With a total area of 9.6 million km² China is the third-largest country of the world, after Russia and Canada. It covers 6.4% of the world's land surface. Located at the eastern rim of the Eurasian continent, China forms the largest part of East Asia (together with Korea and Japan) and also expands over large parts of Central Asia. The huge Chinese territory (including the islands in the South China Sea which China claims, in part controversially) spans a linear distance of about 5500 km because of its maximum geographic breadth between 3° and 54° nort…