Nothing that the population of Russia is now running about 142 million (down about five percent from the end of the Empire), it occurred to me to wonder--are there provinces in China that big?
Answer, no. Wiki gives the largest Administrative Division of China as Guangdong with about 94.5 million people. So, way smaller than Russia, but about the same says as--what? You thought Germany, Britan, France, italy, but you rejected them all because you knew they were too small, and you are right.
But the winner turns out to be The Philippines, weighing in as the 12th largest nation in the world. I have to say, I think I would have got that one wrong. I've never set foot in the Philippines, and I'm just not habituated to thinking of it as such a heavyweight.
Meanwhile, just as I was doing my looking, The Atlantic Magazine posted this too-cool analysis of "The Nine Nations of China." I've been to five; never been to the deep south nor the far north--never to Guangdong or Hong Kong, although I have been to Beijing, Shanghai, and all the way west to Kashgar. Big country, lots to see. And, come to think of it, three of these nine have a population bigger than Russia.
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