As we have mentioned in the previous lecture,Britain is made up of Great Britain, Northern Ireland and numerous smallerislands. In this chapter, let’s see more about the geographical features of theUnited Kingdom.

Position

Here is China, and here is the UK. As an island state, the United Kingdom is situated in Western Europe. It lies to the west of the North Sea,facing Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Norway; to the west ofthe UK is the Republic of Ireland, which is UK’s only land neighbor, with the Irish Sea separating the island of Great Britain from the island of Ireland.The UK neighbors Iceland to the north and France to the south and is opposite America and Canada across the Atlantic Ocean.

As one of the island countries with a long coastline, Britain is separated from the European Continent by the English Channel （英吉利海峡）to the south. The English Channel between English and France is quite narrow and the narrowest part is called the Straits of Dover（多佛海峡）, which is only 33 km across. A channel tunnel under the Straits of Dover was built so as to join England and France together by road.

Covering a total area of approximately 245,00 square kilometers with a population of 65.10 million (2017), the country runs 966 km from north to south and extends at the widest part about 483 km, so no part of Britain is very far from the coast. The British coast in long and has good and deep harbors. Sea routes extend far in land, which provide cheap transportation.

It lies between 50 and 60 degree north latitude (纬度), and roughly between 2 degree east and 8 degree west longitude (经度). The Prime Meridian (本初子午线) of 0 degree just passes through the old observatory（天文台） at Greenwich（格林威治）.