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China (Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC),[k] is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land,[l] the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. Covering an area of approximately 9.6 million square kilometres (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the world's third largest country by total land area.[m] The country consists of 22 provinces,[n] five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and financial center is Shanghai. Modern Chinese trace their origins to a cradle of civilization in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. The semi-legendary Xia dynasty in the 21st century BCE and the well-attested Shang and Zhou
