China

CGG3O

China

• 3rd largest country in the world in area– 9.6 million km2

• Largest population– 1.3 Billion

• 4000 years of history• Diverse landscape

– Mountains, plains, desert

• Diverse population– 55 ethnic groups

China’s Geography

• Western China is sparsely populated– Mountainous to the southwest (Himalayas)– Desert to the north (Gobi and Takla Makan)

• 3 main rivers that flow from the mountains down into the coastal plains– Yellow River (Huang)– Yangtze River– Pearl River (Xi)

China’s Climate

• North (Beijing) similar to Toronto

• South (Guangzhou) tropical

• In winter, cool dry winds blow from the west, so little precipitation

• In summer, warm, moist monsoon winds blow in from the Pacific, so very wet along the coast

Chairman Mao

• Chinese communist revolutionary

• Seizes power in 1949

• Uses violence to overthrow landlords, converts China into a series of communes

• Responsible for an estimated 40 – 70 million deaths during his reign (many during the Great Chinese Famine)

• Brutal regime quashes all dissent

Chairman Mao

• Many failed policies– Believed large population is good for China,

under his regime China’s population almost doubled (550 million to over 900 million)

– Believed industrialization was important to China’s economic growth, so puts farmers to work in factories

– What do you think happened when you had twice as many people, but substantially less food producers?

China’s Economy

• Strictly communist during Mao’s reign– No private property– No private business– Government decides what crops to grow, who

grows what, and then distributes the food to the people

China’s Economy

• Mao dies in 1978 and Deng Xiaoping takes over– Population control implemented (1 child

policy)

• China moves from a pure command economy to a socialist market economy– Central government still exhibits tight control

over all aspects of life, but private property and profit are allowed

China Today

• Currently the world’s second largest economy behind the United States

• Some forecasters predict it will be the world’s largest economy by 2016

• Emphasis on manufacturing and agriculture– Cheap labour is the cornerstone of Chinese

economy

China Today

• China exports a massive amount of goods because of their cheap labour

• They also import massive amounts of materials to fuel growth (metals, cement, oil and gas)

China vs. Canada

• China’s GDP is 8 times bigger than Canada’s

• Canada’s GDP per capita is 5 times larger than China’s

• What does this mean?

Challenges

• As the government pulls back, people who used to be guaranteed a job are now without work

• Rapid growth is causing pollution and environmental degradation

• Impacts of the 1 child policy– Male heirs are preferred, so large number of aborted

baby girls• Today there are about 60 million more males than females in

China

– Ratio of working people to retired people will move from 9:1 to 4:1 by 2025

Tourism in China?

• Nonexistant between 1949 and 1978

• Mao Tse-Tung’s policies were isolationist– Very few people allowed into China– About 125,000 invited guests visited over 29

years– To be caught in China without permission

meant imprisonment– Those who did visit only saw what the

government wanted them to see

Tourism in China

• Today China is the fourth most popular tourist destination in the world

• Expected to be most popular by 2020• Mao’s cultural revolution destroyed much

of China’s cultural artifacts• Under Deng Xiaoping tourism was given

high priority– Historic sites restored: Great Wall, Terracotta

Army, Ming Tombs

Tourism in China

• Remember who’s #1 worldwide?– France: annual growth rate of tourism industry

is 0.1%– China’s growth rate for tourism is about 27%

More an Chinese Tourism later…

• Recap:– What are the main geographic regions of

China?– What’s China’s climate like?– What was the effect of Mao’s death an

China’s economy and tourism specifically?– What are the problems associated with

China’s huge population?