Now we’re heading east, towards the western shores of the Pacific, to discover one of the largest countries in the world. China is indeed an extraordinary territory, with a surface area of 9.6 million km2 and almost 22,800 km of borders. Needless to say, it has many neighbours. Nine, to be precise. These are Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Nepal, Burma, Laos and Vietnam. With such a vast territory, China is inevitably a country of contrasts and records.