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INDIA

If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India! - Romaine Rolland (French writer)

CHINA

China has been a beguiling enigma for centuries; its vastness, coupled with a veil of mystery, has always attracted outsiders. It is the new second world superpower, going through rapid social, economic and philosophical changes. China has the third highest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka’s “Up Country” is one of the most mysterious, awe-inspiring landscapes dotted with waterfalls and lush floral, its mist-shrouded green fields seem to extend on forever, which says nothing of the legendary tea grown here.

CAMBODIA

Once home to the powerful Khmer Kingdom, Cambodia was off limits to the tourist trail for many years and its secrets lay undiscovered for centuries.

PERU

Standing 2,430 m above sea level, in the midst of a tropical mountain forest in an extraordinarily beautiful setting, Machu Picchu was probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire at its height.

AFRICAN SAFARIS

The Great Wildebeest Migration is one of the “Seven New Wonders of the World”.

Fact File: China

Geography

Location: Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam.

Area:
Total: 9,596,960 sq km (slightly smaller than the US)
Land: 9,326,410 sq km
Water: 270,550 sq km

Land Boundaries:
Border Countries: Afghanistan 76 km, Bhutan 470 km, Burma 2,185 km, India 3,380 km, Kazakhstan 1,533 km, North Korea 1,416 km, Kyrgyzstan 858 km, Laos 423 km, Mongolia 4,677 km, Nepal 1,236 km, Pakistan 523 km, Russia (northeast) 3,605 km, Russia (northwest) 40 km, Tajikistan 414 km, Vietnam 1,281 km regional borders: Hong Kong 30 km, Macau 0.34 km.

Capital: Beijing

Climate: extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north.

Terrain: mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas, and hills in east.

Natural Resources:
Coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminium, lead, zinc, uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest).

People

Population: 1,330,044,544

Ethnic Groups: Han Chinese 91.5%, Zhuang, Manchu, Hui, Miao, Uyghur, Tujia, Yi, Mongol, Tibetan, Buyi, Dong, Yao, Korean, and other nationalities 8.5% (2000 census).

Languages: Standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, minority languages.

Economy:

Currency: Renminbi (RMB); note - also referred to by the unit Yuan (CNY).

Visa:

You can gather more details on obtaining a visa for China by visiting: www.visaforchina.org.uk

You can gather more details on obtaining a visa for China by visiting: www.visaforchina.org.uk

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