Within Russia, it is almost as if there are two countries with Moscow and St. Petersburg having heavy European influences. 2. North Asia – Russia. Central Asia – Kazakhstan Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. To resolve the boundary issue, the powers that be have started defining Asia subcontinents. 1. East Asia – China, Japan, Mongolia, Taiwan, North and South Korea. Cities in the Far East, such as Vladivostok, are much more oriented to China and such.

3. India Subcontinent – India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. After all, life in Turkey is much different than in China. Conversely, customs in India are completely different than those in China. Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. 5. Southwest Asia – The Middle East including Turkey, Iran, Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon and sometimes Egypt. In fact, most people living in Asia take offence when someone uses the word “Asians” to refer to them. Given the problems defining the boundaries of Asia, you can imagine it is also difficult to define certain characteristics regarding the continent.

Asia is the largest continent when measured by landmass and human population. Asia is considered one of the seven continents. Following is an overview of Asia. It encompasses Saudi Arabia. This has resulted in the entire area being called Eurasia, but thousands of years of terminology aren’t about to pass into antiquity. China and India, of course, are the locations of a vast majority of these people. Under the seven continent methodology, Asia stretches from Japan in the East through Russia in the West. This continental definition, however, is far broader than many people think. In modern times, geographers recognize there really is no dividing line between Asia to the west and Europe to the East.

Today, most people refer to Europe as a continent so far as it extends to the Ural Mountains in Russia. For instance, Israel is considered a country in Western Asia! The west facing head refers to the European part of Russia while the East facing head refers to the Asian part of the country. Everything to the east of that mountain range is considered Asia. Russia has even picked up on this theme with the two heads on the national flag.