An overview of Vietnam will help you easily to find our country on the map of Asia. It’s also useful for you before going to CHINA.

The People's Republic of China (PRC) is situated in the eastern part of the Asian Continent on the western coast of the Pacific. With a total land area of 9.6 million square km, China is the largest country in Asia and the third largest in the word, next to Russia and Canada

CAPITAL: BEIJING (Tel. code: #010)
Population: 13.8 million
Area: 16,800sq km
Beijing, capital of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), is where they moves a cogs and wheels of the Chinese universe.
 
SUPERFICY:
The Chinese territory is around 5,500 km from the middle of the Heilongjiang River north of Mohe, Heilongjiang Province, in the north to Zengmu Ansha of the Nansha Islands in the south, and stretches for some 5,000 km from the confluence of the Heilongjiang and Wusulijiang rivers in the east to the Pamirs in the west. The land boundary extends for 22,800 km. The Chinese mainland faces the Bohai Sea (nearly 80,000 square km), the yellow Sea (380,000 square km), the East China Sea (770,000 square km) and the South China Sea (3.5 million square km) on the east and south. China has a total territorial sea area of 4.73 million square km in which there are over 5,400 islands. The mainland coastline is 18,000 km and that of the island 14,000 km, giving China a total coastline distance of 32,000 km.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION:
Located on the western shore of the Pacific Ocean, the People's Republic of China (PRC) 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.

From north to south, the territory of China measures some 5,500 km, stretching from the center of the Nansha Islands. From west to east, the nation extends about 5,200 km from the Pamirs to the confluence of the Heilongjiang and Wusuli rivers, with a time difference of over four hours. China has land borders 22,800 km long, with 15 contiguous countries.

POPULATION: China is the world's most populous country with a population estimated at about 1.294 billion by the end of 2004, one-fifth of the world's total. This figure does not include the Chinese living in the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, and Taiwan Province.   91.6 percent of Chinese people are Han. The non-Han population includes 55 ethnic minorities, of which the major groups are the Zhuang, Manchu, Hui, Miao, Uygur, Yi, Tujia, Mongolian, and Tibetan. Most of the population of China lives in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, Yangtze River and Pearl River valleys, and the Northeast Plain. In 2000 a "go-west" campaign was launched by the government to help its relatively backward western and central areas catch up with more affluent eastern China.

LANGUAGE: Standard Chinese or Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect, Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, and Hakka dialects, as well as minority languages. In 1958, the First National People's Congress approved, at its Fifth Session, the adoption of the Pinyin (Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet) for spelling Chinese names and places in Roman letters, but the Pinyin system was not popularly used until the late 1970s. Pinyin is now widely seen in China, and it replaces earlier Romanization spelling systems. 

CURRENCY: Please search on this website for your reference www.xe.com/ucc/

ELECTRICITY: In China electric current is mostly 220V in main cities, 50 cycles AC. For the most part, you can sfely travel with two types of plugs – two flats pins (like American plugs, but without the ground wire) and three pronged angled pins (like Australian plugs). Bring along a 120V to 220Vconverter if needed, as they are scarce here.

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION: China is made up of 23 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities directly under the Central Government, and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao. The 23 provinces are Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang; the five autonomous regions are Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Xinjiang and Tibet; the four municipalities are Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai and Tianjin.

HEALTH & MEDICAL FACILITIES: Large cities like Beijing, Shanghai have decent  medical facilities, but problems can be encountererd in isolated areas such as Inner Mongolia, Tibet or Xinjiang. Medical services are generally very cheap in China, although random foreigner surcharges may be exacted meaning that foreigners get better service.
In case of accident or ill ness, it’s best just to get a taxi and go to the hospital directly – try to avoid dealing with the autorities (police & military) if possible. As elsewhere in Asia, the Chines do not have Rh-negative blood and their blood baks do not store it..

BEFORE GOING: You can wear pretty much what you want in China, although Hong Kong, Beijing  and Shanghai are more fashion-conscious. Shorts and T-shirts are respectable summer wear. Flip-flops (thongs) and sandals are OK. Clothing is one of the best cheap buys in China, so son’t feel compelled to bring everything from home.
If you’re travelling in the North of China at the height of winter, prepare yourself for incredible cold.Good down jackets are available in China, but it’s hard to find good quality boots (at least in larges sizes)

Finally, China is considered a safe country but we recommend you leave your gold jewellery at home.