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China’s Geography Compiled from: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/china/ geog/maps.htm China’s geography Major rivers provide framework for agricultural develop and population growth • Huang He (Yellow River) • Chang Jiang (Yangzi or Yangtze River), • Pearl River (Zhu Jiang) delta system marked by the Xi Jiang (West River) • "Jiang" is the most common descriptor for "river" in Chinese, signifying a stream that is often geologically young which cuts through a narrow valley. "He," on the other hand, is generally used for a river that is broad and geologically old. Huang He (Yellow River) • China's second longest river • Arises in Qinghai province and flows some 5464 km to the Yellow Sea. • Clear lakes and meandering are characteristic in its upper reaches. Upper reaches of Huang He • Because some of China's largest rivers have their source regions on the high Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and drop great distances over their middle and lower courses, China is rich in hydroelectric resources. Unruly Huang He • Along the Great Bend of the Huang He in its middle course, the unruly river carves its way through the loessial plateau with substantial erosion taking place. • Loess: a fine-grained unstratified accumulation of clay and silt deposited by the wind; usually yellow or buff colored Tawny loessial cliffs • As the river erodes the loess, it becomes a "river of mud” • It is the color of this suspended loess in the river that has given the Huang He its name "Yellow River.") • Carrying 40% sediment by weight in summer (for other rivers in the world 3% would be considered a heavy sediment load), the river deposits vast amounts of alluvium as it courses across the North China Plain. “Yellow” River bounded by dikes • Over the centuries, deposition has raised the bed of the Huang He so that it is in some ways "suspended" precariously above the lower surrounding agricultural areas, contained by levees and embankments built to control what historically was "China's Sorrow" -- the bringer of flood and famine. Mao overlooking the Huang He from atop a dike • The lower course of the Huang He has changed 26 times in China's history, most notably nine times including major floods in 1194 AD and again in 1853, that brought untold disaster to the villages and towns of the North China Plain. • Flood control continues to be one of China's great natural challenges-- preventing both flooding and drought in a region with more than 100 million people. • Throughout the loessial uplands, some 40 million Chinese still live in cave-like or subterranean dwellings that are an especially appropriate response to the peculiar nature of loess and the absence of alternative building materials such as timber. Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) Chang Jiang (Yangzi River). • China’s longest river • Courses over 6300 km through several of China's most economically developed regions. • Excellent river ports - Shanghai, Zhenjiang, Nanjing, Wuhan, Yichang, and Chongqing - are located near or along the Chang Jiang, making it one of the world's busiest inland waterways. • 40% of the country's total grain production • 70% of the rice output, • more than 40% of China's population are associated with its vast basin that includes more than 3,000 tributaries. • The flow of the Chang Jiang is some 20 times greater than that of the Huang He. It drains nearly 20% of China's total area. Its upper reaches tap the uplands of the Tibetan Plateau before sweeping across the enormous and agriculturally productive Sichuan Basin that supports nearly 10% of China's total population. Three Gorges Dam • It is in the middle course of the Chang Jiang is the Three Gorges Dam. • The largest dam in the world, rivaling the building not only of China's great historical projects such as the Grand Canal and Great Wall as well as modern projects elsewhere in the world -- • The Three Gorges Dam project is wrapped in environmental, engineering, and political controversy. Increasing clean energy, controlling floods, and stimulating economic development are but a few of objectives of the dam. • Below the Three Gorges Dam are the great flood plains of the Chang Jiang as well as the major tributaries on its north and south banks. • At the mouth of the river is the great and productive Yangzi delta and metropolitan Shanghai. Hangzhou Bay Bridge (artist’s rendition) Shanghai Grand Canal • Grand Canal of China also known as the BeijingHangzhou Grand Canal is the longest ancient canal in the world. • Since China's major rivers - the Huang He and Chang Jiang - flow from west to east and there is no natural communication north to south except by way of a coastal route, the Chinese dug the Grand Canal as a safe, inland water route between the two major rivers, in the process connecting a number of minor regional rivers. • Canal was constructed around 605 AD to serve commercial as well as military considerations. • The canal was extended several times, most notably to the Hangzhou in 610 and eventually in 1279 to Dadu, the great Mongol (Yuan dynasty) capital. • During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Grand Canal ensured that Beijing had sufficient grain from the southern rice bowl areas. Zhu Jiang (Pearl River) Delta • Situated in Guangdong province just to the north of Hong Kong and Macao, the delta of the Zhu Jiang is the most significant farming area in southeastern China. • The earliest hearths of Chinese civilization (Neolithic) developed along its river valleys. • The Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1027 BC) was also situated around the Huang He (Yellow River), and eventually spread southward to the Chang Jiang (Yangzi River) and Xi Jiang. Population and Arable (Farming) Land • China is the most populous nation in the world. • China's total population of nearly exceeds the combined populations of Europe (579,700,000) and South America (311,500,000) and the United States (272,573,000) and Japan (125,200,000). • By comparison, the population of the United States is equivalent to only 22% of China's population. • China feeds somewhat less than onequarter (25%) of the world's population on approximately 7% of the world's arable land • China has only