China's geographical location naturally places it within the territory of East Asia.
Indeed, when you open a map of Asia, the outline of China is unmistakable.
However, China's land conditions and environment are among the most challenging among major countries in Asia and even the world.
Browsing through a topographic map of Asia, it becomes clear that the continent boasts three major extensive plain areas: the West Siberian Plain of Russia, the Gangetic Plain of India + the Malwa Plain, and then China's three major plains.
In terms of area, China's plains have the smallest proportion of the country's landmass;
In terms of continuity, China's plain areas are also intermittent;
In terms of governance difficulty, China's plains are the most challenging.
The Pamirs Plateau in the west of China, the limited usable land on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, has high altitudes and is unsuitable for human habitation.
The eastern coast, which could provide access to the sea, is severely blocked, with a scarcity of deep-water ports, and a shortage of commercial and military ports.
Since the Ming Dynasty, China has been unable to access a seaport in the southwestern region leading to the Indochina Peninsula.
The land occupied by the Chinese ethnic group is the most complex, difficult to use, and subject to the most changes among all land areas on the Asian continent, and it also has the smallest proportion of the country's land area.
However, over the long historical years, China's industrious ancestors have developed and built this land into one of the most abundant and fertile areas in Asia.
Compared to countries of similar size, China has far fewer arable lands.
China's arable land area is about 1.9 billion mu, even less than countries like India with much smaller areas than China.
The land area and arable land area of the United States are roughly equivalent to China's, at around 2.5 billion mu, but the United States has vast tracts of untapped land.
Although Russia's arable land area is roughly equivalent to China's, Russia has abundant natural resources and could quickly develop large tracts of land, even by force if willing.
However, China cannot do so.
China's ancestors expanded the territory of what is now known as China through generations of monarchs' territorial expansion efforts. Without these expansions, China would have been limited to the Han's Eighteen Provinces, as far north as the Great Wall or Yinshan, as far south as Nanling, and as far west as the Sichuan Basin and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau border.
Within the borders of China, acquiring even a single inch of land has always been difficult.
The Chinese nation's desire for territory and the desire to defend and cultivate the land are no less than those of warrior nations, and perhaps even superior, or one could say China is a warrior nation.
What China considers its natural borders have been established through a long history of tug-of-war, alternations of gains and losses, and multiple changes of hands.
Perhaps, the relentless pursuit of self-improvement is truly the destiny unique to a great nation.
Otherwise, today's China might face the fate of a divided European continent.
There is no doubt that China, among countries of similar size, has the fewest plains and the shortest coastline.
Countries like Russia, Canada, the United States, Brazil, and Australia have land areas comparable to China's, but their proportions of plain areas far exceed China's, and their coastlines span two oceans, yet the total population of these countries is far less than China's.
The hardships of the Chinese people's livelihoods can be imagined.
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