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.
Gross domestic product: 12.24 trillion USD (2017) Trending, World Bank
Capital: Beijing
Population: 1.386 billion (2017) World Bank
Currency: Renminbi
President: Xi Jinping
Official script: Simplified Chinese