Quick Facts

Language

Chinese is spoken by 16% of the world's population. Is one of the six official languages of the UN. The unifying aspect of the spoken dialects is their Chinese characters. So no matter what dialect one speaks, the characters are the same. Simplified characters are used in China and Singapore and traditional characters used in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Cuisine

While every region has its "specialties", Chinese cuisine falls within these eight: Anhui, Cantonese, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan and Zhejiang. Sichuan is probably the most world renowned cuisine and is very spicy. For those that like spicy food, there is a Chinese saying:

Population

While the US is slightly bigger in terms of area (if you include Alaska), China has a whopping 1.1 billion more people than the US.
6 of the top 10 most populated “city proper” are in China. I live in Shanghai #2.

Rivers

Yangtze River: Third longest in the world
Yellow River: Fifth longest in the world

Mountains

Mnt. Everest and K2: The two highest mountains in the world border China.
Yellow Mountain: Is considered the most beautiful.

Deserts

Taklamakan Desert in Xingjiang (second largest behind the Sahara)
Gobi Desert: The most famous in China shared with Mongolia

Waterfalls

Huangguoshu: the Niagara Falls of China.
Detian Waterfalls: the largest transnational waterfall in Asia bordering with Vietnam.

Landforms

Some unique formations are found only in China.
Zhangjiajie: The floating mountains in Avatar.
Stone Forest: Unique forest of stones in Yunnan.