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East Asia .mw-parser-output .nobold{font-weight:normal} 东亚/東亞 (in Chinese) 東アジア (in Japanese) 동아시아 (in Korean) Дорнод Ази (in Mongolian)
Subregion of Asia
State[note 1]	China  Hong Kong  Macau  Japan  North Korea  South Korea  Mongolia  Taiwan
Major cities	China Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou Shenzhen Chongqing Tianjin Nanjing Wuhan Shenyang Chengdu  Hong Kong  Macau  Japan Tokyo Yokohama Osaka Nagoya Sapporo Fukuoka Kobe  North Korea Pyongyang Kaesong Sinuiju  South Korea Seoul Busan Incheon Daegu Gwangju Daejeon Ulsan  Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Darkhan Erdenet  Taiwan Taipei New Taipei Taichung Kaohsiung Taoyuan Tainan Others
Area [note 2]
• Total	11,839,074 km2 (4,571,092 sq mi)
Population (2016)[note 3]
• Total	1,641,908,531
• Rank	2nd (World)
Time zone	UTC+7 (Mongolia) UTC+8 (Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan) UTC+9 (Japan, South Korea, North Korea)
Languages and language families	Chinese Japanese Korean Mongolian Tibetan Others

China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam are culturally East Asian

East Asia is the eastern subregion of Asia, which can be defined in either geographical^[1] or ethno-cultural^[2] terms.^[3][4] Culturally, China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam are commonly seen as being encompassed by cultural East Asia (East Asian cultural sphere).^[5] Geographically and geopolitically, the region constitutes China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, and South Korea.^{[1][3][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]}

The region was the cradle of various ancient civilizations such as ancient China, ancient Japan, ancient Korea, and the Mongol Empire.^[14][15] East Asia was one of the cradles of world civilization, with China, an ancient East Asian civilization being one of the earliest cradles of civilization in human history. For thousands of years, China largely influenced East Asia as it was principally the leading civilization in the region exerting its enormous prestige and influence on its neighbors.^[16][17][18] Historically, societies in East Asia have been part of the Chinese cultural sphere, and East Asian vocabulary and scripts are often derived from Classical Chinese and Chinese script. The Chinese calendar preserves traditional East Asian culture and serves as the root to which many other East Asian calendars are derived from. Major religions in East Asia include Buddhism (mostly Mahayana^{[note 4]}), Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, Ancestral worship, and Chinese folk religion in Greater China, Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan, and Christianity, Buddhism, and Sindoism in Korea.^[12]Shamanism is also prevalent among Mongols and other indigenous populations of northern East Asia such as the Manchus.^[19][20]

East Asians comprise around 1.6 billion people, making up about 38% of the population in Continental Asia and 22% of the global population. The region is home to major world metropolises such as Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, and Tokyo. Although the coastal and riparian areas of the region form one of the world's most populated places, the population in Mongolia and Western China, both landlocked areas, is very sparsely distributed, with Mongolia having the lowest population density of any sovereign state. The overall population density of the region is 133 inhabitants per square kilometre (340/sq mi), about three times the world average of 45/km² (120/sq mi).

