China has a vast territory, with abundant natural resources and diverse types of land resources. Its waterpower resources rank first worldwide. It is one of the countries in the world having the most species of wild animals, and has almost all kinds of vegetation found in the Northern Hemisphere. It has abundant mineral resources, with a great variety of minerals.
Land Resources
China’s land resources exhibit the following basic features: The land resources are large in absolute terms but small on a per-capita basis. There are more mountains than plains, with cultivated land and forests constituting small proportions. Various types of land resources are unevenly distributed among different regions. The cultivated land is mainly in plains and basins in the monsoon regions of east China, while forests are mostly found in the remote mountainous areas in the northeast and the southwest. Grasslands are chiefly distributed on inland plateaus and in mountains.
Cultivated Land
According to the Agricultural Census in 1996, China has 130.04 million hectares of cultivated land and 35.35 million hectares of land suitable for agricultural uses.
The cultivated land is mainly distributed in the Northeast China, North China and Middle-Lower Yangtze plains, the Pearl River Delta and the Sichuan Basin.
Forests
The sixth national enumeration of forest resources (1999-2003) showed that China’s total forest area was 175 million hectares, and its forest coverage rate was 18.21 percent. The total standing stock volume of China was 13.62 billion cubic meters. The stock volume of its forests stood at 12.46 billion cubic meters.
Natural forests are concentrated in the northeast and the southwest, but scarce in the densely inhabited and economically developed eastern plains and the vast northwestern region.
The forests in China are rich in tree species, with the number of arbor species alone exceeding 2,800. Rare and peculiar species include ginkgo and metasequoia (dawn redwood). In order to conserve environment and meet the needs of economic development, China has launched large-scale afforestation campaigns. The area of planted forests has reached 33.79 million hectares, accounting for 31.86 percent of the nation’s total forest area, making China a country with the largest area of planted forests in the world.
In terms of regional distribution, China’s forests are found mainly in the Northeast China Forest Zone, the Southwest China Forest Zone and the Southeast China Forest Zone.
Northeast China Forest Zone: Located in the Greater and Lesser Hinggan Mountains and the Changbaishan Mountains, it is the largest natural forest area in China, with its forest coverage and timber reserves accounting for over one third of the national totals. The area turns out half of the national total timber output. Chief tree species include larch and Korean pine.
Southwest China Forest Zone: China’s second largest natural forest area, it consists of forests in the Hengduanshan Mountains, on the southern slopes of the Himalayas and in the area at the U-turn of the Yarlung Zangbo River. Its forest reserves make up one third of the national total. Main tree species include fir, red sandal and nanmu.
Southeast China Forest Zone: Comprising mainly planted forests, it covers the vast hilly areas south of the Qinling-Huaihe line and east of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Non-timber species are mainly planted in the zone, such as tea shrub, moso bamboo, masson pine and lacquer tree.
Shelter Forests: In a bid to resist sandstorms and prevent soil erosion, China has constructed many shelter forests and developed a number of shelterbelts, such as the three-north (northeast, north and northwest China) shelterbelt, shelter forests along the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, coastal shelterbelt networks, afforestation project in the Taihangshan Mountains and the plain afforestation project. Of these, the three-north shelterbelt, which is currently under construction and regarded as "the world’s greatest ecological project," will extend more than 7,000 km and cover 260 million hectares, accounting for a quarter of China’s total land area.
Grassland
China has 400 million hectares of grassland, with those of economic value accounting for 313.33 million hectares. China is one of the countries with the largest area of grassland in the world. Natural grassland is mainly distributed in areas west and north of the Greater Hinggan Mountains, the Yinshan Mountain and the eastern foot of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, while artificial grassland is concentrated in southeast China where it lies amid cultivated land and forests.
Four Major Pasture Areas
Inner Mongolia Pasture Area: The largest in China, it produces such fine breeds as Sanhe horse and Sanhe cattle.
Xinjiang Pasture Area: Fine breeds in the area include Xinjiang fine-wool sheep, Altay big-tail sheep and Ili horse.
