China, North Korea and South Korea Simply a Travel Guide. Featuring its Geography, Special Features and Highlights.

4. China
Official Name: People’s
Republic of China
“Middle Flowery Kingdom”
Capital: Beijing
Land Area: 3,600,927 sq mi
(9,326,411 sq km); total
area:3,705,407 sq mi (9,596,960
sq km)1
Population: (2011
est.): 1,336,718,015 (growth
rate: 0.493%); birth rate:
12.29/1000; infant mortality
rate: 16.06/1000; life
expectancy: 74.68

5. Largest cities: Shanghai, 16.575
million; Chungking (Chongqing)
9.401 million; Shenzhen 9.005
million; Guangzhou 8.884 million
(2009)
Currency/ Monetary Unit:
Yuan/Renminbi
National Name: Zhonghua Renmin
Gongheguo
National Anthem: “March of the
Volunteers”
Official Language: Standard
Chinese (Mandarin/Putonghua)

6. Ethnicity/Race: Han Chinese
91.5%, Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi,
Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol,
Buyi, Korean, and other
nationalities 8.5%
Religion: traditionally Buddhist
and Confucianist, some
Christian and syncretic
Chondogyo (Religion of the
Heavenly Way)
National Holiday: Anniversary of
the Founding of the People's
Republic of China, October 1
Literacy rate: 92.2%
(2011 est.)

7. Economic
summary: GDP/PPP (2011
est.): $11.29 trillion; per capita
$8,400.
Real growth rate: 9.2% (official
data).
Inflation: 5.4%.
Unemployment:6.5% official
registered unemployment in
urban areas; substantial
unemployment and
underemployment in rural
areas.
Arable land: 14.86%.
Agriculture: rice, wheat, potatoes,
corn, peanuts, tea, millet, barley,
apples, cotton, oilseed; pork; fish.
Labor force: 795.5 million (2011);
agriculture 10.2%, industry 46.9%,
services 43% (2010 est.).

8. Industries: mining and ore
processing, iron, steel,
aluminum, and other metals,
coal; machine building;
armaments; textiles and
apparel; petroleum; cement;
chemicals; fertilizers; consumer
products, including footwear,
toys, and electronics; food
processing; transportation
equipment, including
automobiles, rail cars and
locomotives, ships, and aircraft;
telecommunications equipment,
commercial space launch
vehicles, satellites.
Natural resources: coal, iron ore,
petroleum, natural gas, mercury,
tin, tungsten, antimony,
manganese, molybdenum,
vanadium, magnetite, aluminum,
lead, zinc, uranium, hydropower
potential (world's largest).
Exports: $1.898 trillion (2011 est.):
machinery and equipment,
plastics, optical and medical
equipment, iron and steel.
Imports: $1.743 trillion (2011 est.):
machinery and equipment, oil and
mineral fuels, plastics, optical and
medical equipment, organic
chemicals, iron and steel.
Major trading partners: U.S., Hong
Kong, Japan, South Korea,
Germany, Australia (2010).

9. International disputes:
continuing talks and
confidence-building measures
work toward reducing tensions
over Kashmir that nonetheless
remains militarized with
portions under the de facto
administration of China (Aksai
Chin), India (Jammu and
Kashmir), and Pakistan (Azad
Kashmir and Northern Areas);
China and India continue their
security and foreign policy
dialogue started in 2005 related
to the dispute over most of their
rugged, militarized boundary,
regional nuclear proliferation,
and other matters; China claims
most of India's Arunachal
Pradesh to the base of the
Himalayas;
 China asserts
sovereignty over
Scarborough Reef along
with the Philippines and
Taiwan, and over the
Spratly Islands together
with Malaysia, the
Philippines, Taiwan,
Vietnam, and Brunei
 Vietnam and China
continue to expand
construction of facilities
in the Spratlys and in
March 2005, the national
oil companies of China,
the Philippines, and
Vietnam signed a joint
accord on marine
seismic activities in the

