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| .cn China |
| Huixin Ke |
Overview China is a vast country stretching from the western fringes of Asia to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The country experiences a range of climates and possesses a diversity of landforms. It has a surface area of 9,596,960 square kilometres, of which 97.2 percent is land and 2.8 percent is water. China is also well known as the most populous country in the world with a population of 1.3 billion (within the mainland in 2000), of which 91.6 percent are Han and the remaining 8.4 percent are from 55 minority groups. These minority groups speak 72 languages, of which 54 have written forms and 25 are still in use. For the Chinese language, there exists 7 dialect regions and over 100 dialect communities. Mandarin is the official language in the country, and Chinese is one of the working languages in the United Nations. Chinese speakers represent the largest linguistic group in the world. There is a sharp difference in economic development between different regions in the country. The coastal areas, the special zones and the central cities in the hinterland have prosperous business communities and have access to advanced science and technology. The western and middle parts of the country are underdeveloped, but they possess tremendous potential for development. Agriculture plays a significant role in the national economy. According to statistics (which exclude Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), China’s GDP was RMB 10,200 billion in 2002, enjoying an increase of 8 percent over the previous year based on comparable prices. Preliminary statistics from the Customs Office show that the total value of imports and exports was US$174.5 billion (US$1 is about RMB 8.27) for the period January to April 2002. There was an increase of 10.5 percent to US$91.4 billion in exports and an increase of 12 percent to US$83.1 billion in imports. Foreign currency reserves amounted to US$274.6 billion by the end of November 2002. There are 9 network operators and about 200 ISPs in China that have the licence to provide services to all the provinces. The network operators enjoy independent rights of international exports, and the total value of their international bandwidth exports reached 9,380 Mbps by the end of 2002, up 1,782.5 Mbps from December 2001 but down 1,196.5 Mbps from June 2002. Among families living in urban areas, 38 percent own computers, compared to a national ownership rate of 11 percent. A survey conducted by the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) in January 2003 showed that the number of computers logging on to the Internet was about 20.8 million. Of this total, 14.8 million used dial-up connections, while the remaining 6.0 million used other forms of dedicated connections. The number of telephone subscribers, by December 2002, amounted to 214.4 million with a penetration rate of 33.7 telephones per 100 people. The number of mobile phone subscribers amounted to 206.6 million with a penetration rate of 16.2 telephones per 100 people. The proportion of villages that had telephones was 85.3 percent. The CNNIC survey in January 2003 revealed that the current number of Chinese netizens was 59.1 million or 3.5 times that for the same period in 2000 and 95.4 times that for 1997. Male netizens accounted for 59.3 percent and female 40.7 percent. The largest group was the 18 - 24 years age group (37.3 percent), while those under 18 years (17.6 percent) and those 25 - 30 years old (16.9 percent) took second and third places. The netizens surfed the Internet mainly from home (62.1 percent) and the workplace (43.3 percent). Most of them paid for their own connections (77.1 percent), a much smaller group used connections at their workplace (10.1 percent), and a third group who used connections paid for by themselves as well as at their workplace accounted for 12.8 percent. In terms of the cost of Internet access per month 39.5 percent spent less than RMB 50, 30.6 percent spent RMB 51 - 100, and 21.9 percent spent RMB 101 - 200. Netizens surfed the Internet for two main purposes: to find information (53.1 percent) and for entertainment (24.6 percent). There is a sharp digital divide between the eastern and the western parts of the country. This is obvious in indicators such as per-capita telecommunications services consumption. The divide is particularly clear in rural areas. For instance, in May 2001, the reach of the fixed-line telephone network in the rural areas of the more developed eastern parts was about 4.1 times that of the rural areas in the west of the country. . . . . . the complete text of this chapter is available for purchase and immediate download as a PDF file, please click here for more information. |
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