which is the third largest country?

[Wu Yan]

Hello everyone,

It's the first time I come here.

I'm not sure which country is the third largest country in the world. Chinese

webpage tells me it's China while forigen webpage says America. So which is rig

ht ?

Because I'm Chinese my English in not very well. If my expression is not good

, please give me correction. Thank you! (如果我的英语有错误或者不地道的话，请帮~

忙更正, 谢谢了)

[zozzen]

If we count only the non-disputed lands, China is the fourth-largest. If we also count disputed lands with India or taiwan, China will be 9640821 or 9677009 km2 (third-largest). The old map of Republic of China counts "Outer Mongolia" as their territory too. In this sense, the total area of Republic of China was 20881946 km² , outplacing Russia as the largest country in the world.

[Hero Doug]

This list shown China and America both sharing third and fourth spot. You'll get different answers depending on who you ask.

Hell, I even had one Australian tell me Australia was the second largest country in the world. ;)

[liuzhou]

The United Nations recognises China as third largest. Only the CIA and websites which use their figures put the US ahead.

It depends how you count. The CIA excludes water covered areas when discussing China, but includes them in the US. In fact, over the last few years, they have kept increasing the size of the US's land area, despite there being no material gains.

[Lu]

But then the UN probably include Taiwan in calculating China's size. Don't know what they do with that area in India?

And very strange that the CIA would increase the US' land area. I thought their numbers were usually quite reliable.

[Hero Doug]

Maybe they tossed Iraq on the list ;)

[yingguoguy]

Last term I had fun asking my students this question when I taught a course on British and American culture.

On the first slide I showed that the 50 states of America are larger than Mainland China, excluding Hong Kong/Macau and Taiwan.

Of course the students were angry this exclusion, so the next slide showed the combined China being larger than the 50 states.

Finally the last slide showed that America's additional territories, such as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Island, pushing America ahead again.

I'm afraid I don't have the exact numbers anymore but anyway you look at it, it's only about +-5000 square kilometers or about 0.1% of the total either way, so for all practical purposes it's fair to say that America and China are the same size.

The point I was trying to make is that learning that China/America is the third largest country in the world is useless knowledge, but knowing why Chinese and Americans might be arguing about such a thing is invaluable.

But hey I'm British, what do I care either way?

[here2learn]

And the bonus post, corrections:

Hello everyone,

It's the first time I come here.

I'm not sure which country is the third largest country in the world. Chinese

webpage tells me it's China while forigen webpage says America. So which is right ?

Because I'm Chinese my English in not very well. If my expression is not good

, please give me correction. Thank you!

Hello everyone,

It's the first time I've come here.

I'm not sure which country is the third largest country in the world. Chinese

webpages tell me it's China while foreign webpages say America. So which is rig

ht ?

Because I'm Chinese my English is not very good. If my expression is not good, please give me corrections. Thank you!

Your mistakes are tiny and don't interfere with the meaning at all. Good job, keep up the good work!

[Wu Yan]

Thanks for your replies which are very informative.

yingguoguy,

Your experience is very interesting. I actually don't care the number of my country falls behind. I was just confused by the question.

(I want to express 我并不介意中国的排名落后一名. I think my expression above must have some problem.)

here2learn,

Thank you for pointing out my mistakes.

[Lethe]

such ranking reminds me of the typical scene in chinese primary school : two deskmates drawing lines(jokingly named三八线) on their desk,claiming their territories.

boring and pointless,but interesting when you're just watching:lol:

to Wu Yan

:DThink of how much chinese words and grammar we native mistake.Don't worry.

[crazy-meiguoren]

Think of how much chinese words and grammar we native mistake.Don't worry.

I second that. Your English is better than my Chinese, Wu Yan. I have not been able to absorb all the words that I have been taught so far. I don't think I can come up with a complete sentence on my own at this point.

It does not matter to me who is third largest. It's such a close call anyway.

[Wu Yan]

It's such a close call anyway

what dose "close call" mean when it's used here?

----------------------------------------------------------------

close call:

n. 侥幸脱险,死里逃生

例句与用法:

1. We didn't actually hit the other car, but it was a close call.

我们倒并未撞上那辆汽车, 可险些出了事.

2. That was a close call, the train nearly hit the car.

好险，火车差一点就撞上那部车子

3. Susan have a close call in her car.

苏珊开车险些遇到意外。

[crazy-meiguoren]

what dose "close call" mean when it's used here?

In this case, it means that the sizes of the US and China are so similar, that any differences may be open to dispute. There are "close calls" when two objects are close to collision, then there are close calls where the outcome of a contest or ranking is close to being a tie.

Thank you for asking. I like the interest you have in learning English.

[adamlee]

The third largest country in terms of land area is the United States. If we are talking about contiguous landmass it would be China. In layman's terms, China is the third largest country not separated by other countries or water.