• Asia is the largest continent, so it has the greatest variety of physical features, climate, vegetation, wildlife and soils: the highest mountains, plateaus, fertile plains, deserts, rivers and lakes, and many languages and religions. So it is called the ‘Continent of Diversity’.
• Location: between 1°16′ N and 77°41′ N latitudes and 26°04′ E and 169°40′ W longitudes. The Equator is just south of Malaysia; the Tropic of Cancer passes through India and Arabia.
• Extent: about 44 million km², 33% of the world’s land; almost all in the northern hemisphere.
• Physical setting: oceans on three sides and land on one: the Arctic Ocean (north), Pacific Ocean (east), Indian Ocean (south) and Europe (west). The Asia–Europe border is an imaginary zig-zag line along the Ural mountains, Caspian Sea, Caucasus mountains and Black Sea. Europe and Asia together are ‘Eurasia’. The Suez Canal separates Asia and Africa; the line between New Guinea and Australia separates Asia and Australia.

Asia has 48 countries in five regions:

1. East Asia: China, North and South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mongolia.
2. South-East Asia: Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines; a peninsula and a cluster of islands (Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Borneo, Papua).
3. South Asia: India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives. India is the biggest; the Himalayas are to the north.
4. South-West Asia: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Syria, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Yemen, Turkey. Mostly desert, but rich in petroleum and natural gas.
5. Central Asia: from the Caspian Sea to China: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Siberia (Russia).

1. North-Western Lowlands: from the Bering Strait to the Caspian Sea; the triangular Siberian plain slopes north; the Lena, Ob and Yenisei flow into the Arctic Ocean.
2. Central Highlands: mountains radiate from the Pamir Knot. Eastern ranges: Himalayas, Kunlun, Karakoram, Tienshan, Altai, Sayan, Yablonovy, Khingan, Stanovoy. Western ranges: Hindukush, Sulaiman, Kirthar, Elburz, Zagros, Caucasus, Pontine, Taurus. The Himalayas are fold mountains, the loftiest in the world, with Mt. Everest. Plateaus: Tibet, Mongolia, Iran, Anatolia.
3. Southern Plateaus: old, hard rock plateaus: Arabia (dry peninsula), Deccan (India, slopes east), Yunnan (limestone, SW China) and Shan (Myanmar).
4. Great Plains of Rivers: fertile alluvial plains: Tigris-Euphrates, Indo-Gangetic, Irrawaddy, Menam, Mekong, Si-Kiang, Chiang Jiang (Yangtse) and Hwang Ho. They are densely populated.
5. Island Groups: from Kamchatka to the Philippines and Borneo, arranged in festoons within five seas (Okhotsk, Japan, Yellow, East China, South China). Kurile, Japanese, La Chu, Borneo and Philippine islands; mostly volcanic.

• Agriculture is the main occupation: about three-fourths of people farm, mostly in river basins (fertile soil and irrigation). Many use hand tools and animals and do intensive farming; irrigation, dry, plantation, mixed and shifting cultivation are also practised.
• Paddy and wheat are the main food crops. China and India produce more than 90% of the world’s paddy. China, India, Pakistan and Asian Russia lead in wheat.
• Asia leads in natural rubber (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand) and tea (China, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Thailand).
• Cotton: China, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. Jute: Bangladesh, China, India. Sugarcane: India (2nd in the world), Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh. Also coffee, cocoa, millets, oilseeds and spices.

• Asia stretches from the Equator to the Polar region, so it has the coldest and some of the hottest lands, and very dry and very wet places. Factors: size, latitude, physical features and monsoon winds.
• Temperature: in January the north is bitterly cold; Verkhoyansk (−51 °C) and Oymyakon (−71 °C) in Siberia are among the coldest. In July most of Asia is hot, sometimes above 40 °C.
• Rainfall: mostly from the summer south-west monsoon; central Asia stays dry. In winter the Westerlies bring rain to West Asia, and tropical cyclones bring rain to eastern China, the Philippines and Malaysia. Mawsynram (Meghalaya, India) gets the highest rainfall in the world (1187 cm).
• Winter (October–March): oblique sun rays, very cold; high pressure over central Asia, so dry winds blow from land to sea; little rain.
• Summer (April–September): direct sun rays, hot; low pressure over central Asia, so winds blow from sea to land and bring rain almost everywhere.

1. Tundra: along the Arctic coast, under snow and ice; only mosses and lichens.
2. Coniferous (Taiga) forests: fir, spruce, larch, pine: soft wood.
3. Temperate grasslands (Steppes): west of Central Asia; short grass due to low rain.
4. Desert vegetation: Arabia, Iran, Thar: thorny plants, bushes; date palms near oases.
5. Monsoon forests: South, South-West and East Asia: teak, sal, banyan, bamboo, sandal; shed leaves in autumn.
6. Equatorial forests: East Indies: evergreen and tall: mahogany, ebony, rubber, bamboo, rosewood.
7. Mediterranean vegetation: South-West Asia: olive, fig, oak and shrubs.

• Iron ore: about 30% of the world’s reserves; China leads; also India, Turkey, Philippines, Malaysia and others.
• Manganese (for good steel): Transcaucasia, Central Asia, Siberia, China, India; China leads.
• Bauxite: Kazakhstan, south-central Siberia, India, Indonesia, Turkey, Malaysia, China.
• Coal (fossil fuel): China is the largest in deposits and production; India is 2nd in Asia; the Kuznetsk Basin (Siberia) is now the largest producer.
• Petroleum (‘petra’ = rock, ‘oleum’ = oil): South-West Asia has about half the world’s reserves (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE); Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest producer. Also Indonesia, Malaysia, China, India, Central Asia and Siberia.
• Industries: Asia is less industrialised than Europe because of lack of technology and capital, conservative attitudes and many people in farming.
• Japan: Keihin (Tokyo, Kawasaki, Yokohama), Hanshin (Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto), Ise Bay (Nagoya), Kita Kyushu (Yawata, Moji, Kokura).
• China: Manchuria, Beijing, Shanxi-Baotou, Chang Jiang, Wuhan.
• India: Hooghly-Kolkata, Mumbai-Pune, Ahmedabad-Vadodara, Madurai-Coimbatore-Bengaluru, Chotanagpur, Delhi-Meerut, Visakhapatnam, Kollam-Thiruvananthapuram. Others: South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia.

• About 476 crore people: 60% of the world. In 1950 it was 140 crore. The growth rate was high but is now decreasing.
• Average density: 153 persons per km², but uneven.
• Sparse: cold northern and eastern Siberia, deserts of Arabia, Iran and Thar, and the Central Asian highlands.
• Dense: the great plains of India, Bangladesh, China, Japan, Korea and Java: fertile flat plains and river basins.