History

In comparison with the profound influence of the Ancient Greeks and Romans on Europe and the Western World, China would already possess an advanced civilization nearly half a millennia before Japan and Korea.^[21] As Chinese civilization existed for about 1500 years before other East Asian civilizations emerged into history, Imperial China would exert much of its cultural, economic, technological, and political muscle onto its neighbors.^[22][23][24] Succeeding Chinese dynasties exerted enormous influence across East Asia culturally, economically, politically, and militarily for over two millennia.^[24][25] Imperial China's cultural preeminence not only led the country to become East Asia's first literate nation in the entire region, it also supplied Japan, Vietnam, and Korea with Chinese loanwords and linguistic influences rooted in their writing systems.^[26] In addition, the Chinese Han dynasty hosted the largest unified population in East Asia, the most literate and urbanized as well as being the most technologically and culturally advanced civilization in the region.^[27] Cultural and religious interaction between the Chinese and other regional East Asian dynasties and kingdoms occurred. China's impact and influence on Korea began with the Han dynasty's northeastern expansion in 108 BC when the Han Chinese conquered the northern part of the Korean peninsula and established a province called Lelang. Chinese influence would soon take root in Korea through the inclusion of the Chinese writing system, monetary system, rice culture, and Confucian political institutions.^[28] Jōmon society in ancient Japan incorporated wet-rice cultivation and metallurgy through its contact with Korea. Vietnamese society was greatly impacted by Chinese influence, the northern part of Vietnam was occupied by Chinese empires and states for almost all of the period from 111 BC to 938 AD. In addition to administration, and making Chinese the language of administration, the long period of Chinese domination introduced Chinese techniques of dike construction, rice cultivation, and animal husbandry. Chinese culture, having been established among the elite mandarin class, remained the dominant current among that elite for most of the next 1,000 years (939-1870s) until the loss of independence under French Indochina. This cultural affiliation to China remained true even when militarily defending Vietnam against attempted invasion, such as against the Mongol Kublai Khan. The only significant exceptions to this were the 7 years of the strongly anti-Chinese Hồ dynasty which banned the use of Chinese (among other actions triggering the fourth Chinese invasion), but then after the expulsion of the Ming the rise in vernacular chữ nôm literature. Although 1,000 years of Chinese rule left many traces, the collective memory of the period reinforced Vietnam's cultural and later political independence. As full-fledged medieval East Asian states were established, Korea by the fourth century AD and Japan by the seventh century AD, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam actively began to incorporate Chinese influences such as Confucianism, the use of written Han characters, Chinese style architecture, state institutions, political philosophies, religion, urban planning, and various scientific and technological methods into their culture and society through direct contacts with succeeding Chinese dynasties.^[29] For many centuries, most notably from the 7th to the 14th centuries, China stood as East Asia's most advanced civilization, commanding influence across the region up until the early modern period.^[30] The Imperial Chinese tributary system shaped much of East Asia's history for over two millennia due to Imperial China's economic and cultural influence over the region, and thus played a huge role in the history of East Asia in particular.^[31][32][23] The transmission of advanced Chinese cultural practices and ways of thinking greatly shaped the region up until the 19th century.^[21]

As East Asia's connections with Europe and the Western world strengthened during the late 19th century, China's power began to decline. U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry would open Japan to Western ways, and the country would expand in earnest after the 1860s.^[33][34] Around the same time, Japan with its rush to modernity transformed itself from an isolated feudal samurai state into East Asia's first industrialized nation.^[35][11][34] The modern and powerful Japan would galvanize its position in the Orient as East Asia's greatest power with a global mission poised to advance to lead the entire world.^[35] By the early 1900s, the Japanese empire succeeded in asserting itself as East Asia's first modern power. With its newly found international status, Japan would begin to inextricably take a more active position in East Asia and leading role in world affairs at large. Flexing its nascent political and military might, Japan soundly defeated the stagnant Qing dynasty during the First Sino-Japanese War as well as vanquishing imperial rival Russia in 1905; the first major military victory in the modern era of an East Asian power over a European one.^[36][33] Its hegemony was the heart of an empire that would include Taiwan and Korea.^[35] During World War II, Japanese expansionism with its imperialist aspirations through the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere would incorporate Korea, Taiwan, much of eastern China and Manchuria, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Southeast Asia under its control establishing itself as a maritime colonial power in East Asia.^[37] After a century of exploitation by the European and Japanese colonialists, post-colonial East Asia saw the defeat and occupation of Japan by the victorious Allies as well as the division of China and Korea during the Cold War. The Korean peninsula became independent but then it was divided into two rival states, while Taiwan became the main territory of de facto state Republic of China after the latter lost Mainland China to the People's Republic of China in the Chinese Civil War. During the latter half of the twentieth century, the region would see the post war economic miracle of Japan, the economic rise of South Korea and Taiwan, and the integration of Mainland China into the global economy through its entry in the World Trade Organization while enhancing its emerging international status as a potential world power.^[6][38]

Culturally, China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam are commonly seen as being encompassed by cultural East Asia (East Asian cultural sphere).

