1. Ancient Civilizations: China
By: Ronald Rieger
GEOGRAPHY 中国
Wisconsin State Model Academic Standards (Social Studies)
Addressed:
B.12.2 Analyze primary and secondary sources related to a historical question to evaluate their relevance, make comparisons, integrate new information with prior knowledge, and come to a reasoned conclusion
B.12.3 Recall, select, and analyze significant historical periods and the relationships among them
B.12.8 Recall, select, and explain the significance of important people, their work, and their ideas in the areas of political and intellectual leadership, inventions, discoveries, and the arts, within each major era of Wisconsin, United States, and world history
B.12.9 Select significant changes caused by technology, industrialization, urbanization, and population growth, and analyze the effects of these changes in the United States and the world
B Select instances of scientific, intellectual, and religious change in various regions of the world at different times in history and discuss the impact those changes had on beliefs and values
B Analyze examples of ongoing change within and across cultures, such as the development of ancient civilizations; the rise of nation-states; and social, economic, and political revolutions
B Explain the origins, central ideas, and global influence of religions, such as Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity
Related standards:
B Explain the history of slavery, racial and ethnic discrimination, and efforts to eliminate discrimination in the United States and elsewhere in the world

2. From what perspective?
This presentation is given from a Western perspective
Therefore terms, names, maps and regions may or may not correspond to eastern cultural perspectives

3. EURASIA:
POLTICAL MAP

4. Physical Geography And Ecology
For more information on pollution and damage to the environment in China:
For an online interactive map of bio zones around the world:

5. The Big Picture – Land Usage
China
U.S.A.
Total Land (millions/km²)
9.64
9.63
Agriculture Land (millions/km²)
5.5
4.1
Land Protected for Biodiversity
15%
23%
CHINA
CHINA
USA
U.S.
This entry uses the UN figure for mainland China (9,596,961 km2, excluding the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau, for which the UN has separate figures. Both values exclude all coastal and territorial waters and the island of Taiwan and other ROC-controlled territories, all of which are claimed by the PRC. The smaller figure excludes all territories disputed with India, whereas the larger figure includes PRC-administered areas of Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract, both territories claimed by India, but excludes Arunachal Pradesh which is administered by India but claimed by the PRC.
UN Statistics Division – Country Snapshots; Land/Ag data from FAO – 2007
Water has always been precious in China – a country with roughly the same amount of water as the US but nearly five times the population. The shortage is especially acute in the arid north where nearly half of China’s population lives on only 15% of its water.
Agricultural land refers to the share of land area that is arable, under permanent crops, and under permanent pastures/meadows. Arable land includes land defined by the FAO as land under temporary crops (double-cropped areas are counted once), temporary meadows for mowing or for pasture, land under market or kitchen gardens, and land temporarily fallow.
Arable land is that capable of being used for crop growing and, thus, has qualities including a fresh water supply and a richness in nutrients, and is located where the prevailing climate is suitable (not too hot or too cold). In geography, arable land is an agricultural term, meaning land that can be used for growing crops. It is distinct from cultivated land and includes jungles that are not currently used for human purposes.

6. Tibetan Plateau
ROOF OF THE WORLD!

7. Tibetan Plateau
The highest avg. elevations in China and the world are located in far-west China. At the core of the region is the Tibetan Plateau, with an average elevation of more than 4,000 m (13,000 ft). The plateau is rimmed by mountain ranges with peaks that rise to more than 6,100 m (20,000 ft).
On the southern edge of the plateau are the famed Himalayas, which rise to the world's highest elevation (8,848 m/29,028 ft) on Mount Everest, on the Tibetan-Nepalese border.

