Geography
Covering and area of 329,600 square kilometres, Vietnam is some
7.5 % smaller than reunited Germany. But, like only a few other
countries of similar size, it extends across two climatic zones
- with a moderate climate in the North, comparable to that
of Southern Europe, and a tropical climate in the South.
Hanoi is, like Hongkong, located at a geographical latitude
slightly to the South of Cairo or the Canary Islands, while Saigon
is at a geographical latitude only slightly to the North of
the Nigerian capital Lagos.
Altogether the country stretches for more than 1,650 kilometres
from North to South - which is roughly the distance from Hamburg
to Athens. The coastline of Vietnam is about 3,000 kilometres
long.
To the West the country is bordered by Laos and Cambodia, to the
North by China and to the East and South by the South China Sea.
Geographically there are five different regions: 1. the northern
mountain terrain with heights reaching above 3,000 metres;
2. the delta of the Red River (at which Hanoi is situated);
3. the Annamite Mountain Range, which connects North Vietnam
and South Vietnam; 4. the narrow coastal strip between
the Annamite Mountain Range and the South China Sea; 5. the Mekong
delta in the South of the country.
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