Transcript China - hale-geo

China
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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?