Qinghai Pasture Area: A main yak-producing area, it also breeds the world-famous Hequ horse.
Tibet Pasture Area: It is a main yak-producing area of China.
Water Resources
China ranks in the forefront worldwide in terms of the number of rivers and lakes.Because most of the main rivers originate from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with big falls, China has abundant waterpower resources, with its total reserves amounting to 680 million kw, ranking first in the world. However, the waterpower resources are unevenly distributed, with 70 percent found in southwest China. The Yangtze River system has the most waterpower resources, which account for nearly 40 percent of the national total, followed by the Yarlung Zangbo River system. The Yellow and Pearl river systems also abound in waterpower resources.
Fauna and Flora Resources
China is one of the countries in the world having the most species of wild animals, with the number of terrestrial vertebrates alone exceeding 2,000, accounting for 9.8 percent of the world’s total. Of this, birds make up the largest proportion, followed by beasts. Bird species so far discovered total 1,189; beasts, 500; amphibians, 210; and reptiles, 320. Many of the terrestrial vertebrate species in China are peculiar to, or are mainly found, in the country. For instance, there are 19 species of the pheasant family, such as bamboo partridge, tragopan, blue pheasant and white-crowned king pheasant. Giant panda, regarded as "living fossil," is endemic to China. There is also Pere David’s deer, which is of special value to zoological studies and whose wild species has been extinct. Other rare species include takin, tufted deer and sika deer. China also has abundant species of resource animals, with more than 70 fur-bearing species, accounting for more than 17 percent of total beast species nationwide.
Plant species are abundant. There are more than 30,000 kinds of woody plants, of which the number of arbor species exceeds 2,800. China has almost all kinds of vegetation found in the Northern Hemisphere. Various kinds of forests are distributed in the humid east, while in the cold north are deciduous coniferous forests, and in the warm south, broad-leaved deciduous forests. The area of subtropical forests in China is larger than in any other countries. In the forests grow small tracts of surviving ancient plants, such as metasequoia, Cathaya argyrophylla and ginkgo, which are regarded as "living fossils" and have disappeared in other parts of the world. The southernmost part of China has tropical semi-evergreen monsoon forests, rain forests and mangroves. In addition to its peculiar species such as metasequoia, Cathaya argyrophylla, ginkgo, Chinese cypress, China fir, golden larch, Taiwania, Fujian cypress and eucommia ulmoides, China has introduced some tropical plants, such as rubber, oil palm and sisal hemp.
Mineral Resources
China has abundant mineral resources. A total of 171 kinds of minerals have so far been discovered, of which 158 have proven reserves. These include 10 kinds of energy mineral resources such as petroleum, natural gas, coal and uranium; 54 kinds of metallic mineral resources such as iron, manganese, copper, aluminum, lead and zinc; 91 kinds of nonmetallic mineral resources such as graphite, phosphorus, sulfur and sylvine; and three kinds of water and gas mineral resources such as underground water and mineral water. Currently, the supply of over 92 percent of China’s primary energy, 80 percent of its industrial raw materials and more than 70 percent of its agricultural means of production come from mineral resources.
Energy Mineral Resources: China boasts rich energy mineral resources, but the structure of these types of resources is not ideal, with coal making up a large proportion while petroleum and natural gas constituting relatively small proportions.
Coal resources demonstrate such features as: huge reserves and complete varieties but uneven distribution among different grades, with small reserves of high-quality coking coal and anthracite coal; wide distribution but a great disparity in abundance for different deposit locations, with large reserves in western and northern regions and small reserves in eastern and southern regions; a small number of surface coalmines, most of which are lignite mines; and great varieties of associated minerals existing in coal seams.
Oil and gas resources have the following features: large oil reserves, which make China one of the 10 countries in the world with more than 15 billion tons of exploitable oil reserves; low proven rate, with verified onshore reserves accounting for only one fifth of the total and the proven rate for offshore reserves being even lower; and concentrated distribution, with 73 percent of the total oil resources distributed in 14 basins each covering an area of 100,000 square km and more than 50 percent of the nation’s total natural gas resources distributed in central and western regions.