Definitions

In common usage, the term East Asia typically refers to a region including Greater China, Japan, Korea and Mongolia.^{[39][40][41][42][43]}

China, Japan, and Korea represent the three core countries and civilizations of traditional East Asia - as they once shared a common written language, culture, as well as sharing Confucian philosophical tenets and the Confucian societal value system once instituted by Imperial China.^{[44][45][45][46][47]} Other usages define China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Korea, North Korea and Taiwan as countries that constitute East Asia based on their geographic proximity as well as historical and modern cultural and economic ties, particularly with Japan and Korea having strong cultural influences that originated from China.^{[47][48][49][3][50][51]} Some scholars include Vietnam as part of East Asia as it has been considered part of the greater sphere of Chinese influence. Though Confucianism continues to play an important role in Vietnamese culture, Chinese characters are no longer used in its written language and many scholarly organizations classify Vietnam as a Southeast Asian country.^[3][52] Mongolia is geographically north of China yet Confucianism and the Chinese writing system and culture had no impact in Mongolian society. Thus, Mongolia is sometimes grouped with Central Asian countries such as Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.^[3][52]

Broader and looser definitions by international organizations such as the World Bank refer to the "three major Northeast Asian economies, i.e. China, Japan, and South Korea", as well as Mongolia, North Korea, the Russian Far East and Siberia.^[53] The Council on Foreign Relations includes the Russia Far East, Mongolia, and Nepal.^[54] The World Bank also acknowledges the roles of sub-national or de facto states, such as Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. The Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia defines the region as "China, Japan, the Koreas, Nepal, Mongolia, and eastern regions of the Russian Federation".^[55]

The countries of East Asia also form the core of Northeast Asia, which itself is a broader region.

East Asia map of Köppen climate classification.

UNSD geoscheme for Asia based on statistic convenience rather than implying any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories:^[56]

  North Asia

  Central Asia

  Western Asia

  South Asia

  East Asia

  Southeast Asia

The UNSD definition of East Asia is based on statistical convenience,^[56] but also other common definitions of East Asia contain Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan.^[1][57]

Culturally, China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam are commonly seen as being encompassed by cultural East Asia (East Asian cultural sphere).^{[2][58][59][60]}

Alternative definitions

There are mixed debates around the world whether these countries or regions should be considered in East Asia or not.

• 
  Vietnam (officially part of Southeast Asia geographically, although culturally it is a part of the East Asian cultural sphere, politically, it is related to both Southeast Asia and East Asia)


• 
  Far Eastern Federal District in Russia (often described as North Asia due to its location, although this part of Russia is often seen as more closely related to its East Asian neighbours)


• Sovereignty issues exist over some territories in the South China Sea.

In business and economics, "East Asia" is sometimes used to refer to a wide geographical area covering ten Southeast Asian countries in ASEAN, Greater China, Japan and Korea. However, in this context, the term "Far East" is used by the Europeans to cover ASEAN countries and the countries in East Asia. However, being a Eurocentric term, Far East describes the region's geographical position in relation to Europe rather than its location within Asia. Alternatively, the term "Asia Pacific Region" is often used in describing East Asia, Southeast Asia as well as Oceania.

Observers preferring a broader definition of "East Asia" often use the term Northeast Asia to refer to the greater China area, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan, with Southeast Asia covering the ten ASEAN countries. This usage, which is seen in economic and diplomatic discussions, is at odds with the historical meanings of both "East Asia" and "Northeast Asia".^[61][62][63] The Council on Foreign Relations defines Northeast Asia as Japan and Korea.^[54]

Economy

Country	GDP nominal billions of USD (2017)[64]	GDP nominal per capita USD (2017)[64]	GDP PPP billions of USD (2017)[64]	GDP PPP per capita USD (2017)[64]
China	12,014.610	8,643.107	23,159.107	16,660.269
Hong Kong[65]	341.659	46,109.124	454.912	61,393.316
Macau[66]	49.802	77,451.287	71.778	111,629.024
Japan	4,872.135	38,439.517	5,428.813	42,831.523
North Korea	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
South Korea	1,538.030	29,891.255	2,029.032	39,433.779
Mongolia	11.135	3,639.894	39.704	12,978.557
Taiwan[note 5]	579.302	24,576.665	1,185.480	50,293.541

