geography of china xiaobing li, ph.d. professor and chair department of history and geography...

Geography of China

Xiaobing Li, Ph.D.Professor and Chair

Department of History and GeographyDirector, Western Pacific InstituteUniversity of Central Oklahoma

Lesson Plan (November 22)

• Lesson One: Physical Geography(Central Kingdom)

• Lesson Two: Human Geography(Ethnic Groups)

• Lesson Three: Manufactured Landscapes(Three Gorges Dam and More)

• Lesson Four: Environment and Pollution(Ecological Problems)

Lesson One: Physical Geography(Middle Kingdom)

• Chapter 1: Physical Patterns• Chapter 2: China and Bordering Countries• Chapter 3: Disputed Territories• Chapter 4: Disputed Islands

Chapter 1: Physical Patterns (PRC)

Chapter 1: Physical Patterns (PRC)

• China is the fourth largest country in the world with a total area of 3.69 million sq. miles, slightly smaller than the U.S. Its southeastern coast faces the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea with a coastline of 10,800 miles and 5,000 islands off the coast.

Chapter 1: Physical Patterns (ROC)

• Taiwan (Formosa, or the Republic of China, ROC), as the largest island, is separated from the mainland by the 120-mile Taiwan Strait. Its total land areas are about 12,000 sq. miles.

Lesson One: Physical GeographyChapter 1: Physical Patterns

• Landforms• Mountains• Rivers and water conservancy• Climate and natural disasters• Environment and pollution

Chapter 1: Physical Patterns(1) Landforms

Chapter 1: Physical Patterns(2) Mountains

• Himalaya Mountains• Tianshan Mountains• Kunlun Mountains• Qinling Mountains• Changbai Mountains

Himalayas

Chapter 1: Physical Patterns (3) Plateaus

• Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (or the Tibetan Plateau) known as the “roof of the world”

• Inner Mongolian Plateau• Loess Plateau• Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau

Chapter 1: Physical Patterns (4) Plains

• Northeast Plain• North China Plain• Middle Yangzi Valley Plain• Lower Yangzi Valley Plain

Chapter 1: Physical Patterns (5) Rivers and Water Conservancy

• Yangzi (Yangtze, or Changjiang) River• Huanghe (Yellow) River• Heilong (Amur) River• Zhujiang (Pearl) River• Tarim River• Yarlung Zangbo (Brahmaputra) River• Beijing (Peking)-Hangzhou Canal

Yangzi River

Yangzi River: Upper Reaches

Yangzi River: Lower Reaches

Chapter 1: Physical Patterns (6) Climate and Natural Disasters

• Southern tropical zone• Southeast sub-tropical zone• Eastern warm temperature zone• Northwest and Northeast dry and subarctic

cold zone• Western Tibetan high plateau cold zone

Chapter 1: Physical Patterns (7) Natural Resources

• Crude oil• Natural gas• Coal• Lead, uranium, vanadium• Bauxite, magnetite, mercury, natural graphite,

tin, vanadium, and zinc

Lesson One: Physical GeographyChapter 2: China and Its Bordering Countries

Neighboring Countries with the PRC

To the East:

• North Korea

• South Korea

• Japan

Bordering Countries with the PRC

To the North and Northwest:

• Russia• Mongolia• Kazakhstan• Kyrgyzstan• Tajikistan

Bordering Countries with the PRC

To the West and Northwest:

• Afghanistan• Pakistan• India• Nepal• Bhutan

Neighboring Countries with the PRC

To the South and Southwest:

• Vietnam• Laos• Myanmar (Burma)

Taiwan (Republic of China, ROC)

Lesson One: Physical Geography Chapter 3: Disputed Territories

• Russia

• India

• Vietnam, Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia

• Japan

Chinese-Russian Border

Chapter 3: Disputed Territories (1) Russo-Chinese Border Conflict

• Land borders about 4,150 miles

• 1972 border conflicts

• 1994 Sino-Russian Agreement (2,575 miles)

Areas currently controlled by the PRC and ROCLarger version

(2) Sino-Indian Border Conflict

Himalayan Mountains

229,500 sq. miles

1,500 miles long

Mt. Everest 29,029 feet

Chapter 3: Disputed Territories(2) Sino-Indian Border Conflict

• 1959 Dalai Lama flees to India

• 1962 Sino-Indian Border War

• 1993 Agreement of the LAC

Dalai Lama Meets President Obama

Chapter 3: Disputed Territories(3) Sino-Vietnamese Wars

• 1979 Sino-Vietnamese Border War

• 1982 Sino-Vietnamese Border War

• 1985-1991 Sino-Vietnamese Border War

Chapter 4: Disputed Islands

• Vietnam• Philippines• Brunei• Indonesia• Japan• Taiwan

Disputed Islands in South China Sea

Chapter 4: Disputed Islands(1) Sino-Vietnamese Naval Wars

• 1974 Sino-SVN (ROV) Naval War

• 1982 Sino-SRV Naval War

• 1991 Sino-SRV Naval War

Disputed Islands in South China Sea

Paracel and Spratly Islands

Chinese Gunboat in the Vietnam War

Chinese gunboats in South China Sea

Chapter 4: Disputed Islands(2) Senkaku Islands

Senkaku Islands

Lesson Two: Human Geography(Ethnic Groups)

• Chapter 1: Major Ethnic Minorities• Chapter 2: Minority Regions and Cultures• Chapter 3: Minorities and Religions• Chapter 4: Between the Center and the Region

Chapter 1: Major Ethnic Groups

• Minority population: 112 million in 2014

• About 8.5 percent of the national total

• From 55 officially recognized ethnic groups

Chapter 1: Major Ethnic Groups

• 1982: 67 million, about 6.7 percent of the national total

• 1995: 108.5 million, about 8 percent in 1995, according to the national census

• 112 million, about 8.5 percent in 2014

Chapter 1: Major Ethnic Groups

15 ethnic groups has populations in excess of one million:

Zhuang 17 millionHui 12 millionManchu 10 millionUyghur 10 millionMiao 8 millionYi 7 millionTibetans 5 million

Chapter 1: Major Ethnic Groups

Mongols 5 millionTujia 4 millionBouyei 3 millionKoreans 3 millionDong 2 millionYao 2 millionBai 2 millionHani 1 million

Chapter 2: Five Minority Regions

• Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR)

• Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR)

• Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR)

• Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR)

• Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR)

(1) Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

• Guangxi is a southwestern frontier province bordering with Vietnam

• GZAR, in 1958• Zhuang nationalities take up one-third of the

total provincial population of 49 million• Miao, Yao, Dai, and Bai live on plains, hillsides,

and remote mountainous areas

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

(2) Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

• Xinjiang is a border region in northwest China and the hinterland of the Eurasian continent

• covering approximately 641,000 square miles, or one-sixth of the total Chinese territory

• It became XUAR in 1955 for the Uyghur nationalities

• Capital: Urumqi

(2) Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

• Among its total population of 20 million people are 12 million minorities, including the Uyghur, Kazak, Hui, Mongolian, Kirgiz, Tajik, Uzbek, and Tartar peoples.

• The Uyghur comprise 43 percent of its population.

• And 99 percent of the Chinese Uyghur live in Xinjiang.

(3) Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR)

• Tibet (Xizang) became TAR for Tibetans in 1959

• 889,000 square miles in the southwest, approximately 20 percent of the country’s total land surface

• The total population of 3 million includes Tibetans, Moinba, Lhoba, and Naxi ethnic groups

Areas currently controlled by the PRC and ROCLarger version

Australian Liam Phelan, left and American Han Shan of New York from holding up a banner

(4) Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

• Ningxia is a northwestern province with a total territory of 25,500 square miles and population of 6.3 million in 2010.

• The Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR) was founded in October 1958 with Yinchuan as its capital to set aside for the Hui people.

The Hui People

• The majority of the Hui people looks like the Han Chinese, speaks Chinese, and uses similar Chinese names except they practice Islam.

• It is unique that the Hui nationality is the only ethnic minority in China that does not have non-Sinitic language.

The Hui People

They follow Islamic dietary laws and do not

consume pork. Hui males wear white caps

and females have headscarves or veils as the

case in many Islamic cultures.

Chapter 3: Minorities and Religions

• Muslims

• the Muslim population in China had increased from 14 million in 1982, to 21 million in 2000, and estimated 32 million in 2014. Most of them are Sunni Muslim, worshiping in 30,000 mosques and served by 40,000 Imams and Akhunds, each mosque having around 1,160 Muslims.

Muslims

• Among the traditional religions, Islam is not only popular, but also represents the different ways of life and forms some major ethnic groups in China. Islam has ten minority groups among its adherents.

Muslims

• The Hui and Uygur are the two major nationalities with their populations of 7.2 million Hui and 6 million Uygur in 1982, 10 million Hui and 8.5 million Uygur in 2000, and estimated 14 million Hui and 12 million Uygur in 2014.

Tibetan Buddhists

• According to official reports, there are over 1,700 venues for Tibetan Buddhist activities, and approximately 46,000 resident monks and nuns. Nevertheless, the Chinese government maintains control of religious exercises through a registration process and through national organizations.

