Situated in Southeast Asia, Vietnam borders China to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west, and the South China Sea to the south and east. Vietnam occupies the eastern most part of the Indochinese Peninsula, a rugged, elongated S-shaped strip of mountains, coastal plains, and river deltas.  The long and very narrow country is about 330,000 square kilometers (similar to the size of New Mexico, but a very different shape