a slightly larger land area than the US (3.69 million square miles compared to the 3.68 million square miles) • Approximately 40% of the U.S. land can be cultivated, only 11% of China's land is arable. Agricultural regions in China Population density • Despite the high population density in the east, China is not an urban society even though its total urban population exceeds the actual total population of the United States. • Although some seventy-four per cent (74%) of China's population is still primarily engaged in agriculture and living in rural areas, these same farming areas have undergone substantial industrialization and commercialization since 1979. Agriculture • The production of grain accounts for some 80-90% of all agricultural crops in China. • Rice, wheat, corn, barley, and millet are the principal grain crops, each of which represents a particular adaptation to specific environmental conditions. Wet rice • Wet rice or paddy rice agriculture is carried out particularly in fertile areas of southern and central China where a mild climate favors two and sometimes three crops per year. Preparing the fields: plowing Preparing the fields: harrowing Rice seedlings in seedbeds Transplanting rice seedlings Rice ready to be harvested Harvesting the rice Drying the rice Winnowing the rice Burning to prepare for next crop • Growing wet rice is labor intensive. • Increasing the number of people working can significantly increase the amount each field can produce. • In some areas a farmer can increase productivity by double or triple cropping (2 or 3 crops of rice) each year, a technique that requires even greater concentrations of labor because the harvesting of one crop and the transplanting of the next crop occur virtually simultaneously. • The growing of rice is frequently rotated with other crops such as winter wheat, sweet potatoes, corn, and vegetables of various types. • Vegetable oil producing plants -- specifically rape-seed (canola oil), peanuts, and sesame are widely grown throughout this region on appropriate soils. Pasture and Oasis Terracing • The Chinese have reclaimed, even created, land that in many areas of the world would have been considered impossible to farm. Creating level land through terracing of hill slopes Managing water resources in order to reduce erosion and make water available for terraced rice production Landforms Mountains and Deserts • The west of China is comprised of mountains and deserts as well as plateaus that do not provide much arable land for agriculture. • The civilization that grew up to the east in China was not surrounded by other nearby major civilizations. • To this extent the Chinese were "isolated" from competing civilizations although there was a broad and fluid frontier zone on the western margins. Silk Road • Although the mountains and deserts of the west limited contact between early imperial dynasties and other centers of civilization in the Inner Asia, Middle East, South Asia, and Europe, there were some important and notable exchanges of culture. The legendary Silk Road facilitated the exchange of goods and ideas between China and each of these areas. Silk Road • Great Wall. What is known today as the Great Wall was reputedly first completed during the Qin (Ch'in) dynasty (221-206 BC) when segments of the wall existing from earlier periods were connected. Early walled ramparts were constructed of rammed or tamped earth. The brickfaced walls seen today were built much later during the Ming dynasty (13681644). • The Great Wall is NOT a single continuous wall • Many dynasties used it to manage the nomadic peoples, sometime referred to as "barbarians," who lived north of it on the grasslands or steppes. • For the most part, the Great Wall should be viewed as a zone of transition - rather than a fixed border - between farming areas with sedentary villages and pasture lands with nomadic lifestyles. Regions • Western region occupies nearly 2/3 of the country that is generally too high, too cold, and/or too dry to support a dense agricultural population. Includes: • the two upper steps of the topographic staircase: Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, known as the "roof of the world" with average elevations above 4000 meters; • a broad arc-like step running northeast/southwest from the grasslands of the Inner Mongolian steppes through the deserts and basins of Xinjiang to the Yunnan-Guizhou plateaus of southwestern China. • An Eastern region occupying 1/3 of the country -- east of the Tibetan Plateau and generally south of the Great Wall -forming the core of China Proper. It is framed on the west by mountain ranges - Greater Khingan, Taihang, Wushan, and Xuefeng -- and includes the densely settled North China Plain along the lower course of the Huang He and numerous plains in the middle and lower reaches of the Chang Jiang. • The Eastern Region is a diverse region includes the eighteen traditional provinces of imperial China, and can be divided into Northern China and Southern China with the Qinling Range and Huai River forming the natural zone of demarcation between them. North China Plain China’s Climate Zones Rainfall Winter monsoon Summer monsoon Political divisions The People’s Republic of China has 34 major political divisions: • 23 provinces; • 4 municipalities: Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing, which have provincial-level status and report directly to the central government; and China’s provinces Political divisions (con’t) • 5 autonomous regions. The title "autonomous region" indicates that a substantial proportion of the population in the region is composed of minority nationality peoples whose language, culture, and particular social traits are distinct from the dominant Han culture; for the sake of political unity, the regions are given special consideration by Beijing in policy formulation. The regions are otherwise not "autonomous." Autonomous regions 2 Special Administrative Regions • Hong Kong • Macau (both former European colonies) Minority populations • Eight percent of China's population is composed of minority nationality peoples. • 55 distinct minority nationalities in China. • Minority nationalities occupy 50-60% of Chinese territory--most notably Xinjiang, Mongolia, and Tibet. Linguistic diversity