One fifth of the world's inhabitants, more than 1.27 billion people, live in China. Luckily, China is also one of the world's largest countries, although the concentration in its major metropolises is in sharp contrast to that of its other, mostly rural farming areas. Its brilliant landscape transforms from the Mongolian deserts to the mountainous Himalayas and includes more than 5,000 islands. Like the geography, everything from the art to the cuisine differs from region to region. Beijing is a city at once old and new, and has been chosen to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Shanghai is the commercial nucleus, while Hong Kong entices with its conflux of Chinese traditions and love of Western culture.