Territorial and regional data

Etymology

Flag	Common Name		Official Name		ISO 3166 Country Codes[67]
	Exonym	Endonym	Exonym	Endonym	ISO Short Name	Alpha-2 Code	Alpha-3 Code	Numeric
	China	中国	People’s Republic of China	中华人民共和国	China	CN	CHN	156
	Hong Kong	香港	Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China	中華人民共和國香港特別行政區	Hong Kong	HK	HKG	344
	Macau	澳門	Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China	中華人民共和國澳門特別行政區 Região Administrativa Especial de Macau da República Popular da China	Macao	MO	MAC	446
	Japan	日本	State of Japan	日本国	Japan	JP	JPN	392
	Mongolia	Монгол улс	Mongolia	Монгол Улс（ ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ ᠤᠯᠤᠰ）	Mongolia	MG	MNG	496
	North Korea	조선	Democratic People’s Republic of Korea	조선민주주의인민공화국 (朝鮮民主主義人民共和國)	Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of)	KP	PRK	408
	South Korea	한국	Republic of Korea	대한민국 (大韓民國)	Korea (the Republic of)	KR	KOR	410
	Taiwan[68]	臺灣 / 台灣	Republic of China	中華民國	Taiwan (Province of China)[69]	TW	TWN	158

Demographics

State/Territory	Area km2	Population[70] (2016)	Population density per km2	HDI[71]	Capital
China	9,640,011[note 6]	1,403,500,365[note 7]	138	0.752	Beijing
Hong Kong	1,104	7,302,843	6,390	0.933	Hong Kong
Macau	30	612,167	18,662	0.909	Macau
Japan	377,930	127,748,513	337	0.909	Tokyo
North Korea	120,538	25,368,620	198	0.733	Pyongyang[72]
South Korea	100,210	50,791,919	500	0.903	Seoul
Mongolia	1,564,100	3,027,398	2	0.741	Ulaanbaatar
Taiwan	36,188	23,556,706	639	0.885	Taipei[73]

Ethnic groups

Ethnicity	Native name	Population	Language(s)	Writing system(s)	Major states/territories*	Physical appearance
Han/Chinese	漢人 or 汉人, 漢族 or 汉族	1,260,000,000[74]	Chinese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Hokkien, Hakka, Gan, Hsiang, etc.	Simplified Han characters, Traditional Han characters	( )
Yamato/Japanese	日本族 (にほんぞく) 大和民族 (やまとみんぞく)	125,117,000[75]	Japanese	Han characters (Kanji), Katakana, Hiragana
Joseon/Korean	한민족 (韓民族) 조선족 (朝鮮族)	79,432,225[citation needed]	Korean	Hangul, Han characters (Hanja)
Bai	白族	1,858,063	Bai, Southwestern Mandarin	Latin script, Simplified Han characters
Hui	回族/回回	10,586,087[citation needed]	Northwestern Mandarin, other Chinese Dialects, Huihui language, etc.	Simplified Han characters
Mongols	Монголчууд/ ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯᠴᠤᠳ Монгол/ ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ	8,942,528	Mongolian	Mongol script, Cyrillic script
Zhuang	壮族/Bouxcuengh	18,000,000	Zhuang, Southwestern Mandarin, etc.	Simplified Han characters, Latin script
Uyghurs	ئۇيغۇر	15,000,000+[76]	Uighur	Arabic alphabet, Cyrillic script
Manchus	满族/ ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ	10,422,873[citation needed]	Northeastern Mandarin, Manchurian (endangered), etc.	Simplified Han characters, Mongol script
Hmong/Miao	Ghaob Xongb/Hmub/Mongb	9,426,007[citation needed]	Hmong, Southwestern Mandarin	Latin script, Simplified Han characters
Tibetans	བོད་པ་	6,500,000	Tibetan, Rgyal Rong, Rgu, etc.	Tibetan script
Yi	ꆈꌠ/彝族	8,714,393	Various Loloish, Southwestern Mandarin	Yi script, Simplified Han characters
Tujia	土家族	8,353,912	Northern Tujia, Southern Tujia	Simplified Han characters
Kam	Gaeml	2,879,974	Gaeml	Simplified Han characters, Latin script
Tu	土族/Monguor	289,565	Tu, Northwestern Mandarin	Simplified Han characters
Daur	达斡尔族/ ᠳᠠᠭᠤᠷ	131,992	Daur, Northeastern Mandarin	Mongol script, Simplified Han characters
Taiwanese Aborigines	Pangcah, etc.	533,600	Austronesian languages (Amis, Yami), etc.	Latin script, Traditional Han characters
Ryukyuan	(琉球民族(りゅうきゅうみんぞく) 沖縄人 (おきなわじん)	1,900,000	Japanese Ryukyuan	Han characters (Kanji), Katakana, Hiragana	()
Ainu	アイヌ	200,000	Japanese Ainu[77]	Han characters (Kanji), Katakana, Hiragana

