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China's weather is as varied as it's landscape, but generally, the northern regions have seasons that are clearly defined, while on the southeast coast temperature rarely fall below freezing. Vegetation varies, as well, from deserts, steppes and swamps to evergreen and deciduous forests. Agriculture crops are rice, corn and wheat.

Getting around China by highway is slow and awkward as the highway system is poor and not connected. Despite the fact that (considering China's population of well over a billion people), few people own vehicles. The bottlenecks that occur are usually with trucks and buses. The railroad and domestic flights move people from one district to another. Bicycles are the standard means of transportation within the big cities.

Getting there from a foreign country is fairly simple as cities like Canton, Shanghai and Beijing are regularly served by international carriers from Europe, Japan, South Asia and North America.

The official language is Mandarin Chinese, however, the Chinese language, distinguished by tones and dialects, is quite different from one region to another. Buddhism remains the primary religion although the Communist Government discourages practice.

Chinese currency is. 1 Renminibi (yuan)=100 fen.