China is the largest country in Asia and is bordered by Russia, India, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macau (semi-autonomous), Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Vietnam.

Capital: Beijing is the capital of China.

Size: China covers about 9,596,960 square kilometers. China is the the fourth largest country in the world (after Russia, Canada, and the USA).

Population: China has the largest population of any country in the world. The population of China is about 1,261,832,482 (as of July, 2000). China is divided into 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, and 4 municipalities.

Climate: China's climate ranges from desert to tropical to subarctic.

Major Rivers: The major rivers in China are the Yangtse River, the Yellow River, and the Pearl River.

Mountain Ranges: The highest mountain range in the world, the Himalayas, borders China. Other major mountain ranges in China are the Ch'ang-pai Mountains, theTsinling Mountains, and the Nan range.

Highest Point: The highest point in China is Mount Everest (8,850 m tall), in the Himalayas.

Lowest Point: The lowest point in China is Turpan Pendi (the Turpan Depression), 154 meters (505 feet) below sea level. It is located in northwestern China.

The Great Wall of China, one of the greatest wonders of the world. Just like a gigantic dragon, the Great Wall winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus stretching approximately 6,700 kilometers (4,163 miles ) from east to west of China. With a history of more than 2000 years, some of the sections of the great wall are now in ruins or entirely gone. However, it still inspires a sense of awe to all that visit and is the only man made object visible from space.

The history of fortune cookies dates back to the 13th and 14th centuries when China was occupied by the Mongols.

The traditional lotus nut paste moon cakes were used to hide secret messages regarding the date of a popular uprising against the invading Mongols. The moon cakes were distributed by the revolutionary Chu Yuan Chang. Disguised as a Taoist priest, Chang exploited the fact that the Mongols had no taste for lotus nut paste. The uprising was successful and the Ming Dynasty was formed.The transition from moon cakes to modern-day fortune cookies was born out of necessity in the hard days of the American gold rush and the railway boom. When the Chinese 69'ers were building the great American railways through the Sierra Nevada to California they put happy messages inside biscuits to exchange at the moon festival instead of cakes, and so fortune cookies began

A cottage industry emerged as the Chinese settled in San Francisco and until 1964 (when the first automated production started) they were made by hand.

It is impossible to go anywhere in China without encountering people drinking tea. The absence of tea is an exception indeed rather than the rule in Chinese culture. China has an estimated 4 million acres given over to the growing of tea!

Tea drinking was invented by the Chinese, around the time of the Han dynasty (220 BC-200 AD), and many early Chinese tea customs gave rise to the elaborate tea ceremonies of other countries such as Japan. Drinking steeped leaf tea, however, emerged in concert with fine white china during the Ming (1368-1644 AD) dynasty.

For all the myriad kinds of tea one can buy, there is only one tea plant (Thea sinensis or Camellia sinensis for the botanically minded). Variations in tea are accounted for by differences in the time of picking, rolling, fermentation and roasting. Broadly, there are three types of tea: unfermented green tea (prepared from fresh leaves and buds which are pan-fried then rolled and dried), semi-fermented tea such as Oolong (made by wilting the fresh leaves in the sun, then bruising them slightly and partially fermenting them) and fermented or ‘black’ tea (made by fermenting the slightly wilted leaves). The latter is the kind most often encountered in the West and India. In North China, green tea is often mixed with jasmine flowers to make a delicious and popular summertime drink.Tea is usually brewed in a cup or a pot, though it is not uncommon to see other receptacles such as glass jars reused for tea in China! Connoisseurs of tea will often make a first, brief steeping which is then discarded. This is seen as cleaning the leaves and preparing them for the second, considered best, steeping. Tea can be steeped up to ten times or more.

Medicinal uses of tea: In herbal medicine the different types of tea have certain medicinal properties.Green tea has attracted the most interest for its antioxidant activities which may help in a variety of diseases. In addition in contains a high amount of fluoride which may help reduce tooth decay. Green tea can also be used externally to stop or slow bleeding from cuts and scrapes and to relieve itchy insect bites. Some varieties of oolong tea have cholesterol-lowering properties which are especially effective if the tea is drunk after a fatty meal. Oolong tea may also reduce blood pressure and arterial disease possibly by decreasing the clotting tendecy of blood. Black tea is rich in chemicals called tannins which are astringent. For herbalists these are useful in treating diarrhoea. Cooled, damp black tea bags may also be placed over tired, red eyes or on insect bites to relieve itching and redness.