China at a glance

Official Name	People's Republic of China
Capital City	Beijing
National Flag	Five-star red flag, length and width proportion: 3:2.
National Anthem	March of the Volunteers
National Day	October 1
Head of State	President Hu Jintao
Head of the Government	Premier Wen Jiabao
Top Legislature	National people's Congress
Highest Court	Supreme People's Court
Armed Forces	Army, Navy, Air Force (Total number of military personnel 2,470,000 in 1999)
Administrative Divisions	23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities directly under the Central Government and 2 special administrative regions
Territory	9.6 million square km
Location	In East Asia, by the west Pacific Ocean.
Time Zone	GMT+8.00
Standard Time	Beijing Time
Population	1.27bn (2001)
Average Life-span	71-year-old (2000)
Ethnic Groups	Han, 91.59 of the population
Official Language	Standard Chinese, or Mandarin Chinese
Religion	Officially atheism
Largest City	Shanghai
Public Holidays	New Year¡¯s Day (January 1), Spring Festival (from the end of January to the middle of February), International Labor Day (May 1) and National Day (October 1)
Currency & Unit	Renminbi (RMB) Yuan Monetary Unit 1 yuan, consisting of 10 jiao
Exchange Rate	7.7 Yuan=US$1
Weights & Measures	Metric System
GDP	US$1.2trn (2001)
GDP per head	US$910
Inflation	-0.8% (2002)
Taxation	All enterprises pay a 33% tax on profits
Islands	5, 400 islands
Mountains	Among 19 mountains over 7,000 meters high in the world, Mt. Everest with the height of 8,848 meters above the sea level is the highest peak on the earth.
Rivers	The Yangtze River (6,300 km), the third longest in the world; The Yellow River (5,464 km), the second longest in China.
Canyon	The Yalu Tsangpo River Canyon, the world's largest, 504.6 km in length and 6,009 meters in depth.
Lakes	The Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake; the Qinghai Lake, the country's largest salt lake.
Climate	The wide range of weather conditions from the subtropical in the south to the frigid in the north
Rare Animals	Giant Panda, Golden Monkey and White-flag Dolphin
Plants	A great variety of plants due to the wide range of climates and topography