To compare:
- Population of the USA: 304.5 mn.
- Total population of all 27 EU-Nations: 482.8 mn.

 
- Language: official language "Mandarin" and more than 1,000 dialects

- 56 ethnic groups

- Over 660 cities in 23 provinces

- Nominal GDP in USD: 3.42 trillion
  (ranked 4th after USA, Japan and Germany, will become 3rd from 2009 on)

- GDP (purchasing power parity) in USD 7.099 trillion
  (ranked 2nd after USA)

- GDP growth rate (2007): 11.4 %

- Main sectors providing GDP: industry (48.9 %) and services (39.3 %)

- Domestic demand growth: 9.5 % in average over the past years

- 5 % (~ 66.5 mn. Chinese) are high end consumers

- Increase of per capita income over past years: 10.7 %

- China has 616 mn. mobile phone users (466 mn. in EU, 305 mn. in India and 260 mn. in USA).