Transcript Geography of China

Lecture One:
The Geography of China
By: Xueyan Hu
Location of China in the
world
The People's Republic of China is a vast
country with rich natural resources. The
Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea lap
its shores, and great mountains and rivers
adorn its territory. Superior natural
conditions provide not only a vast room of
subsistence for the Chinese nation but also
a strong material foundation for China's
social progress.
Countries & Regions
Russia
Mongolia
N. Korea
S> Korea
Tibet
Indian
Subcontinent
Taiwan
Southeast
Asia
Philippines
Natural resources

Natural resources are an important
component of natural conditions. They
include mainly land resources, water
resources, climatic resources, biological
resources and mineral resources. China has
rich natural resources.
Land Resources

The country's farmland covers 122,400 sq. km,
about 10% of its total land area, and is
distributed mainly in plain areas in northeast
China, north China, the middle and lower
reaches of the Yangtze, the Sichuan Basin and
the Pearl River Delta. Agriculture is highly
developed in these areas, which are major
producers of wheat, corn, rice and cash crops.
The country has 67,500 sq. km of fresh water
lakes -- production bases for fish, shrimps and
other aquatic products.
Water Resources
China's average total rainfall in a year amounts to 6
trillion cubic meters; the total runoff of its rivers is
2.7 trillion cubic meters; and its total water resources
reach 2.8 trillion cubic meters, to rank sixth in the
world, after Brazil, Russia, Canada, the United States
and Indonesia. Theoretical hydropower resources
provided by the country's rivers amount to 676
million kw, of Which 378 million kw can be exploited
for power generation, ranking first in the world. The
distribution of such hydropower resources is uneven:
they are concentrated in southwest China.
Bodies of Water
Sea of
Japan
Pacific
Ocean
South
China
Sea
Rivers and Lakes
China abounds in rivers. More than 1,500
rivers each drain 1,000 sq km or larger
areas. Most of the large rivers have their
source on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and
drop greatly between source and mouth. As
a result, China is rich in water-power
resources, leading the world in hydropower
potential, with reserves of 680 million kw.
The Yangtze, 6,300 km long, is the largest
river in China, and the third largest in the
world, next only to the Nile in Africa and the
Amazon in South America
The Yellow River is the second largest river in China
with a length of 5,464 km. The Yellow River valley
was one of the birthplaces of ancient Chinese
civilization. It has lush pasturelands along its
banks, flourishing agriculture and abundant
mineral deposits.
Mineral Resources
China has deposits of every one of the 150
minerals found so far in the natural world. The
amount of proven deposits in the country has
been made clear for 135 of them. Of these,
more than 20 rank in the forefront of the world.
Ranking first in the world, in proven deposits,
are 12 minerals: tungsten, antimony, titanium,
vanadium, zinc, rare earth, magnetite, pyrite,
fluorite, barite, plaster stone and graphite. It is
one of a few countries where mineral deposits
are rich and varieties are fairly complete.
Major Chinese
Industries
Fuels, Power, Minerals, &
Metals in China
Plant and Animal Resources
China is home to 32,800 higher plant varieties
and 104,000 animal varieties. Among them are
some that are quite rare, including the giant
panda, the golden monkey, the Yangtze
alligator, white-flag dolphin, the metasequoia
and the dove tree – all are "living fossils" that
are found nowhere else. To protect wildlife and
its ecological environment, China has built a
fairly big number of nature reserves, including
fourteen that are part of the United Nations'
"Man and Biosphere" nature reserve system.
In absolute terms, China indeed abounds in natural
resources of various kinds. But, owing to its huge
population, its per-capita natural resources, such
as land, water and mineral resources, are not rich.
Besides, the geographical distribution of its natural
resources is not even.
The Chinese government has been taking
measures to deal with the problem. Researches on
the issue have been strengthened and overall
planning conducted. Concrete measures include
the construction of railways to trans- port more coal
from the north to the south and the building of a
giant water diversion project to channel water from
the Yangtze to the Yellow River to quench thirst in
north China and northwest China.
Climate
China is one of the countries that straddle
the greatest number of climatic zones. From
north to south, the country covers six
climatic zones: frigid-temperate, temperate,
warm-temperate, subtropical, tropical and
equatorial.
China’s Climate Zones
Precipitation

The vastness of the country brings about great
regional differences in precipitation. For many
years, China's annual precipitation averages
629 mm and a year's total rainfall exceeds six
trillion cubic meters. However, owing to different
degrees to which different regions of the
country are af- fected by the summer monsoon,
precipitation dif- fers sharply in different
regions, the general trend being a progressive
drop from the southeast to the northwest.
Precipitation in China
Monsoon Precipitation
Patterns
Landform
China's landform is varied, encompassing mountains,
plateaus, basins, plains and hilly areas. Each type of
landform presents a particular natural landscape.
China is a mountainous country: mountains, plateaus
and hilly areas make up about 65% of its total land
area. Many tall and long mountain ranges constitute
the framework of the country's landform. They
crisscross one another to form geographical
"networks" which, encompassing plateaus, plains
and basins of different shapes and sizes, present
different landforms.
Percentages of Different
Landforms
Mountains & Peaks
Altai Mts.
Tian Shan
Kunlun Shan
Himalayan
Mts.
Greater
Khingan
Deserts & Plateaus
Gobi Desert
Taklamakan
Desert
Tibetan
Plateau
Valleys / Plains / Basins
Manchurian
Plain
North
China Plain
Tarim Basin
Sichuan
Basin
China’s Topography
China's topography was formed around the
emergence of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the
most important geological event over the
past several million years. Taking a bird's-eye
view of China, the terrain gradually descends
from west to east like a staircase.
The sloping topography allows humid air
currents above the sea to penetrate deep into
China's interior areas; at the same time, big
rivers flow invariably eastward into the sea as
transportation arteries between inland and
coastal areas, and their big flow drops contain
huge hydropower resources. Taking advantage
of its topography, China has built numerous
hydroelectric stations on the gorges of the
Yangtze and the Yellow River, in a "stair- bystair" way of development.
Agricultural Regions in
China
Arable Land
China’s Provinces
Cities
Harbin
BEIJING
Lhasa
Nanjing
Shanghai
Xi’an
Taipei
Guangzhou
Macao
Hong
Kong
Completed Political Map
Harbin
Mongolia
BEIJING
N. Korea
S> Korea
Tibet
Nanjing
Shanghai
Xi’an
Lhasa
Indian
Subcontinent
Guangzhou
Macao
Southeast
Asia
Taipei
Taiwan
Hong
Kong
Philippines