8. Topography of Eurasia
CHINA

9. Topography of China What do you notice about the colors of
this real map of China?
Topography of China
ARID
CHINA
MOIST

10. Rainfall in China
Arid
Wet
tropical
tropical

11. China is similar in its climate to the United States in that…
It is hot in the extreme south and cold in the extreme north
Deserts lie in the west
High mountain ranges lie in the west
Most people live in the _________?
Eastern part of both countries

12. What do you notice about the West and North of CHINA?
Asia from space
Empty
space
CHINA

13. The Himalaya Mountains (“The other Great Wall of China”) (located: China, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bhutan)

14. Yangtze River Valley (Cháng Jiāng)长江

15. Basin

16. Yangtze River (长江) Longest river in China – 6,300km
Major transportation waterway
Serious Floods – 1954 and 1998
The Three Gorges Dam
Before
Compared to the Yellow River, the Yangtze’s water flow is some 20 times greater. Excellent river ports – Shanghai, Zhenjiang, Nanjing, Wuhan, Yichang and Chongqing – one the world’s busiest waterways. Within the vast Yangtze River basin, 40% of grain production, 70% of rice output and 40% of population.
The Yangtze River frequently overflows its banks and fills huge plains with large amounts of water, causing catastrophic flooding. There are floods every year during the June-to-September monsoon season. On average at least several hundred people are killed in Yangtze River floods every year. The Yangtze is responsible for 70 to 75 percent of China’s floods. Floods on the river in the 20th century alone have killed more than 300,000 people. There were catastrophic floods on the Yangtze in 1931, 1935 and 1954 and In 1931, 140,000 people were drowned when Yangtze dikes gave way.
1998 Flood – China suffered massive flooding concentrated in three areas during the 1998 summer: Along the Yangtze River in south central China; across extreme southern China in the area around the Gulf of Tonkin; and across the north near the former USSR border. The heaviest rainfall was reported at Qinzhou, with an incredible inches of rain during the June-July period. According to official Chinese government reports, 3,600 people were killed by the floods, the second worst to hit the country in more than 130 years.
1954 Flood – In 1954 the river flooded 193,000 km2 (74,518 sq mi) of land, killing 33,169 people and forcing 18,884,000 people to move. The flood covered Wuhan, a city of eight million people, for over three months, and the Jingguang Railway was out of service for more than 100 days.
The Three Gorges Dam has reduced flood risks in the middle stretch of the river but the risks of flooding remains high on the lower stretches. The dam will reduce the frequency of major downstream flooding from once every ten years to once every 100 years. With the dam, it is expected that major floods can be controlled. If a "super" flood comes, the dam is expected to minimize its effect.
In early August 2009, the largest flood in five years passed through the dam site. The dam demonstrated its ability to control the flood by limiting the water flow to less than 40,000 cubic metres per second, thus raising the water level upstream of the dam from metres on August 1, 2009, to on August 8, The dam discharges its reservoir during the dry season between December and March every year. This increases the flow rate of the river downstream, and provides more fresh water for agricultural and industrial usage. It also improves the navigation conditions during the dry season. The water level upstream drops from 175m to 145m, leaving room for the flooding season. This also increases the power output of the Gezhouba Dam downstream.
Since the filling of the reservoir in 2003, the Three Gorges Dam has supplied an extra 11 billion cubic metres of fresh water to downstream cities and farms during the dry season, mitigating the effect of drought and improving navigation.
After

