The Geography of China

James Engstrom Associate Professor of Geography

Georgia Perimeter College Faculty/Staff Development Seminar

March 28, 2008

Physical Geography

• Land area

• Landforms

• Climate

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

Population (in millions)

• 1950: 563

• 1960: 650

• 1970: 820

• 1980: 984

• 1990: 1,148

• 2000: 1,268

• 2007: 1,322

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 1970’s – 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

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

Language in East Asia

• 60,000 different characters• Newspaper – 2,000 – 3,000 symbols • Translation systems : Wade Gales (1867), since

1970’s pinyin system increasingly used• 1956 – Chinese government simplified the

characters – part of effort to increase literacy• Hong Kong and Taiwan still use traditional

characters

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

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

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

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

YEAR URBAN POPULATION

1953 13%

1975 17%

1985 24%

1993 28%

2003 40%

The Chinese State (Empire)

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

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 (SAR’s) –Hong Kong and Macau

• Economically defined units – Special Economic Zones, open cities, etc.

Most populated provinces

PROVINCE Population 2003

Shandong 91.3 million

Sichuan 87.0 million

Guangdong 79.5 million

Jiangsu 74.1 million

Hebei 67.7 million

Hunan 66.6 million

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 (SEZ’s) - 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

• “RUNNING A LARGE COUNTRY IS LIKE COOKING A SMALL FISH”

Laozi, 6th century BC?