Major rivers flow into the Pacific Ocean. China also has many lakes and wetlands. Shanghai is China's largest and most prosperous city. The climate varies considerably covering a number of climatic regions. The environment ranges from tropical rain forests, to subtropical and even arctic areas.
China has a variety of forest types.
Hardwoods such as teak and mahogany are cultivated as commercial crops, as are pine and other softwoods. Bamboo is a very fast growing plant which can grow up to one metre a day. An interesting tree found in China is the ginkgo or maidenhair tree which is used in Chinese medicine. It is one of the world's earliest surviving plant species and first grew 160 million years ago. China has a wide variety of wildlife tigers, leopards, snow leopards, monkeys, yaks and giant pandas .