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The Geography of China

http://china.notspecial.org/gallery/maps/map_satelliteasia?full=1

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Objective : How did geography

influence the development of Ancient China?

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East Asia Political Map

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Essential Question

Does the environment shapepeople, or do people shape the

environment?

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Geographic IsolationChina - the most isolated of the civilizationswe have studied thus far.

Long distance from Egypt, Mesopotamia, India.

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Chinas Physical Barriers

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What are the benefits of being an isolated civilization?

What attitudes about themselves might people develop if

they are isolated?

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Landforms2/3 of China is Mountains or Plateaus2 major Deserts

Takla Makan and Gobi Deserts

http://china.notspecial.org/gallery/maps/map_satelliteasia?full=1

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Takla Makan Desert

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Chinas River Systems

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Huang He (Yellow River)

Region of first Chinese civilization (Shang)Loess = fine wind-blown yellow soil

Fertilizes river valley

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Loess createsdangerous floodconditions as itsinks to the bottom.

Villages in thevalley were oftendestroyed indevastating floods.

Fear of Floodsengrained inChinese culture.

Yellow River - The River of Sorrows

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Chinas Environmental Challenges

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Agriculture Production

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Monsoon Precipitation Patterns

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Population Density

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China as % of World Population

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Chinas Heartland

Only about 10 percent of Chinas land is suitable for farming.

Much of the land lies within the small plain between theHuang He and the Chang Jiang in eastern China. This plain,known as the North China Plain, is Chinas heartland.

Throughout Chinas long history, its political boundaries haveexpanded and contracted depending on the strength or

weakness of its ruling families.

Yet the heartland of China remained the center of itscivilization.

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Brown China vs. Green China

Pasture and Oasis

Double-crop rice

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South China

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Man-Made Changes to theenvironment

Controlled the floodingof rivers through largescale irrigation projects.

Channels, Levies, Canals,Reservoirs, Rice Paddies

This led to the rise of

strong centralgovernment. Why?

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Man-Made Changes

I opened passages for the streams throughoutthe nine provinces, and conducted them to thesea. I deepened channels and canals, andconducted them to the streams.

- Chinese Ruler

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Rice Cultivation

Requires warm climate(South China ,YangziR.)

Very Labor IntensiveRice feeds more peoplethan any other grain.

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Terraced Rice PaddyRice Paddies

(Fields) Must beflat;

Often terraced(cut into hills)Seedlings

planted by handChannels flood

the PaddiesPaddiesdrained whencrop is ripe

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Contacts with the World

Outlying regions were the home of nomadicinvadersMongolia, Xinjiang, Manchuria

China called them Barbarians and believed they lacked civility.

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Nomads broughttechnology fromMiddle East (Cultural

Diffusion).

China Referred to itself as the MiddleKingdom. Why mightthis be so?