Transcript China, spectacular diversity and change.

Sense or nonsense?
This year the UK will
export to China
200,000 tons of…
Plastic waste
What’s going on?
China: spectacular
diversity and change.
Inspirational ideas from the 2005 GA Tour
“Journey to the West”
Sarah Maude and Adam Nichols,
tour leaders.
Geographical Association Study Tour
organised by the International Working
Group (International Committee)
In association with Ian Dickson Travel Service
and
The Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with
Foreign Countries
“The Journey to the West” GA Tour 2005
Change
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1949
Communist State founded
1949-78 Communism/Maoism
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Communes – collective farming, rural poverty
Work units, free housing, education and health care
Job for life
Iron Rice Bowl
Hukou system (household registration)
Cultural revolution
Suppression of free speech and beliefs
Restricted movement
Limited contact with the rest of the world
Slow, if any, change in the quality of life
Deng Xiaoping Era
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Revolutionary goals redefined
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“To get rich is glorious”
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“Socialism with Chinese characteristics”
Deng and reform 1978-97
Enterprise and the profit motive encouraged
 Responsibility system in agriculture
 Rural enterprises
 Rise of free markets
 Opening up to the outside world,
economically and culturally
 Export led growth
Deng and reform 1978-97
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Inward investment encouraged
Special Economic Zones
Overseas Chinese renewed their links
Increasing affluence and quality of life
One child policy
The New Millennium
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Rising prosperity for many
Increase in private ownership, including
housing.
Ballooning trade surplus
China joins WTO December 2001
The New Millennium
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Huge city growth
Decline of the work unit and
associated “social security” safety
net
Decline of State Owned Enterprises
Hukou system weakened
The New Millennium
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Migration for work rising fast,
Relaxation of restrictions – cultural,
religious
Access to foreign media, fashion, the
internet etc
Increasing internal and external
tourism
The New Millennium
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Some relaxation of the “One child
policy”
Rising concern for the environment?
Most Chinese still live in rural
poverty
Province
Pop.
% rural /
urban
rural / urban
income (RMB)
p.a.
% ethnic
growth
minorities
Shaanxi
36m
67 / 33
1,186 / 4,891
0.71%
0.6
Gansu
25m
76 / 24
1,400 / 4,890
1.00%
8.3
Qinghai
5.8m
64 / 36
1,490 / 5,170
1.45%
(2.5%)
44
Xinjiang
18m
(>90% in
oases)
1,618 / 5,817
1.28%
China
1,3b
64 / 36
Beijing
12m
3,441 / 8,493
c. 2.5%
3m MWs?
17.7m
4,138 / 8,864
<1%
Shanghai
(4.4mMW)
61.4
0.4
Beijing
China’s national bird; the crane
Olympic Village site, July 04
Migrant workers: driving force of urban / industrial growth
An increasingly globalised economy and cosmopolitan capital Picture
taken inside the Palace Museum!
“Go West”
1999 Strategy to narrow disparities in
levels of income and development
between coastal and western
provinces.
Government Policy set out in 10th and 11th 5
year “plans”
“Go West”
10th plan 2000-2005 emphasised..
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Infrastructure
Attracting investment
Environmental protection
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Attracting labour skills
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Linking coastal provinces to western ones.
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11th 5 year plan 2006-11
• Change of emphasis –
• sustainability rather than just growth rate,
• spreading the prosperity to bring more
balanced development
• Serving the people to improve the quality
of life
• Continuing support for Centre and West;
• revitalisation of the NE
Xi’An – Shaanxi’s provincial capital
Loess plateau
Only a short drive to the north of Xi’An
Farmers’ cave houses in loess
This is a kang, a family bed heated in winter by a fire
burning underneath. This is inside the cave house.