10. Government: Communist State
• the legislative branch, the National
People’s Congress
• the executive branch, the State Council
• the judicial branch, the Supreme People’s
Court and the Supreme People’s
Procuratorate
• the military branch, People’s Liberation
Army (PLA) via the Central Military
Commission

11. President Xi Jinping
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao

12. Climate in China
Cold-Temperate Zone: north part of Heilongjiang Province and Inner
Mongolia (Representative city: Harbin)
Mid-Temperate Zone: Jilin, northern Xinjiang, and most of
Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Inner Mongolia (Representative cities:
Beijing, Shenyang, Dalian, Urumqi, Hohhot, Dunhuang, Lanzhou)
Warm-Temperate Zone: area of the middle and lower reaches of the
Yellow River, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Hebei Province
(Representative cities: Xian, Taiyuan, Luoyang, Jinan, Qingdao,
Zhengzhou)
Subtropical Zone: South of isotherm of Qinling Mountain-Huaihe River,
east of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (Representative cities: Shanghai,
Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau, Guilin, Hangzhou, Suzhou,
Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, Chengdu)
Tropical Zone: Hainan province, southern Taiwan, Guangdong, and
Yunnan Province (Representative cities: Haikou, Sanya)
Plateau Climate Zone: Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (Representative city:

13. GREAT WALL OF CHINA
BUDDHIST TEMPLES
FORBIDDEN CITY

20. Rivers
Yangtze River
Yellow River

30. North Korea
Official Name: Democratic People's
Republic of Korea
Capital: Pyongyang
Land Area: 46,490 sq mi
(120,409 sq km); total
area: 46,540 sq mi (120,540 sq
km)
Population(2012
est.): 24,589,122 (growth rate:
0.535%); birth rate: 14.51/1000;
infant mortality rate:
26.21/1000; life expectancy:
69.2

31. Largest city (2003):Pyongyang,
3,222,000 (metro. area), 2,767,900
Currency/ Monetary Unit: won
National Name: Choson Minjujuui
Inmin Konghwaguk
National Anthem: Aegukka
Official Language: Korean

32. Ethnicity/Race: racially
homogeneous; small Chinese
community, a few ethnic
Japanese
Religion: traditionally Buddhist
and Confucianist, some
Christian and syncretic
Chondogyo (Religion of the
Heavenly Way)
National Holiday: Founding of
the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea, September 9
Literacy rate: 99% (1991 est.)

33. Economic summary:
GDP/PPP(2011 est.): $40 billion
note: North Korea does not
publish any reliable National
Income Accounts data; the
datum shown here is derived
from purchasing power parity
(PPP) GDP estimates for North
Korea that were made by Angus
MADDISON in a study
conducted for the OECD; his
figure for 1999 was extrapolated
to 2007 using estimated real
growth rates for North Korea's
GDP and an inflation factor
based on the US GDP deflator;
the result was rounded to the
nearest $10 billion; per capita
$1,800.
Real growth rate: 4%.
Inflation: n.a.
Unemployment: n.a. Arable
land: 22.4% (2005).
Agriculture: rice, corn, potatoes,
soybeans, pulses; cattle, pigs,
pork, eggs.
Labor force: 12.2 million;
agricultural 36%, nonagricultural
64%.
Industries: military products;
machine building, electric
power, chemicals; mining (coal,
iron ore, magnesite, graphite,
copper, zinc, lead, and precious
metals), metallurgy; textiles,
food processing; tourism.

34. Natural resources: coal,
lead, tungsten, zinc,
graphite, magnesite, iron
ore, copper, gold, pyrites,
salt, fluorspar,
hydropower.
Exports: $2.557 billion
(2010 est.): minerals,
metallurgical products,
manufactures (including
armaments), textiles,
fishery products.
Imports:$3.529 billion (2010
est.): petroleum, coking
coal, machinery and
equipment; textiles,
grain.
Major trading
partners: China, South
Korea, Bangladesh,
Russia (2010).

