Download East Asia Ch 11 sect. 2

East Asia
Ch 11 sect. 2
Agriculture
And
City Systems
JAPANESE SETTLEMENT &
AGRICULTURAL PATTERNS
• Highly urbanized & mountainous so Japan’s ag. Lands
must share the same limited space as its cities &
suburbs resulting in extremely intensive farming
practices (photo 466);
• Rice = major crop (self-sufficient); vegetables & fruit are
also produced in large quantities;
• The 3 largest metropolitan areas (Tokyo, Osaka &
Nagoya) sit near the ctrs. of the 3 largest plains.
• Overall – pop. density is very high – its one of the most
crowded places in the world; urban density is extremely
high & real estate is very pricey; food prices too.
•
China’s settlement & agricultural
patterns
• Southern & Central China: Pop. Is
mostly concentrated in well watered
lowland areas where crops grow year
round. Crops include rice, winter
barely, vegetables, even tropical &
subtropical crops
North China Plain
• “Anthropogenic Landscapes” The
North China Plain is one of the world’s
most heavily transformed landscapes
(by human activity). Densely
populated; almost entire area is used
for agriculture, housing, factories ,
roads, bridges, etc.
Settlement & Agriculture in
Korea & Taiwan…
• Korea – pop. Of 70 million (22 million North;
48 million in South) in a very small land area.
Pop Density in South Korea is about 1,150
per square mile; S.K. is much more arable
than N.K.
• Taiwan – most densely populated nation in
the region. Total pop = 22 million; pop
density = 1500 per square mile. Because of
its geography, most of the people live in the
narrow lowland belt in the north & west
where cities & farms share the available land.
Resource Dependence (q2)
• Japan: Self sufficient in rice, but import more
food than almost any other nation in the world.
Rising income has made their diet more diverse
& increased the amount of imported food. Even
the volume of fish caught off Japan’s coasts is
not enough to support their demand for fish –
which is the major source of protein in their
diets.
• Taiwan: Like Japan (strong economy & little
arable land) they import food & other resources.
Resource dependence…
• China – Self sufficient at one point, China
now imports large amts. Of grain; converting
to more modern ag. Techniques would solve
this, but if the economy keeps growing
importing food won’t be problematic.
• S. Korea – with a strong economy, S. K. is
the world’s 5th leading importer of wheat &
2nd of corn.
• N. Korea – strictly self-sufficient & lacking
arable land N.K. has endured widespread
famine for many years. Undernutrition is
also a problem.
Urban Primacy…definitions (q3)
• URBAN PRIMACY – the concentration of
urban population in a single city (Taiwan &
South Korea);
• MEGALOPOLIS – large urban region
formed as multiple cities grow & merge
with each other (its like a string of cities in
a row).
• SUPERCONURBATION – a huge zone of
coalesced metropolitan areas (Japan).
Primary Cities and Urban Primacy
• China’s Primary Cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin &
Hong Kong.
• Beijing & Shanghai – historically important cities for
trade & gov’t; Beijing is China’s capital & is home to
the former Emperor’s palace, now the seat of
Chinese government & Tienanmen Square (largest
open square in the world);
• Tianjin – an important port city;
• Hong Kong – returned to Chinese control in 1997.
• All these cities have their own metropolitan
governments. Hong Kong is a “special
administrative region” – done to protect the wealth &
freedom of its economic system that developed
under British rule.
URBAN PRIMATE CITIES
• Urban Primacy: a city that dominates
the urban system of the nation in which
it is located by dominating
economically, politically & culturally.
• Examples – Seoul, South Korea; Taipei,
Taiwan. Both cities contain a high % of
the total population and are the political
& cultural centers of those nations.
Japan’s Urban Structure…
• Major cities include Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka &
Nagoya. The greater Tokyo metropolitan
area is Japan’s major population center,
followed by the Osaka-Kobe center. Most
Japanese cities are densely populated, but
none rival Tokyo.
• Japan’s cities lack historical significance
because of the fire bombing during WWII &
the earthquakes that led to rebuilding. Many
city scapes have changed dramatically since
the 1980’s when Japan experienced an
economic boom.
Major urban centers in a
seismic zone…
•
Kobe EQ 1995
• Recent Earthquakes in Japan:
• top ten Japanese earthquakes
• China’’s Earthquakes:
• quake table
• *East Asia is one of the most seismically active regions
in the world. Combined with the numbers of people
living in their major urban areas, it is a recipe for
disaster.
Section 3 – Unifying cultural
characteristics of East Asia
• Philosophies & political ideology are the most
important unifying cultural characteristics in the
region…
• Their unique writing system has some common
characteristics that become unique upon further
examination..
• COMMON FEATURE – East Asian writing
systems are not ALPHABETIC – rather they are
IDEOGRAPHIC where symbols represent ideas
rather than sounds.
East Asian Writing Systems
• Because the writing systems are ideographic,
they require a large number of distinct symbols.
• CHINESE SYSTEM: Major disadvantage = it’s
hard to learn b/c to be literate you have to
memorize thousands of characters; Major
advantage = 2 literate people don’t have to
speak the same language to be able to
communicate since the written symbols they use
may be the same.
E. Asian writing systems cont’d.
• KOREAN MODIFICATIONS: Adopted Chinese characters – but in
1400’s created their own alphabet to promote literacy & distinguish
themselves from Chinese writing system (scholars still use
• Chinese characters.
• JAPANESE MODIFICATIONS: complex system – the
borrowed Chinese characters are called KANJI; but
major grammatical differences led to the development of
HIRAGANA (for words not easily represented in
Chinese); there is another parallel system called
KATAKANA which is used only for spelling words of
foreign origin; and ROMANJI is Japanese written with
the Roman alphabet – which is commonly used in
advertising & for computer use.