Shaanxi Province development priorities
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1. Agricultural development
2. Afforestation
3. Technological renovation of cotton textile mills and printing and
dyeing
4. Transport infrastructure
5. Coal processing technology
6. Development of coal-bed gas, copper and natural gas reserves
7. Manufacturing of business IT equipment
8. Development of electronic components industry
9. Production of herbal medicines
10. Designing and manufacturing of civilian aircraft (in government
partnership)
11. Tourism
High Tech & high value farming
Xiwei Garden City, near Xi’an
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Gansu Province development priorities
1. Agricultural processing & storage
2. Afforestation
3. Development of a quality wine industry
4. Planned development & use of water resources
5. Modernisation of woollen fabric industry
6. Transport infrastructure
7. Production of ultra-high output graphite electrodes and carbon
products
8. Production of natural gas chemicals
9. Manufacturing of drilling machines and oil field equipment
10. Electronic components
11 Tourism
Deeply dissected loess in Gansu
Sensational sandstone scenery in Gansu
The new Xining to Lanzhou road along the
Huang He valley
Rolling mill near Lanzhou
Evidence of closure of state-owned enterprises
Lanzhou
A copper mine
An ancient way of conveying agricultural produce by raft down the Yellow River
(Hwang He) is now a tourist thrill
This group has used their inflated sheep hide raft to “get away from it all” on a
small island in mid-stream
HEP generation
Labour intensive farming in the Huang He valley
Qinghai Province development priorities
1. Agricultural processing and storage
2. Afforestation
3. Development & conservation of water resources
4. Transport infrastructure
5. Exploitation, smelting and processing of copper, aluminium,
zinc ore & potassium reserves
6. Development of salt lake resources an related products
7. Production of new types of building materials
8. Cultivation and processing of traditional Chinese and
Tibetan medicinal herbs
9. Development of tourism
The Qinghai – Tibet plateau
Modern salt production in the Qaidam basin
Afforestation bordering a transport artery
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
development priorities
1. Agricultural processing
2. Afforestation
3. Cultivation and processing of high-quality tomatoes
4. Cultivation of high-quality grapes and wine making
5. Rational development, utilisation and conservation of water
resources
6. Transport infrastructure
7. Development of cotton fabric production
8. Construction of wind and solar power plants
9. Development of mineral resources
10. Tourism
Development of the tourist industry
Dune buggies for the “desert experience”
Hotel development at the foot of the Tian Shan
mountains
Kazakh yurts in their Tian Shan summer pastures
Taking a cure
The geographical centre of mainland Asia
Grassland is easily degraded by overgrazing
Nothing is wasted!
Part of Xinjiang’s trade with Kazakhstan
Tomatoes produced on a huge state farm near Urumqi
Vineyards and driers in the Turfan depression
Most are table grapes or dried as raisins but value is added by turning it into
wine
The grape harvest awaiting collection
Afforestation for dune stabilisation by an oasis
Prospecting for minerals in Gobi desert
Core-sampling in the desert
Oil production in Turfan
As seen on the VCD!
Province Water supply quantity/108 m3/a
Surface
Underground
Others
Total
Water use quantity/108m3/a
Agriculture Industry Daily life
Total
Shaanxi
44.9
35.4
0.2
80.5
57.8
13.2
9.4
80.4
Gansu
95.2
24.7
0.2
120.1
96.5
16.7
6.7
119.9
Qinghai
23.2
3.9
0.0
27.1
21.5
3.5
2.1
27.1
Xinjiang
410.7
45.1
0.2
455.9
429.5
10.2
8.3
448.0
For more information on water
resources, see separate file entitled
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Water resource constraints on
sustainable development in
North West China
Glaciers in Qinghai/Tibet are in rapid retreat
The headwaters of the Yantze whose discharge is in
decline
Some agricultural expansion schemes have been
ecological and economic disasters
Storms of unusual severity caused flash floods
Roads blocked by sheet wash debris
Where’s our grass gone?
Increasing public awareness of resource / environmental
issues……..
……. may be overstated!
Xinjiang’s capital city: Urumqi in 1993
Urumqi 2005
The Uighur, Khazak and Uzbek people are Moslem
An Urumqi market
Ethnic diversity of the Language College staff
Julian & Sarah deliver an instant lecture on tourism
geography. No lesson plan, no shared objectives, no
formative assessment.
BUT
BRILLIANT!
The Xinjiang Normal University Geography Department
specialises in the study of oases
 GEOSPACE/USGS 2006, Source ESA-School Atlas
Shanghai/Pudong
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Economy
GDP grew 85% between 1990 and 2001
Huge rise in the proportion of tertiary
activities
Now major high-tech centre
Private business contribution to GDP rose
from 18% in 1995 to 32% in 2002
Construction – “a frenzy”
Shanghai/Pudong
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Way of life
24 / 7 city
Social and cultural attitudes
Traffic
180% rise in vehicles 1996-2001
Environmental improvement
Striving to be the premier city and
economic centre of East Asia.
The Bund 1990
Shanghai 2005
Pudong
THE PLASTIC BOTTLE CONUNDRUM
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British plastic recyclers pay c. £55 per ton
Chinese companies are offering £120 per
ton
At that price, British recyclers cannot
make a profit. Some recycling factories
have actually closed down
A 26 ton container costs £500 to send to
China.
Should containers return to China empty
or full?