35. International disputes:
risking arrest,
imprisonment, and
deportation, tens of
thousands of North
Koreans cross into China
to escape famine,
economic privation, and
political oppression;
North Korea and China
dispute the sovereignty of
certain islands in Yalu and
Tumen rivers; Military
Demarcation Line within
the 4-km-wide
Demilitarized Zone has
separated North from
periodic incidents in
the Yellow Sea with
South Korea which
claims the Northern
Limiting Line as a
maritime boundary;
North Korea
supports South
Korea in rejecting
Japan's claim to
Liancourt Rocks
(Tok-do/Take-shima)

36. Government: Authoritarian socialist; oneman dictatorship
The Cabinet is the administrative and Executive
body of the highest organ of State power and a
general state management organ, according to
the Constitution of North Korea .
The Supreme People’s Assembly is
its Unicameral parliament
the Central Court, with its judges appointed by
the Supreme People's Assembly, is the highest
court of its Judiciary.

37. Chief of State Kim Jong Un Prime Minester Park Pong Ju

40. Lake Chonji

45. South Korea
Official Name:
Republic of Korea
Capital: Seoul
Land Area: 37,421 sq mi
(96,920 sq km)
Population(2012
est.): 48,860,500 (growth rate:
0.204%); birth rate: 8.42/1000;
infant mortality rate: 4.08/1000;
life expectancy: 79.3

46. Largest city Seoul, 9.778 million
Other large cities: Pusan, 3.439
million; Inchon, 2.572; Taegu,
2.458 million; Taejon 1.497
million.
Currency/ Monetary Unit: won
National Name: Taehan Min'guk
National Anthem: Aegukga
Official Language: Korean, English
(widely taught)

47. Ethnicity/Race: homogeneous
(except for about 20,000
Chinese)
Religion: Christian 26.3%
(Protestant 19.7%, Roman
Catholic 6.6%), Buddhist 23.2%,
other or unknown 1.3%, none
49.3% (1995 census)
National Holiday: Liberation Day,
August 15
Literacy rate: 98% (2003 est.)

48. Economic summary:
GDP/PPP(2011 est.): $1.574
trillion; per capita $32,100.
Real growth rate: 3.6%.
Inflation: 4.0%.
Unemployment:3.4%.
Agriculture: rice, root crops, barley,
vegetables, fruit; cattle, pigs,
chickens, milk, eggs; fish. Labor
force: 25.1 million; agriculture
6.4%, industry 24.2%, services
69.4%.
Industries: electronics,
telecommunications, automobile
production, chemicals,
shipbuilding, steel.
Arable land: 16.58%.
Natural resources: coal, tungsten,
graphite, molybdenum, lead,
hydropower potential.

49. Exports:$556.5 billion (2011
est.): semiconductors, wireless
telecommunications equipment,
motor vehicles, computers,
steel, ships, petrochemicals.
International disputes:
 Military Demarcation Line
within the 4-km-wide
Demilitarized Zone has
Imports:$524.4 billion (2011
separated North from
est.): machinery, electronics and
South Korea since 1953
electronic equipment, oil, steel,
transport equipment, organic
 periodic incidents with
chemicals, plastics.
North Korea in the Yellow
Sea over the Northern
Major trading partners: China,
Limit Line
U.S., Japan, Australia, Saudi
Arabia (2011).
 which South Korea claims
as a maritime boundary;
South Korea and Japan
claim Liancourt Rocks
(Tok-do/Take-shima),

50. Government: Unitary
state, Presidential
system, Constitutional Republic
The Government of South Korea is
divided into executive, judicial, and
legislative branches.
The executive and judicial branches
operate primarily at the national level,
although various ministries in the
executive branch also carry out local
functions.
The South Korean government's
structure is determined by
the Constitution of the Republic of Korea.

51. President Park Geun
Hye
Prime Minister Chung Hong
Won

53. Spring
Yunjung-ro Cherry
Blossom
Tunnel_Seoul
Summer
Haeundae
Beach_Busan

54. Autumn
Mt.Naejangsan
_Jeongeup-si,
Jeollabuk-do
Province
Winter
Yongpyong
Resort_Pyeongcha
ng-gun, Gangwondo Province

62. Gyeongbokdo Palace
Seoul National Museum

63. Mugunghwa Flower
(Rose of Sharon)