General Introduction about china and Beijing

Full country name: People's Republic of China

Location: East Asia, on the west coast of Pacific Ocean

Area: 9,596,960 sq km

Population: 1.3 billion (mainland)

Capital city: Beijing (pop. 14 million)

People: Han Chinese (91.9%), plus 55 ethnic minorities

Population Composition: The males: 51.63%, the females: 48.37%; people aged below 14: 22.89%; people aged 15-64: 70.15%; people aged above 65: 6.96%; urban population: 36.09%; rural population: 63.91%.

Official language: Chinese Putonghua (Beijing Mandarin dialect)

Religion: Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism (no stats available); Muslim (14 million), Christian (7 million)

Average Life span: 71 years old by the end of 2000

Head of State: Hu Jintao

National Flag: Five-star red flag, length and width proportion: 3:2. 

National Day: October 1, founded in 1949

Currency: Renminbi (RMB) yuan

Weights and Measures: metric system

GDP: 8940.4 billion yuan