17. Three Gorges Dam

18. The Yellow River (Huang He)黃河

19. Yellow River What makes the Yellow River yellow? Directional changes
Loess Plateau
Directional changes
Flooding
Major Pollution
Along the great bend in the Yellow River, the river carves its way through loess plateaus (fine, dusty soil carried into China by desert winds) where substantial erosion takes place. As the river erodes the loess, it becomes a river of mud – loess is called huang tu (yellow earth). Carrying 40% sediment by weight in summer (for other rivers 3% is considered a heavy sediment load), the river deposits vast amounts of alluvium as is courses across the North China Plain. Over the centuries, these deposits has raised the bed of the Yellow River so that it is somewhat “suspended” precariously above the lower surrounding agric. areas, contained by levees and embankments to control what historically was “China’s Sorrow” – the bringer of food and famine.
The raised bed of the river is exceptional due to: (1) heavy load of silt, (2) sharp drop in gradient after the emergence of the river from the canyons, (3) man’s efforts to confine the river within dykes so that the silt that normally would be spread over adjoining land during occasional floods is in fact laid on the river bed as the flood water subsides.
The lower course of the Yellow River has changed 26 times in its history – unique among rivers of comparable size. At various times, it maintain two branches, one on either side of the ShanDong peninsula. The cause of these shifts is not known except in the three last occasions – 1855 (unintentional), 1938 and 1947, both of which were intentionally caused by man.
1855: the mouth of the river swung north of Shandong – breakage of dyke that received very little attention in the early part of the 19th century b/c a great deal of effort was expended to keep the Grand Canal open where it crossed the Yellow River. The focus on keeping the river from damaging the canal put pressure on the river to find outlets higher upstream – series of floods in 1835, 1841, 1843 and finally in The new course crossed at another point and put it out of commission.
Between , the river channel was unstable and a break occurred in Henan and 2 million people perished through drowning/starvation.
1938: river bank was deliberately breached so flood waters would block the advancing Japanese army. River swung south over a broad strip of good farmland, until it was redirected back to its northern course in For nine years, 2 million acres of land were partly/wholly out of production. Perhaps more than 800,000 perished either directly or indirectly
Stained with pollution, tainted with sewage, crowded with ill-conceived dams, it dwindles at its mouth to a lifeless trickle. There were many days during the 1990s that the river failed to reach the sea at all. 50% of the river is considered biologically dead – having led to a spike in cases of cancer, birth defects and waterborne diseases along their banks. Green Camel Bell, an environmental group in Lanzhou is supported by an American NGO, Pacific Environment – hundreds of factories around Lanzhou have become a petrochemical hub. In 2006, three industrial spills in Lanzhou made the Yellow River run red. Another turned it white.
The river’s outflow remains just 10% of the level 40 years ago. Where has all the water gone? Agriculture siphons off more than 65%, half of which is lost in leaky pipes/ditches. Heavy industry and burgeoning cities swallow the rest. Water is still heavily subsidized so conservation and efficiency is not currently feasible.
In 1957, 350-ft. tall Sanmenxia Dam construction began. The engineers failed to account for the colossal amount of loess in the water. By mismanaging the silt, the dam has caused as many floods as it has prevented., ruined as many lives as it has saved and compelled the construction of another dam to correct its mistakes. When heavy rains fall, the Sanmenxia reservoir backs up, pushing polluted water over the banks. A cascade of 20 dams already interrupt the river, and another 18 are scheduled to be built by There is resistance because of the twin threats of pollution and scarcity. The reduced water flow destroys the river’s ability to flush out heavy pollutants. Many stories to read in May 2008 National Geographic on China – “Bitter Waters”.

20. Transportation and Ecology
Grand Canal
The total length of the Grand Canal is roughly 1,776 km (1,103 miles). The Grand Canal is the oldest and longest man-made canal in China, and it is believed to be the longest in the world. Its greatest height is reached in the mountains of Shandong, at a summit of roughly 42 m (138 ft).
Work began in 486 BC, south of Yangzhou in Jiangsu, and within three years the Han Gou had connected the Yangtze River to the Huai River by means of existing waterways, lakes, and marshes. The Han Gou is actually known as the second oldest section of the later Grand Canal, since the Hong Gou ('Canal of the Flying Geese', or 'Far-Flung Canal') most likely preceded it. It linked the Yellow River near Kaifeng to the Si and Bian rivers and became the model for the shape of the Grand Canal in the north.
Main artery of communication between north and south for the Yuan (Mongolian ; capital moved to Beijing), Ming (restored Canal in its entirety ) and Qing Dynasties. Without canal, rivers flow west to east. Expressed the persistent economic dependence of the North on the South.
Constructed for commercial and military reasons – ocean route not safe due to pirates. During Ming and Qing dynasties, the Canal was critical in ensuring that the Northern capital had sufficient grain from the southern rice bowl areas. The economic importance of the canal likely will increase because the governments of the Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces plan dredging that should increase shipping capacity by 40 percent by 2012.
South-North Water Diversion Project. The Grand Canal is currently being upgraded to serve as the Eastern Route of the South-North Water Transfer Project. Additional amounts of water from the Yangtze will be drawn into the canal in Jiangdu City, where a giant 400 cu.m./s. pumping station was already built in the 1980s, and is then fed uphill by pumping stations along the route and through a tunnel under the Yellow River, from where it can flow downhill to reservoirs near Tianjin. Construction on the Eastern Route officially began on December 27, 2002, and water is supposed to reach Tianjin by However, water pollution has affected the viability of this project.
Cost for SNW is estimated at $62 billion; twice as much as Three Gorges Dam. Originated in the 1950s; finally approved in BBC reported in Feb is already 4 yrs behind schedule. Why? One says env. concerns another says delays with resettlement. Major resettlements occurring in 2010 along Hubei/Henan border (Danjiangkou reservoir expansion).
For air quality issue, please see:
South-to-North Water Diversion Project

