Inner Mongolia, China's northern border autonomous region, features a long, narrow strip of land sloping from northeast to southwest. It stretches 2,400 km from west to east and 1,700 km from north to south. Inner Mongolia traverses between northeast, north, and northwest China. The third largest among China's provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, the region covers an area of 1.18 million square km, or 12.3 percent of the country's territory. It neighbors eight provinces and regions in its south, east and west and Mongolia and Russia in the north, with a borderline of 4,200 km.