• Note: The order of states/territories follows the population ranking of each ethnicity, within East Asia only.

Culture

Overview

The culture of East Asia has largely been influenced by China, as it was the civilization that had the most dominant influence in the region throughout the ages that ultimately laid the foundation for East Asian civilization.^[78] The vast knowledge and ingenuity of Chinese civilization and the classics of Chinese literature and culture were seen as the foundations for a civilized life in East Asia. Imperial China served as a vehicle through which the adoption of Confucian ethical philosophy, Chinese calendar system, political and legal systems, architectural style, diet, terminology, institutions, religious beliefs, imperial examinations that emphasized a knowledge of Chinese classics, political philosophy and cultural value systems, as well as historically sharing a common writing system reflected in the histories of Japan and Korea.^{[79][24][80][81][82][83][84][85][47]} The Imperial Chinese tributary system was the bedrock of network of trade and foreign relations between China and its East Asian tributaries, which helped to shape much of East Asian affairs during the ancient and medieval eras. Through the tributary system, the various dynasties of Imperial China facilitated frequent economic and cultural exchange that influenced the cultures of Japan and Korea and drew them into a Chinese international order.^[86][87] The Imperial Chinese tributary system shaped much of East Asia's foreign policy and trade for over two millennia due to Imperial China's economic and cultural dominance over the region, and thus played a huge role in the history of East Asia in particular.^[32][87] The relationship between China and its cultural influence on East Asia has been compared to the historical influence of Greco-Roman civilization on Europe and the Western World.^{[83][81][87][79]}

Religions

Religion	Native name	Denomination	Major book	Type	Est. Followers	Ethnic groups	States/territories
Chinese religion	none, various classifications including 民間信仰, 神教/神道, etc.	Taoism, Confucianism, folk salvationist sects, Wuism, Nuo	Chinese classics, Huangdi Sijing, precious scrolls, etc.	Pantheism/polytheism	~900,000,000[88][89]	Han, Hmong, Qiang, Tujia (worship of the same ancestor-gods)	( )
Taoism	道教	Zhengyi, Quanzhen	Tao Te Ching	Pantheism/polytheism	~20,000,000[89]	Han, Zhuang, Hmong, Yao, Qiang, Tujia	( )
Confucianism	儒教	Cheng-Zhu, Lu-Wang	Four Books and Five Classics	Immanent transcendence/pantheism	N/A	Han, Korean, Yamato	( )
East Asian Buddhism	漢傳佛教 or 汉传佛教	Mahayana	Diamond Sutra	Non-God	~300,000,000	Han, Korean, Yamato	( )
Tibetan Buddhism	བོད་བརྒྱུད་ནང་བསྟན།	Mahayana	Anuttarayoga Tantra	Non-God	~10,000,000	Tibetans, Manchus, Mongols
Shamanism[note 8] and Bon, etc.	Бөө мөргөл, བོན	N/A	N/A	Polytheism/pantheism	N/A	Tibetans, Manchus, Mongols, Oroqen
Shintoism	神道	Shinto sects	Kojiki, Nihon Shoki	Polytheism/pantheism	N/A	Yamato
Sindo/Muism	신도 or 무교	Sindo sects	N/A	Polytheism/pantheism	N/A	Korean
Ryukyuan religion	琉球神道 or ニライカナイ信仰	N/A	N/A	Polytheism/pantheism	N/A	Ryukyuan	()

