National anthem, instrumental: Listen  (To save the song, right click with the mouse and choose "Save as..))

National anthem with lyrics: Listen Note 437 Kb!

Capital: Beijing ( Bei = North and jing = capital)

Flag:  

Area:

Total: 9,596,960 square km
Land: 9,326,410 square km
Water: 270,550 square km
The worlds 4:th largest (after Russia, Canada, and USA)

Population:  1,246,871,951 (July 1999 estimation)

Areas: 22 provinces (China consider Taiwan to be the 23:e province), 4 cities have privincial status.
5 autonomous district and  2 Special administrative area (Hongkong and Macao).

Coastline: 14,500 km

Climate: From nearly artic in the north to tropical in the south.

Terrain: Mostly mountains, many deserts in the west. The east parts have good soils for farms etc.

Highest och lowest point:

Highest point: Mount Everest 8,848 m
Lowest point: Turpan Pendi -154 m

Natural resources: coal, iron ore, oil, natural gas, mercury, tin, wolfram, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, aluminium, lead, uranium, water power (Worlds largest )

Land use:
Cultivable: 10%
Permanent grazing land: 43%
Forest: 14%
Other: 33%

Irrigated land: 498,720 square metre  (1993 estimation)

Common natural catastrophe: typhoon, flood, earthquake, drought

Age structure: (1999 estimation)
0-14 yearr: 26% (men 169,206,275; women 149,115,216)
15-64 year: 68% (men 435,047,915; women 408,663,265)
65 year or older: 6% (men 39,824,361; women 45,014,919)

Yearly population increase : 0.77% (1999 estimation)

Birth rate: 15.1 birth/1,000 Inhabitants (1999 estimation)

Dödstal: 6.98 death /1,000 inhabitants (1999 estimation)

Boys/girl:
At birth: 1.15 boys/girl
Under 15 year: 1.13 boys/girl
15-64 year: 1.06 boys/girl
65 or older: boys/girl
Population as a total: 1.07 boys/girl  (1999 estimation)

Average length of life:
Total: 69.92 year
Men: 68.57 year
Women: 71.48 year  (1999 estimation)

Birth: 1.8 birth/woman  (1999 estimation)

Ethnical groups: Han Chinese 91.9%, Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, Korean, other 8.1%. There is 56 defined etnic groups in China.

Religion: Daoism (Taoism), Buddhism, Muslim 2%-3%, Christians 1%

Language: standard Chinese or  Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the dialect from Beijing), Yue (cantonese), Wu (Shanghai dialect), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwan), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dilect, numerous minority languages.

Able to read:
definition: 15 year or older and are able read and write
total population: 81.5%
men: 89.9%
women: 72.7%

Country code: CH

Constitution: People's republic

President: Jiang Zemin (since 1993)

Prime minister: Zhu Rongji (since 1998)

Foreign minister: Tang Jiaxuan (since1998)

Chairman of The comunist party: Jiang Zemin (since 1989)

Latest election: Mars 1998 (president and ministers)

Next election : Mars 2003 (president and ministers)

Currency: yuan (CNY) / renminbi (RMB)

Independence:  Republic 12 February 1912; People's Republic established 1 October 1949)

National holiday : 1 October ( People's Republic established 1 October 1949)

Constitution: Latest uppdate 4 December 1982

Right to vote: 18 year

Legislative power: National People's Congress or Quanguo Renmin Daibiao Dahui (2,979 seats)
 

Political parties and leaders: Chinas communist party  [JIANG Zemin, chairman]; There are 8 registered small parties, all of the controlled by the comunist party.

Political opposition: No meaningull opposition

GNP growth: 7.8% (1998 estimation) 

GNP per capita: $3,600 (1998 estimation)

GNP per sector:
agriculture: 19%
industry: 49%
service: 32%

Workforce: 696 million (1997 estimation)

Workforce-per sector: agriculture 50%, industry 24%, service 26% (1997)

Unemployment : officialy 3%. In the cities , probably 8%-10%; On the countryside conciderable higher. On top of this, most of the large government indystries are loosing money. The unemployemnt rate will probably grow much higher.

Industry: Iron, steel, coal, machinery, weapon, textile, oil, cement, chemistry, fertilizer, shoes, toys, food, bilar, electronics, telecommunication

Industrial production increase: 8.8% (1998 estimation)

Electricity production: 1.16 trillion kWh (1998)

Electricity production per source:
fossil fuel : 93%
water: 6%
nuclear power: 1%
other: 0%

Agriculture:  Rice, wheat, potato, durra, peanut, tea, millet, grain, cotton, oily

Export: $183.8 billion (f.o.b., 1998)

Export products: electrical machines and tools, machines and toolsr, textiles, clothes shoes, toys, sports equipment

Export-partners: HongKong 21%, USA 21%, Japan 14%, Germany, South Korea, The Netherlands, UK, Singapore, Taiwan (1997)

Import: $140.17 billion (c.i.f., 1998)

Import-products:  Electrical machines and tools, machinery and tools, plastic, iron, steel, science and photo equipment, paper.

Import-partners: Japan 20%, USA 12%, Taiwan 12%, south Korea 11%, Germany, HongKong, Singapore, Russia (1997)

foreign debt: $159 million (1998 estimation)

Telephones: 105 million (1998)  

TV stations: 209 (China Central Television, state owned) + 31 provincial TV stations, 3,000 city TV stations (1997)

TV set: 300 million
 
Railway: total: 64,900 km (included 5,400 km  "local" rail)

Motorway:
total: 1.21 miljon km
paved: 271,300 km
unpaved: 938,700 km (1998 estimation)

Waterways: 109,800 km  (1997)

Pipelines: crude oil 9,070 km; oil products 560 km; natural gas 9,383 km (1998)

Harbours: Dalian, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Haikou, Huangpu, Lianyungang, Nanjing, Nantong, Ningbo, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, Shanghai, Shantou, Tianjin, Xiamen, Xingang, Yantai, Zhanjiang

Airports: 206 (1996 estimation.)
 
Boundary and land disputes:  Border to India, part of border to russia, most of the border to Taijikistan, 33 km of the border to North Korea, Spratyly island in dispute with Malaysia, The Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnamn and Brunei, water boundary conflict with  Vietnamn, Paracel ilands occuped by China  but both  Vietnamn and Taiwan claims the right to them. China claims the right for the Japnese administrated Senkaku islands, Parts of the borders to vietnam uncertain