In 1990, China was the world’s 11th largest economy in nominal GDP terms at $397 Billion USD.

And when using $PPP dollars (which is an attempt to better reflect the cost of living in a country) it was still only the world’s 7th largest economy at $992 Billion.

Yet by 2025 it has become the second largest to the United States in nominal GDP terms at $20 Trillion USD and the largest in $PPP terms at $40 Trillion.

The maps below show’s China’s nominal GDP relative to the 10 economies that were larger than it was in nominal GDP terms in 1990 (plus Australia).

They show the difference in size between them in 1990, the year they roughly become equal, and finally the difference in size in 2025. Full data is at the bottom of the page.

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Map found on redditThe map above shows that it’s possible to drive all around China using just 3 highways.

They are:

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Map created by LandgeistThe Chinese city tier system is an unofficial classification that organizes cities by their level of development, commercial importance, population, and influence in the country.

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Game found on redditThe Taiwanese board game above is from the 1960s and is called Counteroffensive Victory Chess (反攻勝利棋). The goal was to take back China by starting from Taiwan and slowly retaking the provinces with a dice until the first player that reaches Nanjing wins the game.

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Map created by Brilliant Maps based on maps created by Lawrence, Martha; Bullock, Richard; Liu, Ziming (2008) and Howchou (2024)The map looks at how much China’s High-Speed rail network has grown from it’s humble beginnings in 2008 into by far the world’s largest network in 2024.

Here are some quick facts:

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Map found via RedditThis map illustrates the linguistic diversity in China and its surrounding regions.

Each area on the map is color-coded to represent the primary language spoken in that region.

Here are some key points:

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