Mandarin Mondays: 地理

Because of China's National Day (guó qìng jié, 国庆节), we're studying about China this month. Each Monday I'll be sharing a few of the facts we've learned about this fascinating country. This week we're learning facts about China's geography (dì lǐ, 地理). Since China is so big (hěn dà, 很大), it is not surprising that it had very diverse landscapes and climates.

This vast country has almost every kind of terrain there is. Forests (sēnlín, 森林), coastline (hǎi'ànxiàn, 海岸线), deserts (shāmò, 沙漠), mountains (shān, 山), and even subtropical rainforests (yàrèdài yǔlín, 亚热带雨林) can all be found in different parts of China. From the cold north up by Harbin to the warm island weather of Hainan, China has just about every climate also.

China also has some of the world's highest mountains and longest rivers as well. The world’s highest mountain, Mt. Everest (Zhūmùlǎngmǎ Fēng, 珠穆朗玛峰), at 29,029 feet (8,848 meters) is on the China-Nepal border, and second-highest point is 28,251 feet high (8,611 meters) and is on the China-Pakistan border. The Yangtze River (Chángjiāng, 长江) is the third longest river in the world, and the Yellow River (Huánghé, 黄河) is the sixth longest in the world