to reduce carbon emissions because of its status as a developing country. However, with rapid industrialisation, China is fast becoming one of the world's top emitters of carbon gases and possibly a major contributor to global warming. Part of the price China is paying for increased prosperity is damage to the environment. Leading Chinese environmental campaigner Ma Jun has warned that water pollution is one of the most serious threats facing China. According to Ma the drinking water of 300 million peasants is unsafe and water quality in one fifth of the cities is not up to standard. This makes the crisis of water shortages more pressing, with 400 out of 600 cities short of water. source wikipedia.org |
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