Everything you need to know about China
China is a country that falls in three steps from the Tibetan Plateau to the coastal plain, with almost everyone living on the last of them. Learn the shape of it across thirty-one provinces, regions and municipalities, the facts that make daily life legible from Beijing to Chengdu, and the first 101 words of Mandarin or of the Cantonese spoken across the south.
Read it, then make it stick
Geography of China
The land falls in three great steps from the Tibetan Plateau to the eastern plains, where almost everyone lives. Two rivers organize the rest: the Yangtze splits north from south, and the Yellow River built the northern plain it keeps flooding.
Know the shape of the country
Three maps of China itself, drawn from the same files the rounds are played on. The provinces, regions and municipalities are the frame everything else sits in; the cities and the rivers that put most of them where they are go inside it.
Places worth visiting
Essential ยท Imperial palace
Forbidden City
The imperial palace of the Ming and Qing emperors. Climb Jingshan Park behind it for a view over the roofs.
Start in Beijing and Xiโan, then follow the coast to Shanghai and head south and west to the karst hills and the Tibetan Plateau. Essential is our shortlist for a first trip, and worth a detour goes further. Select a pin to read about a place, then play the map and find them all.
Take Mandarin Chinese with you
Greetings and politeness
Hello, please, thank you, sorry: the ten openers everything else builds on.
Keep going one country deeper
When you have had your fill of China, the countries in white have a guide like this one, and every other has maps of its own.
Asia
- Afghanistan
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Bhutan
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Israel
- Japan
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Lebanon
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mongolia
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- North Korea
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palestine
- Philippines
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Syria
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Thailand
- Timor-Leste
- Turkmenistan
- United Arab Emirates
- Uzbekistan
- Vietnam
- Yemen
Europe
- Albania
- Andorra
- Armenia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czechia
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Georgia
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Kosovo
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- North Macedonia
- Northern Cyprus
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Tรผrkiye
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Vatican City
North America
Africa
- Algeria
- Angola
- Benin
- Botswana
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Cรดte dโIvoire
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Djibouti
- Egypt
- Eritrea
- Ethiopia
- Gabon
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Kenya
- Liberia
- Libya
- Madagascar
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Republic of the Congo
- Rwanda
- Senegal
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- Somaliland
- South Africa
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Tunisia
- Uganda
- Western Sahara
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe