The Lay of the Land: Geography and its Role in China’s Society Lecture 1 .7728410%2.2022.27USSR .7024319%1.709.17USA .1993143%1.413.29India .1061,22413.5%1.39.6China 1996 (hectares)(Million)(2)/(1)(M. km 2 )(M. km-- 2 ) Cultivated Land per capita Popula- tion Cultivated as Percent of Total Cultivated Land Area Total Land Area Same as other nations … but oh so different! Geographical Forces ? Location in Asia (latitude – next Thursday) ? Mountains ? Deserts ? Rainfall Patterns ? Temperature and Other Factors Creation of China’s Realm ? Plate Tectonics – the defining force of China Plate Tectonics – Shaping Asia China after the collision: One big mountainous mess and a lot desert elsewhere Rainfall in North China ? Low ? Variable ? All Concentrated in the Summer Determinants: A combination of Siberia / the Himalayas / and sunspots Winter Weather – Driven by Siberian Land Mass 1. Cold creates very high pressure 2. All winter / spring – strong winds out of NE 3. Mountains block all moisture from Indian Ocean 4. All moisture from South China Sea is blown out of North China 5. Therefore: does not rain all winter in North China or Central Asian Steppe Summer Weather – Also driven by Siberian Land Mass – Plus Sunspots 1. Heat creates low pressure – 2. By mid-summer – warm air mass rises enough and starts sucking in moisture from South China sea 3a. But, rainfall can be variable: If sunspots (that is, extra hot), moisture from Indian Ocean can come in abundance -- floods 4. By spring, every year, as NE winds die down, moisture from South China Sea flows in Yangtze Valley – plum rains 5. Therefore: most rain in North China comes in July and August, but variable 3b. If cooler weather, little or no moisture can make it -- drought Drier and Drier Wetter and wetter Abundant water in South China The Desert of Mongolia and Central Asia Creation of China’s Realm ? Plate Tectonics – the defining force of China – Division from Europe – desert in west and north – Division from rest of South Asia – peaks and canyons – Mountains in South China Barriers of Geography Mountains and canyons Deserts Coves and ocean and hostile pirates Why is China less imperialistic than other powers … Who are China’s traditional enemies? Geography and Institutions ? Deserts of the Northwest: Need for irrigation and rise of Imperial China ? The Himalayas and Moisture of Southeast Asia: The mid-China swamp, the discovery of rice and expansion of an empire ? Mountainous terrain and isolated coves: The isolated south – havens for pirates and patriots 7000 BC to 5000 BC: arrival of wheat / barely / sorghum First irrigation systems Deserts of the Northwest: Need for irrigation and rise of Imperial China Need for the creation of a bureaucracy to manage irrigation system ?“Oriental Despotism” Geography creates China’s Yellow Earth And, creates a landscape where 30 million people still live in caves Windblown soil from Gobi desert deposited 1000s of feet thick in Northwest China North China Water Crisis Not enough water in the Yellow River; Huai River or Hai River to support both booming agriculture and rapidly expanding cities Hai River Basin Lower Reaches of Yellow River Places of real shortages Agricultural Expansion on the North China Plain – mainly from 2 season wheat – corn … largest increase in China’s food output in the post-WWII era … Not enough surface water … so, tap one of the richest fresh water aquifers in the world … with pumping … But, pumping itself is going on so fast, groundwater table is falling at 1 meter per year in some places Yellow River (full of loess silt), millions of years ago Yellow River (full of loess silt), now Mountains in Hai River Basin First filled in by silt overflow from flooding Yellow River … and then filled with fresh water Ground level Creation of 1000s of Years of Conflict ? Mongolian Plain – nomads Xiongnu / Mongolians / Manchurians ? China, proper -- farmers How long is the Great Wall? (Hint – Chinese name: “wanli changcheng” … 10,000 li wall) Hint on hints: hints are not always right: over course of China’s history, more than 20,000 kilometers of wall have been built But, much less today … Culture from the North Although most of “real” wall is gone … today there is a population wall ? of land …… 6 percent of population ? of land … 94 percent of population Geography and Institutions ? Deserts of the Northwest: Need for irrigation and rise of Imperial China ? The Himalayas and Moisture of Southeast Asia: The mid-China swamp, the discovery of rice and expansion of an empire ? Mountainous terrain and isolated coves: The isolated south – havens for pirates and patriots Yangtze: China’s largest river and geographic heart of Middle China Second in water flow (to Amazon) Second in length (to Nile) First in vertical drop (from more than 5000 meters to sea-level) Source: about 5000 meters on Tibetan Plateau Into the sea near Shangahi The long journey down the Yangtze … and a land dominated by water 90% of population in the South 90% of population in the North Reasons for population shift: Pull: Big breakthrough when paddy rice came from Vietnam (via India? Via China?) in around 1200 AD) Push: Ghengis Khan The Grand Canal of China (大運河) is the largest ancient artificial river in the world, from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province to Tianjin near the Bohai Bay, where it unites with the Hai He, and thus may be said to extend to Tung-chow in the neighbourhood of Beijing. The flip side … of a lot of water … not drought, but floods … The ultimate flood prevention project … maybe? And, produces a lot of culture … … and Shanghai which has helped produce China’s economic growth! Geography and Institutions ? Deserts of the Northwest: Need for irrigation and rise of Imperial China ? The Himalayas and Moisture of Southeast Asia: The mid-China swamp, the discovery of rice and expansion of an empire ? Mountainous terrain and isolated coves: The isolated south – havens for pirates and patriots … and entrepreneurs Innumerable Scenes from the South The mountains are everywhere … giving refuge to pirates … and patriots … the Mongols / Manchurians / Nationalists could never defeat the rebels in the South Thousands of isolated villages … thousands of dialects … and customs … and foods China’a non-Han minorities are all over …. Yet almost no where: only about 8% of population are non-Han Distribution of Minorities … because of nature of isolated geographies … most of China’s 55 ethnic minority groups are in the South and Southwest …. Hui – around 8 million – and other Muslims (about 20 million altogether) dominate Northwest China (and the worries of Han Leaders) Most minorities – in population terms – are in Northeast … Man (10 million) and Korean (2 million) … difficult to tell apart from Han – agriculturalist … mixed marriages First Special Economic Zones … in the South … areas isolated from the rest of China The New Heart of China’s Industry-Machine Shenzhen: the symbol of China’s miracle growth … From 1980 … … until 2000 The many faces of China … Each influenced by geography … And more …