Metallic Mineral Resources: China is among the countries with rich metallic mineral resources. It has proven reserves, more or less, of all kinds of metallic mineral resources that have so far been discovered worldwide. Of these, the proven reserves of tungsten, tin, antimony, rare earth, tantalum and titanium rank first in the world; those of vanadium, molybdenum, niobium, beryllium and lithium rank second; those of zinc rank fourth; and those of iron, lead, gold and silver rank fifth.
Metallic mineral resources feature wide distribution with relatively concentrated deposits in several regions. For instance, iron deposits are mainly found in three areas—Anshan-Benxi (in Liaoning Province), north Hebei Province and Shanxi Province. Bauxite reserves are mainly distributed in Shanxi, Henan and Guizhou provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Tungsten deposits are chiefly distributed in provinces of Jiangxi, Hunan and Guangdong, and tin deposits in Yunnan, Guangdong and Hunan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Some of China’s metallic minerals such as tungsten, tin, molybdenum, antimony and rare earth have large reserves, and are of high quality and competitive in world markets. However, many important metallic minerals such as iron, manganese, aluminum and copper are of poor quality, with ores lean and difficult to smelt. Most of the metallic mineral deposits are small or medium-sized, whereas large and super-large deposits account for a small proportion.
Nonmetallic Mineral Resources: China is one of the few countries in the world that have a relatively complete range of nonmetallic mineral resources. Currently, there are more than 5,000 nonmetallic mineral ore production bases with proven reserves in China.
Most of the nonmetallic mineral resources in China have large proven reserves. Of them, the proven reserves of magnesite, graphite, fluorite, talc, asbestos, gypsum, barite, wollastonite, alunite, bentonite and rock salt (halite) are among the largest in the world, while those of phosphorus, kaolin, pyrite, mirabilite, tripolite, zeolite, pearlite and cement limestone hold major positions. Some natural stone materials such as marble and granite in China are of high quality, with rich reserves. However, China is relatively deficient in reserves of sylvine and boron.
Water and Gas Mineral Resources: Proven natural underground water resources in China amount to 870 billion cubic meters per year, of which 290 billion cubic meters are exploitable. The natural underground brackish water resources in China stand at 20 billion cubic meters per year.
However, China’s underground water resources are not evenly distributed, with the southern region rich, and northern and western regions poor. Underground water aquifer types vary from region to region. North China has a wide distribution of underground water resources via pore aquifers, while its southwestern region sees wide distribution of Karst water resources.
Marine Resources
China boasts abundant marine resources. Scattered in the offshore waters are sedimentation basins, with a total area of nearly 700,000 square km, estimated to contain about 24 billion tons of oil reserves and 14 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. Fishing grounds in China’s territorial seas cover 2.8 million square km. There are 2.6 million hectares of shallow seas, with a depth of 20 meters or below, suitable for aquaculture, of which 710,000 hectares have already been used for this purpose. Of the 2.42 million hectares of tidal lands suitable for aquaculture, 550,000 hectares have been used for the purpose. China has obtained a polymetallic nodule deposit area of 75,000 square km in the international seabed region, with polymetallic nodule reserves exceeding 500 million tons.
Salt Fields: China has more than 50 salt fields along its coast, with a combined area of 337,000 hectares. Sea salt constitutes over 70 percent of China’s total production of crude salt.
Marine Energy Exploitation: China’s tidal energy reserves amount to 110 million kw, 21 million kw of it being exploitable, which can be used to generate 58 billion kwh of power annually. Having larger tidal ranges, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces take up 80 percent of the nation’s total coastal tidal energy resources. The Qiantangjiang estuary in Zhejiang has a tidal range of 8.9 meters and is an ideal place for a tidal power plant.
|
Bilateral Visits
