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@opencage@en.osm.townA few weeks back we covered the #geoweirdness of India 
, this week we'll keep going with Asian super-powers and take a look at the geographic oddities of China 
1/
2/ China is second only to India in population (1.4B), is the 2nd largest country by area (9.6M km2), and the world's largest economy by GDP (PPP).
A place with its very own New Year celebrated around the globe, a rail system that could loop twice around earth and a giant wall visible from space.
But what #geoweirdness does it have for us to geek out about?
3/ First up, the People's Republic of China , as it is officially known borders 14 other countries. 
which ties it with Russia for the most. Can you name all of them?
BTW - countries bordering at least 8 others was our #fridaygeotrivia question back in Sept 2021. Quiz yourself:
https://blog.opencagedata.com/post/geotrivia-september-2021
4/ With 14 neighbors there are going to be some disagreements. Let’s start with the Indian border dispute.
There are several areas of contention and it escalated to the Sino-Indian War in 1962.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Indian_War
There are regular skirmishes, including in 2020, along the Galwan River.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Indian_border_dispute
5/ Similarly the China Pakistan border - one fo the most mountainous regions on Earth - is disputed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Pakistan_border#Disputed_status
Adding to the confusion the border lines between China and Pakistan are not recognized by India . Indeed, it’s a something of a 3-way push-pull debate - India’s proposal gives the country a common border with Afghanistan , something disputed by the international community.
https://shunculture.com/article/does-afghanistan-border-india
6/ The short (92km) China Afghanistan border - a region known as the Wakhan Corridor - provides an absolute #geoweirdness gem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakhan_Corridor
When you cross the border you cross the largest time zone difference gap on Earth, with 3.5 hours 
between Afghanistan's UTC+04:30 and China's UTC+08:00.
7/ While on this side of China , let's discuss Tibet.
Historically, it was a distinct region, but it was incorporated into the People's Republic of China in 1951.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_Point_Agreement
The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising, and there remains a diaspora Tibetan Independence movement. China views Tibet as an integral part of its territory.
8/ Another post-WWII addition to China is Hong Kong 
, the 3rd largest financial center in the world, after New York 
and London 
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong
This city was a British colony until its handover in 1997, ending 156 years of British rule.
9/ One delightful historic "what if" is the truly geoweird proposal put forward in the 1980s in the lead up to the hand-over of Hong Kong , to resettle the population (5+M people) in Northern Ireland !
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14754944
10/ Just west of Hong Kong we have former 
Portuguese colony Macau 
, another special administrative region of China
It has the 4th highest GDP per capita in the world (roughly $125k/person) and is famous for its gambling industry, estimated to be 7x larger than Las Vegas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau
It was ceded to Portugal in 1557 and was only formally handed back to China in 1999
11/ Another region claimed by the People's Republic of China (PRC) is Taiwan 
(officially the "Republic of China" or ROC).
It is a major geopolitical stress point, with the PRC doing everything possible to delegitimize the ROC.
In 1971, the 
UN General Assembly voted to move the "China" United Nations seat from the ROC to the PRC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_status_of_Taiwan
At the Olympics Taiwanese athletes have to compete as "Chinese Taipei"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Taipei_at_the_Olympics
12/ Taiwan sits at the northern end of the disputed South China Sea.
China famously claims the area enclosed by "the nine-dash line", the contested area surrounding the Paracel Islands, Spratley Islands and other small island groups and atolls.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-dash_line
Parts of the sea are also claimed by Taiwan , Vietnam , Philippines 
, Malaysia 
, and Brunei 
13/ The small islands of the sea came into the geopolitical spotlight in recent years after aerial imagery showed that reclaimed reefs and rocks were being developed into military bases
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/southchinasea/china-artificial-islands-10312022043801.html
14/ Moving away from regional #geoweirdness, let's touch on some other topics.
We all know the Silk Road, right? The 6,400km trade route lasted a millennia and connected Asia with Europe and parts of Africa through a complex web of trade paths.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road
But what about the “The New Silk Road”, the "Belt and Road Initiative"? A centerpiece of China's foreign policy, it will connect China with 150 countries around the globe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt_and_Road_Initiative#
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative
15/ As China expands rapidly, new cities are being built to try to tackle overcrowding. Examples include the “Paris of the East, Tianducheng”, and showcase this wild urban topographic shift. See below the Chinese Champs-Élysées
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianducheng
Some cities are built, but then sit empty, so called "ghost cities"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underoccupied_developments_in_China
The astonishing speed of construction can present something of a geocoding issue
16/ Still, on the topic of geocoding challenges, fast urbanization is only one of our problems - under Chinese law, geographic information in the PRC is restricted to authorized entities, meaning you can be fined for unauthorized geotagging.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictions_on_geographic_data_in_China
The Chinese govt mandates an obfuscation algorithm which adds apparently random offsets to both the latitude and longitude, with the alleged goal of improving national security
https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/141542/what-causes-the-gps-offset-shift-in-china
17/ With that we'll wrap up our look at China's #geoweirdness Thanks for reading and sharing. What did we miss?
We have threads for many more countries and geospatial topics over on our blog: https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads
If you liked our look at China you may enjoy
Japan https://en.osm.town/@opencage/110406045542800198
or
Don't want to sound picky but I'd say that Tibet was "invaded" rather than "incorporated" by China.
At least from a Tibetan perspective...
@opencage
"Can [I] name all of them?"
No. Which is the right answer. Prize please 