Tibetan Buddhists

• Among the five officially recognized religions is the Buddhist Association of China. All local groups must incorporate themselves into these national institutions. Additionally, teachings in these associations are monitored and sometimes modified by the government.

Tibetan Buddhists

• The government also maintains control through leadership choices. The Chinese authorities, for example, have the power to ensure that no new Living Buddha can be identified. After the Panchen Lama died in 1989, the search began in Tibet to locate a soul boy as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama and as a new Living Buddha for Tibetan Buddhism.

Tibetan Buddhists

• The Dalai Lama followed Tibetan Buddhist tradition and completed the search in May 1995. The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism announced that the search had identified the eleventh reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. The Chinese government denied the recommendation by the Dalai Lama in America.

Dalai Lama Meets President Obama

Tibetan Buddhists

• The government continues to exercise political control over Buddhist exercises in Tibet, including the restriction of religious study before age eighteen, the expulsion of unapproved monks from monasteries, by implementing quotas on the total number of monks, in an attempt to reduce the spiritual population, and by forced recitation of patriotic scripts in support of the Chinese government.

Tibetan Buddhists

• In March 2008, a large-scale Buddhist demonstration began in Tibet and several surrounding provinces on the 49th anniversary of the 1959 uprising in Tibet against the PRC Central Government.

Tibetan Buddhists

• On March 14, the protest in Lhasa turned violent between Tibetans and non-Tibetan groups and between protesters and police. By March 17, the Tibetan governor announced that 16 people had been confirmed dead and 200 were injured due to the violence.

Tibetan Buddhists

• On March 28, the government confirmed that 28 civilians and one police officer were dead, and 325 civilians were injured, 58 of whom were critically wounded. In addition, 241 police officers were injured. According to the India-based Tibetan government-in-exile, more than 220 Tibetans were killed in the crackdown after March 14, and the Chinese government arrested over 7,000 Tibetans from various parts of Tibet.

The People’s Armed Police (PAP)

31 armies, about 1 million troops– Including– 508 regiments– 42 artillery, tank, helicopter regiments– 35 chemical, engineering, and transport regiments– 32 command academies– 29 hospitals

Chapter 4: Between the Central Government and Local Autonomy

• Even though the Muslims are the “majority” in XUAR, they do not have a dominant influence in government. Local policies result from the support and concern of the Han Chinese-controlled regional and central governments. Neither Hui nor Uyghur are unable to exercise significant legislative or administrative power to carry out self-governance in their own communities.

Chapter 4: Between the Central Government and Local Autonomy

• The government maintains control of religious exercises through a registration process and national organizations. All Islamic groups must be registered with the authorities, and, while recognizing the right to believe, limits worship to a state-controlled system of registered and controlled mosques, monasteries, and temples.

Chapter 4: Between the Central Government and Local Autonomy

• Among the five officially recognized religions is the Islamic Association of China. All local groups must incorporate themselves into the national institution. Additionally, teachings in these associations are monitored and sometimes modified by the government.

Chapter 4: Between the Central Government and Local Autonomy

• It further scrutinizes their membership, financial records, and employees. The national organization retains the right to approve or deny applications for any sub-group activities. Those who fail to register are considered illegal and may be subject to criminal prosecution, fines, and closure.

Chapter 4: Between the Central Government and Local Autonomy

• In November 2004, top Chinese officials in the XUAR government called for an intensification of “ideological work” among the ethnic Uyghur university students. Local officials were also ordered to report anyone fasting during the month of Ramadan. According to the Five Pillars of Islam, there are five practices every Muslim must follow: witness, pray, give alms, fast during the month of Ramadan, and make a pilgrimage to Mecca, the city of the prophet, where certain rituals must be completed by the believer at specific times.

Chapter 4: Between the Central Government and Local Autonomy

• In most Islamic countries, restaurants remain closed from dawn to dusk during Ramadan, when the majority of the adult population is fasting. This is not, however, the case in Xinjiang. City officials ensure that restaurants stay open, and college administrators must report anyone who participates. In many grade schools, before the children leave school, they receive free candy to eat.

Chapter 4: Between the Central Government and Local Autonomy

• In June 2007, Xinjiang authorities began to collect Muslims’ passports in order to prevent them from making non-state-approved pilgrimages to Mecca. The XUAR government also indoctrinates clerics, civil servants, and teachers against the “three evil forces”—separatism, religious extremism, and terrorism.