Festivals

Festival	Native Name	Other name	Calendar	Date	Gregorian date	Activity	Religious practices	Food	Major ethnicities	Major states/territories
Chinese New Year	春節 or 春节	Spring Festival	Chinese	Month 1 Day 1	21 Jan–20 Feb	Family Reunion, Ancestors Worship, Tomb Sweeping, Fireworks	Worship the King of Gods	Jiaozi	Han, Korean, Manchus etc.	( )
New Year	元旦	Yuan Dan	Gregorian	1 Jan	1 Jan	Fireworks	N/A	N/A	N/A	( )
Losar or Tsagaan Sar	ལོ་གསར་ or Цагаан сар	White Moon	Tibetan, Mongolian	Month 1 Day 1	25 Jan – 2 Mar	Family Reunion, Ancestors Worship, Tomb Sweeping, Fireworks	N/A	Chhaang or Buuz	Tibetans, Mongols, Tu etc.
Lantern Festival	元宵節 or 元宵节	Upper Yuan Festival (上元节)	Chinese	Month 1 Day 15	4 Feb – 6 Mar	Lanterns Expo, Ancestors Worship, Tomb Sweeping	Birthdate of the God of Sky-officer	Yuanxiao	Han, Korean, Yamato	( ) *
Qingming Festival	清明節 or 清明节	Tomb Sweeping Day	Solar	15th day since March equinox	4–6 April	Ancestors Worship, Tomb Sweeping	Burning Hell money	Cold Food	Han, Korean, Mongols	( )
Dragon Boat Festival	端午節 or 端午节	Duanwu Festival	Chinese	Month 5 Day 5		Driving poisons & plague away, Dragon Boat Race, Wearing colored lines, Hanging felon herb on the front door.	Worship various Gods	Zongzi	Han, Korean, Yamato	( ) *
Ghost Festival	中元節 or 中元节	Mid Yuan Festival	Chinese	Month 7 Day 15		Ancestors Worship, Tomb Sweeping	Birthdate of the God of Earth-officer		Han, Korean, Yamato	( ) *
Mid-Autumn Festival	中秋節 or 中秋节	中秋祭	Chinese	Month 8 Day 15		Family Reunion, Enjoying Moon view	Worship the Moon Goddess	Mooncake	Han, Korean, Yamato	( ) *
Double Ninth Festival	重陽節 or 重阳节	Double Positive Festival	Chinese	Month 9 Day 09		Climbing Mountain, Taking care of elderly, Wearing Cornus.	Worship various Gods		Han, Korean, Yamato	( ) *
Lower Yuan Festival	下元節 or 下元节	N/A	Chinese	Month 10 Day 15		Ancestors Worship, Tomb Sweeping	Birthdate of the God of Water-officer	Ciba	Han, Korean	( )
Small New Year	小年	Jizao (祭灶)	Chinese	Month 12 Day 23		Cleaning Houses	Worship the God of Hearth	tanggua	Han, Mongols	( )
International Labor Day	N/A	N/A	Gregorian	1 May	1 May	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	( )
International Women's Day	N/A	N/A	Gregorian	8 Mar	8 Mar	Taking care of women	N/A	N/A	N/A	All

*Japan switched the date to the Gregorian calendar after the Meiji Restoration.

*Not always on that Gregorian date, sometimes April 4.

Collaboration

East Asian Youth Games

Formerly the East Asian Games is a multi-sport event organised by the East Asian Games Association (EAGA) and held every four years since 2019 among athletes from East Asian countries and territories of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), as well as the Pacific island of Guam, which is a member of the Oceania National Olympic Committees.

The East Asian Games is 1 of 5 Regional Games of the OCA. The others are the East Asian Games, the Central Asian Games, the South Asian Games, the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games), and the West Asian Games.

