1. Geography

Located in east Asia, on the western coast of the Pacific Ocean, the People's Republic of China has a land area of about 9.6 million sq km and is the third largest country in the world, next only to Russia and Canada. Its contiguous countries on land are: Russia and Mongolia to the north; Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Pakistan and India to the west; Korea to the east, Japan, the Philippines and Malaysia to east and southeast across the seas.

The capital Beijing is about 1310 kilometers from Tokyo Japan, 5800 kilometers from San Francisco, the U.S.A to the east; about 5090 kilometers from Paris, France to the west; about 2790 kilometers from Singapore to the south.

China has a marked continental monsoon climate characterized by great varieties. North winds prevail in winter, while south winds reign in summer. The four seasons are quite distinct. The rainy season coincides with the hot season. In terms of temperature, the nation can be sectored from south to north into equatorial, tropical, subtropical, warm-temperate, temperate, and cold-temperate zones; in terms of moisture, it can be sectored from southeast to northwest into humid, semi-humid, semi-arid and arid zones which separately account for 32 percent, 15 percent, 22 percent and 31 percent of land area of the whole country.

The average temperature of Beijing in January is 4.4, average temperature in July is 26; the average temperature of Shanghai in January is 4.3, average temperature in July is 27.9; the average temperature of Guangzhou in January is 13.5, average temperature in July is 28.5; the average temperature of Xi'an in January is 0.5, average temperature in July is 26.3.

China is the most populous country in the world, with 1.295 billion people, including 455.94 million people in cities and towns, accounting for 36.09 percent of the total population and 807.39 million people in rural areas, accounting for 63.91 percent of total population. The densely populated areas are the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, the Sichuan Basin and the Yellow River and Huai River Plain.

2. Political and Economic System

The people's congress system is China's fundamental political system. The National People's Congress is the organ which has the highest power in the PRC. It revises the Constitution and exercises legislative power, and elects the major state leaders, such as president of the state.

The State Council (the central people's government), is the highest state administrative body. It is responsible to the National People's Congress, and reports its work to them. Under the State Council, there are 28 ministries, commissions and bureaus.

The Supreme People's Court and local people's courts are the judicial organ and the Supreme People's Procuratorates and local people's procuratorates are the supervisory organ.

China carries out socialist market economy; the government practices market management to economy; resource supply, the price of commodities and service are mostly determined by market run on their own without intervention of government administration.

3. Economic Indices(Annex Following)

The reform of China's economic system is further deepened, positive progress has been made in the structural adjustments, the national economy maintains a reasonable fast pace, domestic market runs smoothly, reserve of major commodities is sufficient, balance of international payments is in a good state, the living conditions of people are continuously improved and various social undertakings have registered.

4. Education

Since the reform and opening-up adopted in 1979, China implemented the strategy of relying on science and education to rejuvenate the nation and gave top priority to education in its strategic development plans, making9-year compulsory education universal across China. Major breakthroughs have been recorded in reforming the regulatory systems of the education sector. In 2002, Chinese higher educational institutions enrolled 3.21 million university students and 200,000 graduate enrollment at 9.03 million and 500,000 respectively. Also in 2002, there were 16.84 million students studying in senior high school and 66.87 million in junior high school.

5. Culture and Customs

In ancient civilizations China is the paragon of the Far East and its long history formed a distinctive culture and custom. The thrifty and modest attitude to life and the value of paying more attention to the common interest of family and community are still reflected in daily behaviors of most Chinese people.

Over the past decades, China has been changing from a traditional agricultural society into an industrial one, and today even into an information one, and the culture and custom also see many changes with the development. More and more youngsters intend to lead a westernized life, enjoying McDonald's hamburger and Coca Cola, spending evenings in discos and celebrating Christmas while the traditional standard of value still keeps them responsible to family and society.