Download The Enduring Legacy of Ancient China Excerpt from Lesson 2

名字：___________________________________ The Enduring Legacy of Ancient China Excerpt from Lesson 2: “Geography” Geography is one of the factors that affects the history, culture, and daily lives of a people. The natural environment provides both opportunities and challenges to overcome. China’s location, coastline, landforms, rivers, and climate play a crucial role in its history and culture. In the interaction of people and nature, each contributes to the shaping of the other. Landform The people of ancient China (中国), in their quest to open new lands to agriculture and to ward off devastating floods and droughts, changed their environment through great cooperative effort. They built terraces on hills, drained marshes, created new waterways by building canals, and contained rivers by building dikes. Even level areas, such as the plains and banks of rivers, have been modified by human action. China contains some of the highest mountains of the world, although most of China’s uplands are hills and plateaus. Over 60 percent of the land is more than a mile above sea level. The Himalayas, the world’s highest mountains, are on China’s southwest border. Physical barriers, such as high mountains and deserts, at times isolated China from other civilizations. On the other hand, China’s large size, geographical diversity, and natural resources have enabled the country to create and maintain rich and varied cultures. Today more than 1.3 billion people live in China—more than one out of five people on our earth. While China is essentially the same size as the United States, only about 13 percent of its land is suitable for growing crops (compared with approximately 40 percent of U.S. land). In addition, China is a country where natural disasters—floods, droughts, and earthquakes—have occurred frequently, exacting a huge human toll. Rivers Two major rivers, both of which flow for thousands of miles from west to east, are China’s most prominent geographic features. The northernmost of these is the Huang He (黄河), or Yellow River. The 3,395-­‐mile-­‐long (5460 km) river gets its name from the amount of yellow earth—loess (黄土)—in the water. Loess is the fine, yellow, wind-­‐blown soil of North China, which blows in from the Gobi desert and provides a fertile base for agriculture. Vast quantities of loess are eroded by rainfall, carried into streams, and then into the Huang He as dense sediment that gives the river its color and name. In the lower reaches of the Huang He, the deposits of the eroded sediment constantly raise its level. In some areas, because natural and manmade banks keep compensating or being built higher, the river itself actually flows above the level of the fields. When the river breaks through its banks, floods devastate the surrounding countryside and ruin the crops and livelihood of many farmers who live along it. As a result, Huang He has earned the name “China’s sorrow.” However, the water and loess it carries have also made agriculture possible for millennia. In recent decades, the flow of the river has decreased substantially in the lower reaches of the Huang He, so instead of flooding there is now only a trickle of a stream. Indeed, it is in the rich soil of the river’s bottom that farmers now till their fields. Another major river system is called the Chang Jiang (长江), the Yangtze River. It is the longest river in China and one of the five longest rivers in the world. It rises in Tibet and flows 3,494 miles (6300 km) down through China to the coast at Shanghai. Fed by snowmelt and heavy rain, this river and its tributaries (more than 3,000) provide the major transportation system for this region of China. Approximately 40 percent of China’s grain and 70 percent of its rice production occur in the river’s huge basin. For these reasons, many of China’s important cities have developed here and made it one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Climate China has great climatic differences resulting from the large size of the country, the variety of its natural features, and the monsoon-­‐like wind system that controls precipitation. Although China does not experience the prominent monsoons of South Asia, there is a monsoon-­‐like seasonal reversal of winds in East Asia. This is especially true in winter, when winds blow out from Central Asia, carrying cold, dry air toward the sea in North China, extending into some areas of southern China. To some degree, this is like the arrival of the bitterly cold and dry Arctic air masses that sometimes affect the winter weather of the northern United States. In China, this occurs throughout every winter. From late spring to early fall, on the other hand, moist and hot air blows inland from the sea, leading to substantial rainfall when the air rises over the hills and mountains. Because of these monsoon-­‐like seasonal reversals of winds, more rain falls in summer than in winter throughout China. Most parts of the country receive more than 80 percent of their rainfall from May to October. Moreover, far more rain falls south of the Yangtze River than on North China. In North China rainfall occurs mostly in the summer, but it is unpredictable and varies from year to year, often creating drought or flooding. Life is much harder for farmers in North China than in South China. Temperatures in China vary greatly from region to region. Northern and western China have cold and long winters like those in north-­‐central United States. In South China winters are usually mild. Summer temperatures average about 80-­‐90 degrees Fahrenheit (26-­‐32 degrees Celsius) throughout much of China, but in southeastern China summers are also extremely humid. Land formation and climate in China determine which crops are grown in different regions. This has, in turn, dictated people’s diet. The staple foods in the north are noodles and dumplings made of wheat and other hardy grains, such as millet and sorghum; even steamed bread is commonly eaten. In southeastern and eastern China, on the other hand, people generally eat rice rather than wheat. Rice, too, can be made into noodles and dumplings in addition to being steamed. Poultry and pork are preferred meats because raising these animals requires little land, unlike the grazing of cattle. China’s environment has influenced every aspect of its history and culture, from the location of major cities to innovative farming practices to the food people eat. 1. In an effort to control their environment, Chinese people have built _________________________ on hills, drained _________________________ , built _________________________ to make new waterways, and built _________________________ to contain rivers. 2. Over _________________________ % of the land in China is more than one mile above sea level. 3. What mountain range makes up China’s Western border? 4. The Yellow River is _________________________ miles long. 5. Why is the Yellow River nicknamed “China’s Sorrow”? 6. The _________________________ River is the longest river in China. 7. _________________________ % of China’s grain and _________________________ % of China’s rice are grown in the Yangtze River Basin. 8. In the winter, cold winds blow from _________________________ to _________________________ . 9. From spring to fall, moist warm air blows from the _________________________ inland. 10. Most parts of China get more than _________________________ % of their rainfall in the wet season. 11. Summer temperatures in China average between _________________________ and _________________________ degrees Fahrenheit. 12. What are the staple foods in Northern China? 13. What is the staple food in Southeastern and Eastern China? 14. Why do Chinese people prefer poultry and pork to beef?