Land area
9,561,000 sq km
Population
1.32bn (end-2007; official estimate)
Main towns
Population (millions) of main urban areas
Shanghai: 15.6 Chongqing: 5.1
Beijing (capital): 13.1 Wuhan: 4.9
Guangzhou: 11.0 Harbin: 4.8
Shenzhen: 8.5 Shenyang: 4.4
Dongguan: 6.5 Chengdu: 3.8
Tianjin: 5.2 Zhengzhou: 3.5
Climate
Continental, with extremes of temperature; subtropical in the south-east
Weather in Shanghai (altitude 4 metres)
Hottest months, July and August, 23-33°C (average daily minimum and maximum); coldest month, January, -1 to 9°C; driest month, September, less than 5 mm average rainfall; wettest month, June, 160-165 mm average rainfall
Language
Mainly putonghua, or Standard Chinese, based on northern Chinese (the Beijing dialect known as Mandarin); local dialects and languages are also used
Measures
The metric system is used alongside certain standard Chinese weights and measures, of which the most common are:
1 jin = 0.5 kg 2,000 jin = 1 tonne
1 dan = 50 kg 20 dan = 1 tonne
1 mu = 0.0667 ha 15 mu = 1 shang = 1 ha
Currency
Renminbi (Rmb), or yuan. Rmb1 = 10 jiao = 100 fen. Average exchange rate in 2009: Rmb6.83:US$1
Fiscal year
January-December
Time
8 hours ahead of GMT
Public holidays
New Year, January 1st-2nd; Chinese New Year, February 13th-19th; Qingming Festival, April 3rd-5th; Labour Day, May 1st; Dragon Boat Festival, June 16th-18th; Mid-Autumn Day, September 22nd; National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival, October 1st-8th