BEIJING, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping will arrive in Brazil on Wednesday for an official visit to the Federative Republic of Brazil. The following are basic facts about Brazil:

    The Federative Republic of Brazil lies in northeastern South America, with a very long coastline on the Atlantic Ocean.

    With an area of more than 8.5 million square km and Brasilia as its capital, Brazil is the biggest country in Latin America, sharing borders with most countries in South America -- only Chileand Ecuador are not connected.

    Brazil has a population of 186.77 million and Roman Catholicismis the country's dominant religion. The official language is Portuguese.

    Under the 1998 constitution, the legislative power of Brazil is exercised by the bicameral National Congress, comprising the Federal Senate and Chamber of Deputies.

    Executive power is exercised by the president, elected by direct ballot for four years. The president is the constitutional head of state and commander-in-chief of the army. He also appoints and leads the cabinet.

    Brazil is a member of the Rio Group, the South American Common Market, and the Group of 77.

    The country boasts the largest river in the world by volume -- the Amazon river -- and a majority of the 7.5-million-square-km Amazon rainforest.

    As the biggest economic power in Latin America, Brazil has a developed agricultural industry, a sound industrial foundation and a full-fledged services industry.

    Its gross domestic product (GDP) ranks 10th in the world, with about 1.31 trillion U.S. dollars in 2007, according to statistics from the World Bank.

    The main principal trading partners of Brazil are the United States, China, Argentina, Germany and Japan.

    China and Brazil forged diplomatic ties in August 1974. The two countries established strategic partnership in 1993.

    Brazil is currently the largest trading partner of China in Latin America, and China is the second largest for Brazil. The trade volume between China and Brazil reached 42.54 billion U.S. dollars in the first 10 months of 2008, an 81-percent increase year-on-year.