A Uyghur man walks past armed police officers

Chapter 4: Between the Central Government and Local Autonomy

• On July 5, 2009, more than 1,000 Uyghur demonstrators gathered in the commercial center of Urumqi, the capital city of XUAR, protesting the government’s handling of the death of two Uyghur workers and demanding a full investigation of the killings.

Chapter 4: Between the Central Government and Local Autonomy

• After confrontations with police, the peaceful demonstration escalated into riots from July 5-7. PAP (People’s Armed Police) and city police attempted to quell the rioters with tear gas, water hoses, armored vehicles, and roadblocks, while the XUAR government imposed a curfew in Urumqi. The riots continued when hundreds of Han people clashed with both police and Uyghurs. According to the government reports, 197 people died and 1,721 others were injured during the two-day riot.

Lesson Three: Manufactured Landscapes

• Chapter 1: Three Gorges Dam

• Chapter 2: Factories, Highways, and More

• Chapter 3: Urbanization

Chapter 1: Three Gorges Dam

• The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has, since 2012, and second only to the United States, the next largest economy in the world due to its rapid growth of the past 20 years.

• China’s GDP had an annual growth rate of 7-12 percent between 1994 and 2014.

China’s GDP Growth (1994-2014)

• 1994 $559 billion• 1999 $1,083 billion• 2004 $1.9 trillion• 2009 $4.9 trillion• 2013 $9.3 trillion (or $13.39 trillion as purchasing power parity, the US GDP-PPP was $16 trillion; and Japan’s was $5 trillion).

Chiefs of state

U.S.-China Relations

Four Ts

• Trade• Taiwan• Tibet (Xizang)• Technology of the People’s Liberation Army

(PLA)

Chapter 1: Three Gorges Dam

• The Three Gorges Dam, 555 feet high and 6,927 feet long, the largest dam in the world, is part of a hydroelectric project over the middle reaches of the Yangzi (Yangtze) River in the city of Yichang, central Hubei province. The project started in 1994 and was completed in 2006 with a total cost of $25 billion.

Map of the Three Gorges Dam

The Three Gorges Reservoir

• Its dam reservoir is about 410 miles long

• About the distance from Los Angeles to San Francisco

• A surface area of 403 sq. miles

The Three Gorges Reservoir

• It contains 5 trillion gallons of water

• During the dry season between November and May, the power plant reduces its output

• Increase it to high level during the rainy season

Three Gorges Dam

Chapter 1: Three Gorges DamThe Flooded Areas

• Flooded 244 sq. miles of land

• Destroyed archaeological and cultural sites

• Displaced more than 1.3 million people

The Flooded Areas

• Submerged 13 cities

• Flooded 150 towns

• destroyed 1,410 villages

Chapter 1: Three Gorges DamEnvironmental Disaster

• The forestation in the Three Gorges area has been reduced from 25 percent coverage before the construction of the dam to less than 10 percent thereafter. The reduction of the forested areas has threatened wildlife in the region, where hundreds of terrestrial animal species and freshwater fish were habitants, and many were already endangered species.

Chapter 1: Three Gorges DamEnvironmental Disaster

• The government agrees that the dam construction has caused the extinction of some species. The critiques also believe that the dam has caused significant ecological changes, including water pollution, an increase of landslides, mudslides, and earthquakes.

Chapter 2: Factories and Highways

• Chinese roads and highways have also grown rapidly in recent decades, extending into rural areas, making most localities accessible, and carrying 769 trillion passenger-km and 11.6 billion tons of freight in 2003.

Chapter 2: Highways

The total public road network in China totaled

2.39 million miles by the end of 2010, including

60,273 miles of highway, making China’s the

longest highway network in the world (ahead of

the U.S.) in 2012.

President Xi and First Lady

Chapter 2: Railways

• China’s rail system as the third largest network

in the world totals more than 60,000 miles of

railroads, and about 47 percent of them are

electrified. It has 20,800 locomotives, 650,000

cargo cars, and 58,000 passenger coaches.

Chapter 2: Highways and Cars

China had 50 million automobiles in 2003:

24 million business vehicles15 million passenger cars9 million privately owned trucks

Chapter 3: Urbanization

China became urbanized in 2006, when Chinese

cities increased from 223 to 695, and more than

30 cities had a population over 1.5 million.

City

Shanghai

Chapter 3: Urbanization

Currently, about 700 million Chinese, over 54

percent of the total population, live in cities.

