China has a wide range of landscapes and climates. The country has been described as a staircase with three steps, descending from west to east. In the west is the icy plateau of Tibet, high in the towering Himalayas. Called "the roof of the world," the mountains are home to Mount Everest, the world's highest peak (8,848 metres). Central China consists of smaller mountains and foothills, deserts, salt lakes and the dry grasslands south of Mongolia. Western China descends into the low river plains that are the country's fertile heartland and the traditional home of the Han people, often called the Middle Kingdom. Great rivers such as the Chang Jing (Yangtze) and Huang He (Yellow) irrigate the region, which contains most of the country's population and cities, including Beijing.

China's weather varies greatly, ranging from cold to hot extremes. The far north experiences bitterly cold winters (-40°C) and hot summers (38°C); central China receives a somewhat milder version of the same weather. Southeastern China has a subtropical climate, in which hot, humid summers coincide with a rainy season that sometimes brings typhoons.

Although much land has been deforested for industry, northeast China still has large tracts of forest, while further south are rainforests and important medicinal plants such as ginseng, angelica and fritillary. Wildlife includes herds of wild elephants in the south, reindeer, musk deer and tigers in the northeast, and snow leopards and wild yaks in the western highlands. Cranes, bustards egrets, swans and herons live around the country's lakes. Like China's symbol, the panda, most of these animals are threatened by the growing human population.