Covering and area of 329,600 square kilometres, Vietnam is some 7.5 % smaller than reunited Germany. But, like only a few other countries of similar size, it extends across two climatic zones - with a moderate climate in the North, comparable to that of Southern Europe, and a tropical climate in the South. Hanoi is, like Hongkong, located at a geographical latitude slightly to the South of Cairo or the Canary Islands, while Saigon is at a geographical latitude only slightly to the North of the Nigerian capital Lagos.

Altogether the country stretches for more than 1,650 kilometres from North to South - which is roughly the distance from Hamburg to Athens. The coastline of Vietnam is about 3,000 kilometres long.

To the West the country is bordered by Laos and Cambodia, to the North by China and to the East and South by the South China Sea.

Geographically there are five different regions: 1. the northern mountain terrain with heights reaching above 3,000 metres; 2. the delta of the Red River (at which Hanoi is situated); 3. the Annamite Mountain Range, which connects North Vietnam and South Vietnam; 4. the narrow coastal strip between the Annamite Mountain Range and the South China Sea; 5. the Mekong delta in the South of the country.