China is a populous nation in East Asia whose vast landscape encompasses grassland, desert, mountains, lakes, rivers and more than 14,000km of coastline. Capital Beijing mixes modern architecture with historic sites such as the Forbidden City palace complex and Tiananmen Square. Shanghai is a skyscraper-studded global financial center. The iconic Great Wall of China runs east-west across the country’s north.
| Capital: | Beijing |
| Population: | 1.379 billion (2016) World Bank |
| President: | Xi Jinping |
| Currency: | Renminbi |
| Official languages: | Mandarin Chinese, Standard Mandarin |