21. SOUTH / NORTH WATER DIVERSION PROJECTS

22. Mount Everest Zhumulangma Feng (Mandarin Chinese) Qomolangma (Tibetan) Sagarmāthā (Nepali) China/Nepal 8,848 m (29,029 ft)
For more information on Mt. Everest / Mt. Qomolongma please go to:

23. Earthquake Zones Eurasia India and Eurasia!
What two old sub-continents colliding created the Himalaya Mountains?
India and Eurasia!
Earthquake Zones
Eurasia
The animation shown at left starts at 60 million years ago. India pushes blocks of Asiatic crust eastward. Continental margin rocks smear along the margin of Southeast Asia, while the northern part of India thrusts beneath Tibet.
At first glance it looks as if India nestled into a pocket specially made for it. In fact, India has profoundly changed the outline of Asia. A simple experiment shows how. If a rigid block is pushed into a soft material like clay, it creates a network of criss-crossing faults ahead of it. Additional pushing causes wedges of clay to be pushed to the side, a process called tectonic extrusion. The bottom diagram looks remarkably like the actual geography of Asia. To the west of India is the main mass of the Eurasian Plate, with a divergent plate margin and North America beyond that. Crust cannot be pushed easily to the west. But to the east are subduction zones where Asia is overriding the Pacific Plate. Crust can be easily pushed in this direction.
Indian
Sub-Continent
Indian Sub-continent

24. Mountains & Deserts Altai Greater Xing An Ling Tian Shan Gobi
China is a mountainous country, with hills, mountains, and high plateaus occupying about 60 percent of the total land area. Such mountainous topography makes China quite rich in mineral resources but comparatively poor in arable land. The cultivated land counts only about 13% of total land area.
Key mountain ranges:
Himalayas – formed 50 million years ago when the Indian tectonic plate pushed into Eurasia; still growing 5mm-1cm/yr.
KunLun – The mountains are shaped like a python, which is why they are known as "the spine of Asia."
TianShan – high contents of coal, rock, salt, metals
Altai – the name is Turkic and Mongolian for Mountains of Gold
QinLing – natural border between north and south (Shaanxi Province). Already described temperature and precipitation difference, but also an effective natural barrier/defense against invasion with only four passes
Greater KhingAn (DaXingAnLing) – divides plains of Northeast China to the east and the Mongolia Plateau to the west
Takla Makan – “To leave alone” (Uighur) – sea of death. Size of Germany Tallest sand dunes in the world – 500m
Note on desertification: The vast deserts in northwest and north-central China are moving east. Overgrazing and excessive water withdrawals for agriculture have catalyzed a rapid rate of desertification, and spring dust storms blanket Beijing, blowing dust particles to Korea, Japan, and even the U.S. west coast. The Asian Development Bank estimated that in 2006 the livelihoods of 400 million people are threatened by the encroachment of the three largest deserts, the Gobi, Taklimakan and Kumtag. In these dry areas of China, 10,400 square kilometers of arable land or grasslands were consumed annually by desert in the late 1990s. In the early 2000s the rate of land lost to desert dropped to 3,436 square kilometers. In 2005 the State Forestry Administration claimed that nearly two decades of tree-planting campaigns have brought marked progress in the battle against desertification, in that today only 1,283 kilometers a year of land is lost to the ocean of sand moving east.
The land suffering desertification nationwide in 2004 was 2.6 million km2, taking up 28% of the territory,
located in 498 counties of 18 provinces. Wind erosion is the main factor affecting desertification in North China, various human activities include:
excess firewood gathering (32.7%)
overgrazing (30.1%)
excess reclamation (26.9%)
irrational use of water resource (9.6%)
regardless of environmental protection in building factories, mines and transportations (0.7%).
China is trying to correct these problems by projects as the Green Wall of China (started in 1978), which aims to replant a great deal of forests and halt the expansion of the Gobi desert. As a result, China currently has the highest afforestation rate of any country or region in the world, with 47,000 square kilometers of afforestation in However, the forest area per capita is still far lower than the international average. The Green Wall started in 1978 with the proposed end result of raising northern China’s forest cover from 5 to 15 percent and thereby reducing deserts. As of 2009 China’s planted forest covers more than 500,000 square kilometers (increasing tree cover from 12% to 18%) – the biggest artificial forest in the world. However, of the 53,000 hectares planted, a quarter has died and of the remaining many are dwarf trees, which lack the capacity to protect soil. In 2008 winter storms destroyed 10% of the new forest stock, causing the World Bank to advise China to focus more on quality rather than quantity stock species.
Takla Makan
Kun Lun
Qin Ling
Himalayas 24

