Land beginning to erode in northern China (5)
I believe the answer is:
nepal
'land' is the definition.
(I know that Nepal is a Asian country)
'beginning to erode in northern china' is the wordplay.
'beginning to' suggests taking the first letters.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'northern' becomes 'n' (abbreviation e.g. N. Ireland).
'china' becomes 'pal' (china plate is Cockney rhyming slang for mate).
The first letter of 'erode' is 'e'.
'n'+'pal'='npal'
'e' put within 'npal' is 'NEPAL'.
(Other definitions for nepal that I've seen before include "Small lake" , "somewhere in Asia" , "World's only Hindu kingdom" , "place in the mountains ..." , "Himalayan republic" .)