The Geography of China James Engstrom Associate Professor of Geography Georgia Perimeter College Fac

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The Geography of ChinaJames Engstrom Associate
Professor of Geography Georgia Perimeter College
Faculty/Staff Development Seminar March 28,
2008
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Physical Geography

• Land area
• Landforms
• Climate

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Continentality

• Land heats and cools more quickly than water
• The greater the distance from moderating ocean
  influence, the greater the extreme in summer and
  winter temperatures and the lower the
  precipitation

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Population (in millions)

• 1950 563
• 1960 650
• 1970 820
• 1980 984
• 1990 1,148
• 2000 1,268
• 2007 1,322

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Anthropogenic Landscape

• A landscape that has been heavily transformed by
  human activity
  
• 7,000 years of cultivated agriculture
• Han Dynasty census, 2 A.D. 60 million people
• Difficult to identify native vegetation

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Population Policies

• Early period of Communist China women
  encouraged to have many children
  
• Early 1970s family planning
• 1979 one child per family policy
• Resulted in dramatic drop in population growth
• Larger male population
• Current economic and social changes weakening its
  impact
  
• China undergoing a natural demographic
  transition

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Language in East Asia

• Several closely related spoken languages in
  China
  
• One commonly written form shared by these spoken
  languages (writing appeared in China more than
  3,000 years ago)
  
• Chinese uses IDEOGRAPHS (symbols representing
  ideas) and PHONEMIC GRAPHS (sound symbols)
  writing system
  
• The sounds represent the same ideas in the
  different Chinese spoken languages Mandarin,
  Cantonese, Taiwanese, etc.
  
• 68 of population speaks Mandarin

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Language in East Asia

• 60,000 different characters
• Newspaper 2,000 3,000 symbols
• Translation systems Wade Gales (1867), since
  1970s pinyin system increasingly used
  
• 1956 Chinese government simplified the
  characters part of effort to increase literacy
  
• Hong Kong and Taiwan still use traditional
  characters

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Ethnicity

• 56 officially recognized nationalities in
  China
  
• 92 - Han Chinese
• Han Chinese are a blending of various groups in a
  composite
  
• Expansion of Chinese territory groups

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Ethnicity

• 55 minority groups
• Largest minority group 12 million
• Minorities live in 60 of territory
• Poor, isolated
• Areas have important mineral resources
• Minority groups receive preferential treatment
  example population policy

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Urbanization

• Independent rise of early urban civilizations in
  North China, Mesopotamia, Indus River Valley
  
• Various economic functions
• Most cities traditionally walled but torn down
• Xian wall remains

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Urbanization

• Beijing Imperial Capital
• 19th century Treaty ports became important
  centers of international trade
  
• During first 20 years of Communist rule,
  urbanization was stifled
  
• Balanced urban development
• Hakou system of household registration
• Today Unbalanced urban development also the
  result of government policies

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The Chinese State (Empire)
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19th Century Colonial Spheres of Influence 

• China uninterested in European products
• Opium war (1839 - 1842)
• Treaty ports - gave colonizers access to and
  control of important trading cities
  
• Extraterritoriality
• Leasing agreements Hong Kong and Macau
• All of these expanded the sphere of influence
  of European countries formal power in small
  enclaves, but informal influence and economic
  clout

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Political Units of China

• 31 first-order administrative units (provinces)
  - includes 4 cities
  
• 5 autonomous regions little political autonomy,
  significant cultural autonomy
  
• 2 Special Administrative Regions (SARs) Hong
  Kong and Macau
  
• Economically defined units Special Economic
  Zones, open cities, etc.

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Most populated provinces
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Economic Reforms in China c. 1980 present 

• agriculture move to household (not the
  collective) as basic unit of agricultural
  production
  
• township enterprises
• Special Economic Zones (SEZs) - free trade zones
  established mainly along the southeastern coast
  
• Laboratories of free-enterprise capitalism
• Southeastern coastal areas of China experience
  economic boom
  
• Beachfront property access to East Asian and
  global trade networks
  
• Hong Kong and Macau returned to China under
  one country, two systems policy

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• RUNNING A LARGE COUNTRY IS LIKE COOKING A SMALL
  FISH
  
• Laozi, 6th century BC?