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tate in East Asia. With a population of over 1.381 billion, it is the world's mo
st populous country.[15] The state is governed by the Communist Party of China,
and its capital is Beijing.[16] It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, fiv
e autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, S
hanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative re
gions (Hong Kong and Macau), and claims sovereignty over Taiwan. The country's m
ajor urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tian
jin and Hong Kong. China is a great power and a major regional power within Asia
, and has been characterized as a potential superpower.[17][18]
Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres (3.7 million square miles),
China is the world's second largest state by land area,[19] and either the thir
d or fourth-largest by total area, depending on the method of measurement.[i] Ch
ina's landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes and the Gobi an
d Taklamakan Deserts in the arid north to subtropical forests in the wetter sout
h. The Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China f
rom much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and
sixth longest in the world, respectively, run from the Tibetan Plateau to the d
ensely populated eastern seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is
14,500 kilometers (9,000 mi) long, and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East Chi
na, and South China seas.