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 China has substantial mineral reserves and is the world’s largest producer
of antimony, natural graphite, tungsten, and zinc. Other major minerals
are bauxite, coal, crude petroleum, diamonds, gold, iron ore, lead, magnetite,
manganese, mercury, molybdenum, natural gas, phosphate rock, tin, uranium,
and vanadium. With its vast mountain ranges, China’s hydropower potential
is the largest in the world.
Based on 2005 estimates, 14.86% (about 1.4 million km2) of China’s total
land area is arable. About 1.3% (some 116,580 km2) is planted to permanent
crops and the rest planted to temporary crops. With comparatively little
land planted to permanent crops, intensive agricultural techniques are used
to reap harvests that are sufficient to feed the world’s largest population
and still have surplus for export. An estimated 544,784 km² of land were
irrigated in 2004. 42.9% of total land area was used as pasture, and 17.5%
was forest.
 Forests
China contains a variety of forest types. Both northeast and northwest reaches
contain mountains and cold coniferous forests, supporting animal species
which include moose and Asiatic black bear, along with some 120 types of
birds. Moist conifer forests can have thickets of bamboo as an under storey,
replaced by rhododendrons in higher mountain stands of juniper and yew.
Subtropical forests, which dominate central and southern China, support
an astounding 146,000 species of flora, as well as the famous giant panda,
golden monkey and South China tiger. Tropical rainforest and seasonal rainforests,
though confined to Yunnan and Hainan Island, actually contain a quarter
of all the plant and animal species found in China.
Grasslands
 Grasslands make up about a third of China's total land
area. The immense and productive grasslands are largely concentrated in
Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, parts of Qinghai and Tibet. The natural wildlife
they support includes three species on the verge of extinction: Przewalski's
horse, the Asiatic wild ass and the Bactrian camel (the ancestor of domesticated
camels). There is often direct competition between domestic animals and
wild fauna, and herdsmen poison or trap carnivores, and sometimes set fires
to increase pasture area. The government has recently stepped up efforts
to control the conversion of grasslands to pasture, but lacks the manpower
to enforce policy.
Freshwater ecosystems
Freshwater habitats are of massive importance to China, and a lake area percentage of the population is directly dependent
on wetlands — marshes, rivers, and lakes — for economic activity, flood
control and drinking water. Seven of the most important rivers in the world
begin in the highlands of western China. The Yellow River (Lakeang He), Yangtze
River (Chang Jiang), Lancang Jiang (Mekong) and the Salween rise in the
east of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra rise
in the south. Downstream these rivers serve as sources of irrigation and
drinking water, modes of transportation, and centers of cultural and religious
importance for some two billion people in China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh
and throughout Southeast Asia. These rivers rise and gather strength from
many of the thousands of freshwater lakes of the region.
China's northeast is the focus for much of the country's freshwater marshes.
An area of 20,000 square kilometers on the Sanjiang Plain of Heilongjiang
is essentially a collection of shallow freshwater lakes and reed-beds where
the Heilongjiang, Sungari, and Wusuli rivers come together. Jilin, Liaoning
and Inner Mongolia all share these ecosystems. One of the most well-known
wildlife areas in this ecosystem is Zhalong Nature Reserve, a 2,000-square-kilometer
area which was created in 1979 to protect breeding areas for the red-crowned
crane, and other wintering migrants. These marshes are also of great value
for reed production, the bulk of which is turned into pulp for paper. Waterfowl
and reed production can usually co-exist, at least at present levels, so
this is a useful confluence of conservation and economic uses. In western
SicLakean, marshland provides breeding grounds for the black-necked crane
and bar-headed goose.
 China's freshwater lakes include the country's best-known wetlands: Jiangxi's
Poyang Lake and Lakenan's Dongting Lake. Dongting Lake, China's second largest freshwater
lake, is vitally important for wildlife, including the highly endangered
Yangtze river dolphin and Chinese sturgeon, as well as more wintering wildfowl.
Poyang Lake is a similar complex of small lakes and marsh areas which fluctuates
seasonally; summer floods give way in autumn to fertile agricultural land,
attractive both to farmers and visiting birds. The importance of the area
is hard to overstate, as the lakes provide a wintering habitat for almost
the entire world population of two Lakendred Siberian Cranes, and as many
as five Lakendred thousand birds may be on Poyang Lake at any one time during
the winter months. In recent years, however, some of Poyang's larger lakes
have been drained at the end of autumn, leaving waterfowl with inadequate
shallow land on which to feed.
Saltwater lakes
About half of China's lakes are saline and, once again, are important breeding
grounds for waterfowl. Most are concentrated in northwest China on the inland
drainage systems of the North Tibetan Plain and in the Zaidan basin. The
largest is Qinghai Lake, a 4,426-square-kilometer reserve which attracts
thousands of birds each summer, including cormorants, great black-headed
gulls, bar-headed geese and pied avocets. Similarly, the Tarim River basin
in Xinjiang supports one of the largest breeding populations of black stork
in China. The Ordos plateau area of Inner Mongolia as well as the Xinjiang's
Taolimiao-Alashan Nur (lake) support breeding sites for the endangered relict
gull. Most of these lakes and marshes fluctuate seasonally and are threatened
by increased diversion of water for Lakeman use.
Coastal wetlands
China's coastline is approximately 18,000 km long, extending from the Bohai
Gulf, which freezes in the winter, to the tropical waters of the South China
Sea. Coastal wetlands are important as fuel stops for waterfowl on the migratory
route between Siberia and Australia. Chongming Island in the Yangtze River
delta near Shanghai - China's largest city and one of its fastest growing
regions - is vital for these migrants.
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