Free trade agreements

Name of agreement	Parties	Leaders at the time	Negotiation begins	Signing date	Starting time	Current status
China–South Korea FTA		Xi Jinping, Park Geun-hye	May, 2012	Jun 01, 2015	Dec 30, 2015	Enforced
China–Japan–South Korea FTA		Xi Jinping, Shinzō Abe, Park Geun-hye	Mar 26, 2013	N/A	N/A	10 round negotiation
Japan-Mongolia EPA		Shinzō Abe, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj	-	Feb 10, 2015	-	Enforced
China-Mongolia FTA		Xi Jinping, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj	N/A	N/A	N/A	Officially proposed
China-HK CEPA		Jiang Zemin, Tung Chee-hwa	-	Jun 29, 2003	-	Enforced
China-Macau CEPA		Jiang Zemin, Edmund Ho Hau-wah	-	Oct 18, 2003	-	Enforced
Hong Kong-Macau CEPA		Carrie Lam, Fernando Chui	Oct 09, 2015	N/A	N/A	Negotiating
ECFA		Hu Jintao, Ma Ying-jeou	Jan 26, 2010	Jun 29, 2010	Aug 17, 2010	Enforced
CSSTA (Based on ECFA)		Xi Jinping, Ma Ying-jeou	Mar, 2011	Jun 21, 2013	N/A	Abolished
CSGTA (Based on ECFA)		Hu Jintao, Ma Ying-jeou	Feb 22, 2011	N/A	N/A	Suspended

Military alliances

Name	Abbr.	Parties within the region
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation	SCO	( )
General Security of Military Information Agreement	GSOMIA
Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty	-	( )
Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan	-	( )
Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and the Republic of Korea	-	( )
Taiwan Relations Act (Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty before 1980)	TRA (SAMDT)	( )
Major non-NATO ally (Global Partners of NATO)	-	( ) [90]

Cities and towns

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  Beijing is the capital of the People's Republic of China and the largest metropolis in northern China.
  

  
  

  
  


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  Shanghai is the largest city in China and one of the largest in the world, and is a global financial centre and transport hub with the world's busiest container port.
  

  
  

  
  


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  Guangzhou is one of the most important cities in southern China. It has a history of over 2,200 years and was a major terminus of the maritime Silk Road and continues to serve as a major port and transportation hub today.
  

  
  

  
  


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  Xi'an or Chang'an is the oldest of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, having held the position under several of the most important dynasties. It has a significant cultural influence in East Asia.
  

  
  

  
  


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  Hong Kong is one of the world's leading global financial centres and is known as a cosmopolitan metropolis.
  

  
  

  
  


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  Taipei is the capital of the Republic of China and anchors a major high-tech industrial area in Taiwan.
  

  
  

  
  


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  Tokyo is the capital of Japan and one of the largest cities in the world, both in metropolitan population and economy.
  

  
  

  
  


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  Osaka is the second largest metropolitan area in Japan.
  

  
  

  
  


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  Kyoto was the Imperial capital of Japan for more than one thousand years.
  

  
  

  
  


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  Seoul is the capital of South Korea, one of the largest cities in the world and a leading global technology hub.
  

  
  

  
  


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  Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea, and is a significant metropolis on the Korean Peninsula.
  

  
  

  
  


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  Ulaanbaatar is the capital of Mongolia with a population of 1 million as of 2008.
  

  
  

  
  

Play media

Pass of the ISS over Mongolia, looking out west towards the Pacific Ocean, China, and Japan. As the video progresses, you can see major cities along the coast and the Japanese islands on the Philippine Sea. The island of Guam can be seen further down the pass into the Philippine Sea, and the pass ends just to the east of New Zealand. A lightning storm can be seen as light pulses near the end of the video.

See also

• China–Japan–South Korea trilateral summit


• East Asia Summit


• East Asian Community


• East Asian languages


• East Asian studies


• Four Asian Tigers


• Northeast Asia

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to East Asia.

Look up east asia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• 
  East Asia travel guide from Wikivoyage


• High resolution map of East Asian region