Chapter 3: Urbanization

Major cities:

Chongqing 28.8 million residentsShanghai 23 millionBeijing 19.6 millionTianjin 12.9 millionShenzhen 9 millionGuangzhou 8.8 million

Shenzhen in 21 Century

Hong Kong

Shenzhen in 1970s

Shenzhen in early 1980s

Shenzhen in the middle of 1980s

Shenzhen in late 1980s

Shenzhen in the 1990s

Shenzhen in 21 century

Shennan Road 2014

Chapter 3: Urbanization

• Since 1949, China has lost one-fifth of its

agricultural land due to urban and industrial

expansion and to agricultural

mismanagement, which created soil erosion

and desertification.

Chapter 3: Urbanization

• During this period, the per capita annual net income of urban households was 6-10 times higher than that of rural households. Partly because of this inequality, agricultural laborers are also the most mobile. Labor migration from rural to urban areas emerged as a nationwide phenomenon in the late 1980s.

Chapter 3: Urbanization

• By the early 1990s, an estimate of the number of individuals who had made this move was approximately 36 million. In the early 2000s, as many as 100 million rural laborers were estimated to be on the move and seeking work in cities and coastal areas. The number of migrant workers totaled 120 million in 2005, 136 million in 2007, and 151 million in 2010.

Chapter 3: Urbanization

• More than 46 percent of urban employment is of rural migrant laborers. Official estimates suggest that as of 2014, more than 169 million peasants may have fled the countryside.

Lesson Four: Environment & Pollution

• Chapter 1: River and Water

• Chapter 2: Soil Pollution

• Chapter 3: Air Pollution

Chapter 1: Hui River

some of the rivers are known as “cancer rivers” such as the Huai River, which runs north-south between the Huanghe (Yellow) River and Yangzi (Yangtze) River. The river basin of the Huai extends to more than 30 cities and 180 counties, totaling a population of 165 million people.

Chapter 1: Hui River

• Many industrial factories, including petro-

chemical refineries, steel and iron factories,

textile factories, leather manufacturers and

paper producers, are businesses built along

the Huai, and badly polluted the river.

Chapter 1: Hui River

• In 2005, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted a research sponsored by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on the correlation between water pollution and the region’s high cancer rates along the banks of the Huai. The results of the research indicate that both mortality and prevalence of digestive cancers were much higher in the study areas, about 277.8 per 10,000 persons, three to four times higher than the recorded rate in control areas.

Chapter 2: Soil Pollution

• China’s economic progress has been achieved at the sake of an enormous consumption of energy resources as well as costs to the natural environment. In 2010, China’s total energy consumption surpassed the U.S. for the first time, making it the world’s biggest energy consumer, something that has drawn worldwide attention.

Chapter 2: Soil Pollution

With 9.8 million barrels of crude oil consumed daily in China’s mainland, and 363,000 barrels consumed daily in Hong Kong, China altogether consumed 10.2 million barrels of crude oil daily in 2011, accounting for 11.8 percent of the world total with an increase of 6.24 percent over 2010.

Chapter 2: Soil Pollution

Industry and transportation, storage, postal and telecommunication services were the major sectors consuming oil in China, with industry taking up an absolute majority. China’s petro-chemical industry, ever since its inception, has produced many pollutants and has impacted the environment of various ecosystems across the world.

Chapter 2: Soil Pollution

Through oil spills, increased toxicity of natural

habitats, and contributions to greenhouse gas

emissions and climate change, its petroleum

industry has oftentimes had a negative effect on

the environment.

Chapter 3: Air Pollution

In 2011, air pollution in Beijing and other cities across the country reached “crisis” levels. Many air pollutants from the oil and manufacturing industries include nitrous oxides, sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, benzene, toluene, and xylenes. Polluted air causes many harmful effects for the environment and for citizens.

Chapter 3: Air Pollution

Reduced visibility, damage to crops and livestock, and serious illness in humans can all result. When nitrous oxide and sulfur dioxide combine with water in the atmosphere, acid rain is produced. Acid rain pollutes anything it comes into contact with, including vegetation and bodies of water.

Chapter 3: Air Pollution

Polluted environments from acid rain can eventually kill local wildlife. These environmental issues have become increasingly problematic, especially in newly rapidly industrializing and urbanizing areas. In 2013, the pollution levels of Beijing, China’s capital city with 20 million residents, reached forty times higher than international safety standards.

Chapter 3: Air Pollution

The government of the People’s Republic of

China (PRC) took some measures to strengthen

environmental improvement in the 2010s, such

as issuing a Law on Environmental Protection

and by educating business and the public.

Chapter 3: Air Pollution

Although environmental protection has become a hot topic and has received more attention inside and outside the government, the GDP-based development policy only serves the purpose of economic growth rather than environmental protection. Unless issues like air and water pollution are solved, China’s ever-expanding cities could quickly become uninhabitable.