Asia, located primarily in the Eastern and Northern

Hemispheres, is Earth's largest and most populous

continent with over 4 billion people. Asia borders
Africa and Europe to the west and
the Pacific Ocean to the east,
besides contains the world's most populous country,
China, and the world's largest country, Russia. The
continent of Asia is so large and diverse that it often
is divided into sub-regions for example Northern
Asia Central, Asia Middle East, Southern Asia, Eastern
Asia and Southeastern Asia.

Asia is rich in different races, cultures and

languages. Many of the world's major religions
Bordering Bodies of Water: Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Arctic originated from Asia, including Christianity, Judaism,
Ocean, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, South China Sea, Yellow Sea,
Bering Sea.
Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Asia also has a great
Major Rivers and Lakes: Caspian Sea, Lake Baikal, Aral Sea, Qinghai influence on world culture and the world economy
Lake, Yangtze River, Yellow River, Ganges River, Indus River as it produces products and services that are used by
Major Geographical Features: Himalayas, Ural Mountains, Kunlun every nation in the world and also because it is rich in
Mountains, Arabian Desert, Gobi Desert, Takla Makan Desert, Thar
Desert, Island of Japan, Mount Everest, Siberia. natural resources, especially oil.
Asia contains about 30% of the world's land area and
60% of the world's population. The highest point on
earth, Mount Everest, is in Asia, as is the lowest point
on land, the Dead Sea. Asia is the only continent that
shares borders with two other continents: Africa
and Europe. Sometimes it merges with a third
continent, North America, in winter by the formation
of ice in the Bering Sea.
Asia is home to many interesting animals including
the giant panda, the Asian elephant, the tiger, the
Bactrian camel, the Komodo dragon, and the king
cobra. Asia is home to two of the three largest
economies in the world: China (2nd largest) and There are 48 countries in Asia which are recognized by
Japan (3rd largest). Russia and India are also the top the United Nations (Palestine, however, has "observer
10 world economies. only" status as it does not control most of the claimed
land). Two of the Asian countries also share part of their
China and India are the two largest countries in the territory on the European continent (Russia and Turkey).
world by population. China is number one with over
1.3 billion people. India is number two with over 1.2 In Asia, the largest country is Russia by landmass,
billion. The third largest country in the world, the although about 40% of the country belongs to the
United States, only has just over 300 million people. European continent, while China is the largest country
by population.
Largest City: Shanghai in China. With more than 24 million inhabitants Shanghai is also
the largest city in the world by population. Tokyo has the largest metropolitan area and
has more inhabitants than the whole of Canada!
Smallest Country: Maldives. The Indian ocean country is one of the smallest countries
in the world and Asia's smallest country. It consists of 26 coral atolls which in total
consist of more than 1190 islands.
Biggest Island: Borneo in South-East Asia is also the third largest island in the world and
the largest in Asia. The island belongs to three countries: Malaysia and Brunei in the
north while Indonesia claims the southern part of the island. Borneo is home to vast
rainforests and many animals only live on this island such as the Bornean Orang-Utan.
Longest River: Yangtze River is the longest on the Asian
continent. It is in China. (6,300metres/3,915miles). The Yangtze is the third
longest river in the world after the Amazon and the Nile. Highest

Mountains: Mount Everest. The mountain (8,849metres/29,035ft) is located in the

Himalayan mountain range. The Himalayas between Nepal and China are the world's
highest mountains.
Biggest Lake: Caspian Sea. The coastline is shared by five countries: Russia,
Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Iran. The lake is also among the deepest lakes
in the world with a maximum depth of more than 1,000m/3,300ft! Baku, the capital of
Azerbaijan, is located at the Caspian Sea.
Driest Place: The Gobi desert is the largest desert in Asia and the fifth largest desert in
the world. This is a cold desert where the temperatures can be very low and sometimes
even snow can occur.
Asia Facts: There are 12 landlocked countries in Asia. Among the landlocked countries in
Asia are also Bhutan, Laos, Nepal and Mongolia that are located in the interior of the
continent and do not have access to any ocean.
Climate : The Asian continent has a very diverse climate ranging from
arctic climate in Siberia (Russia) to tropical climates in South-East Asia.
Siberia is also one of the coldest places on earth.
In the tropical regions of South-East Asia, also the most tropical storms
occur. Cyclones occur mainly in the Philippines and south of Japan. Some
countries in Asia are at high risk for negative impacts of climate change. In
2004, a tsunami hit the coast in India, Thailand, Indonesia and other
countries and killed more than 250,000 people in more than 14 countries.
Animals: In Asia, there are monkeys, tigers, Asian elephants and many
other animals. Due to the different climates were are snow leopards and
polar bear in the north and tropical species such as the Komodo dragons in
the South. On some Indonesian islands, there are the largest living lizards,
the Komodo dragons, which can eat very large animals such as a whole
buffalo! Did you know that the Asian elephants are smaller than African
elephants? Tip: You can easily recognise them as such as they have much
smaller ears see the Asian elephant below. Asia is also home to many
endangered animals such as the orang-utan in Borneo, the Chinese river
dolphin or the dugong.
Main natural resources in Asia are minerals such as aluminium, tin, coal,
gold and iron ore. Arab countries also are rich in fossil fuels as they have
the world's largest deposits of natural gas and oil. Saudi Arabia is the
world's largest oil producer. Interesting fact: The country of Bhutan in the
Himalayas produces most of the renewable energy through hydropower!
Languages in Asia: In Asia more than 2,300
languages are recognised. The most spoken
languages are Chinese (all dialects) has more
than 1.39 billion speakers while Hindi-Urdu
languages (used in India and Pakistan) are
spoken by more than 588 million people and
there are many different languages in the Hindi-
Urdu language group, more than 1,600
languages exist alone in India. In Indonesia, 600
languages are spoken and in the Philippines over
100 languages.
Religion: Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and
Confucianism are the main religions in Asia.
Many religions originate in Asia, such as the
Islam which is also the most widely followed
religion in Asia. Judaism and Christian faith is
practised by smaller population groups in the
region.
Seven of the Asian countries belong to the
Commonwealth States. Queen Elizabeth II of
England is the head of the Commonwealth. The
Asian nations belonging to the Commonwealth
are: Bangladesh, Brunei, India, Malaysia,
Pakistan, Singapore and Sri Lanka.