China [ç-], officially Chinese in Latin letters Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo [d ʒ -], German People’s Republic of China, state in East Asia with (2019) 1.4 billion residents; The capital is Beijing.
Climate
China extends over several climate zones: from the cold winter northeast (Manchuria) and the arid desert of Central Asia to the hot, humid peripheral tropics in the southeast. Winter is characterized by great contrasts in temperature. The average in Guangzhou in the coldest month is +13.4 ° C and in Hulun Nur (Inner Mongolia) is −28 ° C. In summer the differences are relatively small: The July temperature in Ürümqi (Sinkiang) is 23.3 ° C, in Guangzhou 28.3 ° C. The annual temperature change is much less pronounced in the south than in the north. There, under the influence of the mountain and continental climate, there is also a strong contrast between day and night.
Precipitation falls mainly in early summer when low pressure disturbances move from west to east. Tropical cyclones hit the coast in late summer and autumn. Between the two rainy seasons, there is a summer dry season, especially in central China. The winter half of the year is dry and cloudless in northern and central China. During this time, heavy dust storms blow south from the dry steppes and loess areas. Then cold waves, which are, however, mitigated by the transverse mountains, can reach southern China. In winter, winds from the north and northwest (winter monsoon) predominate, in summer from the south and southeast (summer monsoon). See ehangzhou for industries of China.
The amount of precipitation varies greatly from year to year between less than 25 mm and more than 2,000 mm. The western regions usually have little precipitation, while the east is relatively rainy. To the east of a line that runs from the east of the Tibet plateau via Lanzhou (Gansu) to Harbin (Manchuria) there is usually less precipitation each year, and more than 500 mm to the west.
Vegetation
The climate and water balance make China a woodland by nature; however, there is a strong contrast between eastern China and the steppes and deserts of the western half of the country. With the exception of the tundra, almost all forms of vegetation on earth are represented in China: from the tropical rainforest to the sandy deserts of Inner Mongolia, from the mangrove coasts of the island of Hainan to the alpine flora of the high mountains (especially the Himalayas). Evergreen deciduous forests are typical of central China.
In eastern China, the natural vegetation was converted into pasture and cultivated land in ancient times, especially in the loess areas and in the loess floodplain of the Great Plain. As a result, soil erosion and water distribution developed into a millennia-long problem, especially in the main settlement areas. Attempts to re-create extensive forest areas have existed since the late 1970s. The afforestation and conservation of forests are of great importance for soil and species protection as well as the avoidance of droughts and floods. One of the world’s largest reforestation projects is the Green Wall.
Wildlife
The animal world of China is just as diverse as the landscape, the climate and the vegetation. It combines species from the Palearctic and Oriental and includes around 4,400 species of vertebrates. A very large part of the species is endangered. Among mammals, this is particularly true of the remains of the black and white giant panda , which once lived in extensive bamboo forests. Only a small number still live in the mountainous regions of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. Are just as endangered large predators such as southern Chinese tiger , snow leopard , clouded leopard and Malayenbär.
Among the primates are macaques still widespread. Several species of gibbon are still found in small populations in southern China.
As in large parts of Asia, it is characterized by a large variety of ungulates, some of which are ancestral forms of important domestic animals. These include the semi-deserts and desert-dwelling Asian wild asses, camels and, in the high mountains, the yak. The deer include musk deer and muntjac, sika and fallow deer, the roe deer and subspecies of the red deer. The Chinese river dolphin is probably extinct in the Yangtze.
The bird world is particularly rich in species with a total of 1,200 species. Chicken birds are diverse, especially pheasants with 19 species (e.g. king, blue and horned pheasant), ducks (e.g. mandarin duck), cranes (e.g. Manchurian crane) and storks.
The largest species among the reptiles is the endemic, critically endangered Chinese alligator. The largest amphibian with a length of up to 1.5 m is the stream-dwelling Chinese giant salamander.
National holiday : October 1st commemorates the 1949 proclamation of the People’s Republic by Mao Zedong.
