WEST CHINA PANORAMA(走进西部)(精)

　　Contents
　　Preface
　　Places of Cultural and
　　Historic Interest
　　Beautiful Landscape
　　Religions and Folk Customs

　　Situated in the central patr of the Asian continent,the westem region of China is on the roortop of the world.With and area larger than half of Europe,is has a favorable geographical location.From west China,one can easily travel westward to reach Central Asian countries and even Amsterdan in Europe.It adjoins Southeast Asia and the South Asian subcontinent in the southwest,and the Beibu Gulf and South Chian Sea in the south.The region encopmasses one-third of Chian s administrative regionns-Shaanxi,Gansu,Qinghai,Sichuan,Yunnan and Guizhou provinces,Chongqing Municipality,and the Ningxia Hui,Xingjiang Uygur,Guangxy Zhuang,Inner Mongolia and Tibet autonomous regions.Covering 5.4 million square km.west Chian equals 56 percent of the nation s total land area,and supports a population of280 million,or23 percent of the national total.
　　To get to know west China,begin with its most famous waterways,the Yangtze and Yellow rivers,both of which have nurtured the country s 5,000-year-old civilization.Taking melted glacial and snow water from the Kunlun and Himalayan mountains in the western region,the Yangtze and Yellow rivers flow eastward before emptying into the sea.