25. Tibetan Plateau Asia’s hot plate makes monsoons
¼ of China; size of Western Europe; 1/10 of world’s ice cover. There are reports that the glaciers on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau in western China are now melting at an accelerating rate—two thirds of these glaciers could be gone by 2060, greatly reducing the dry-season flow of the Yellow and Yangtze rivers.
The plateau is the source of China’s three renowned rivers – Yellow, Yangtze and Mekong. The origin of water supply for ½ the world’s population. The plateau is known as China’s water tower.
Monsoons – (1) Summer time, land temps rise higher than sea temps. Sea temps rise less because of mixed layer…ability of water to absorb heat is higher. (2) Heat rises (warm air is less dense than cool air) to create a Low pressure over the land. (3) The difference between the land-based Low and the ocean-based High cause winds to develop from H to L. (4) The moist air from the sea runs into the mountains causing uplift. (5) As the air cools, it condenses – RAIN. The seasonal monsoon wind shift and weather associated with the heating and cooling of the Tibetan plateau is the strongest such monsoon on Earth.
Higher rain in western China due to height of mountains. The highlands in Southeast China only receive moderate monsoon precipitation – one reason is the mts. in south China are not high enough to force the currents to achieve condensation. However, when the monsoons hit the high plataeu of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou, significant rain is produced. For example, Emei Shan is one of the wettest places in China with an average of 76 inches of annual rain.

26. Qinghai lake 青海湖 Mongolian: Köke naɣur Tibetan: mtsho sngon po
Second highest lake in the world!
The first is in _South___________?
(Qīnghǎi hú)
South America, The Andes Mts.!

27. Xinjiang - Taklamakan Desert
Taklamakan means "if you go in, you won't come out!"
Taklamakan Desert

28. China’s North / South Divide: The Qinling Mts.
What is the EAST/WEST divide of the USA?
The Mississippi River!
China’s North / South Divide: The Qinling Mts.
Qinling Mountains
FAR WEST
North
South

29. “Dig a hole to China,” AND YOU END UP IN… The Pacific Ocean
Amsterdam Island!

30. Demographics in China
For more information on population control in China:

31. Definition: Demographics http://dictionary. reference
demographics  (ˌdɛməˈɡræfɪks, ˌdiːmə-)
data resulting from the science of demography; population statistics
Information taken from:

32. Population Urban Population % China – 46% USA – 79% China U.S.A.
Population (in millions)
1,334
308
Life Expectancy 73 78
GDP per capita (2007)
$2.6k
$45.0k
Urban Population %
China – 46%
USA – 79%
Urban Population – 46% (China), 79% (US)
As of 2005, China Urban Pop % increase 3%; US – 1.4% (double). Global weighted average = 2.1%
At the same time, China’s rural population decreased 0.9%, which is comparable to the US rural pop. decrease of 0.8%.
Overall population growth – US – 0.88%; China 0.63% (global weighted avg = 1.3%)
Gini Coefficient (measure of income equality – 0 is equal, 1.0 is unequal)
China %; US – 40.8%,

34. Population density in China Orange = Low Density Red = High Density
WEST
EAST

35. Population Distribution in Asia
Siberia
Mongolia
China
Tibet
India

36. CHINA

37. Population Growth in China source: http://en. wikipedia

38. Image taken from:

39. Guangxi
Province
What are these terraces used for?
RICE!

40. Farming in the Tibetan Plateau
Image Property of Ronald Rieger

41. Sources
Please see “Profile of China” Presentation