China is rich in material resources including water, land, minerals, plants, living things and thermal energy. It has almost all the vegetation types in the northern hemisphere. China is among the few countries that have all types of mineral resources. The reserves of many types of ores are placed among the first ones in the world. One can find many wild animals that are rare and precious around the world like the Giant Panda, golden monkey, tiger in northeast China, red - crowned crane, white - flag dolphin and the Yangize alligator. Some of these animals have served as important goodwill envoys in the contacts between China and foreign countries.

Take for example, many foreign children have started the study on China from their interest in the giant panda.