China

CHINA’S RELATIVE LOCATION ISOLATION

Natural Protective Barriers EFFECTS OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN

A history of emperors who restricted the use of the coastline.

Today the ocean is playing a major role in the economic transformation of COASTAL CHINA.

China’s Physical Geography

China has a vast variety of climates. Everything from deserts to tropical rainforests.

Major Rivers: Yellow River, Yangtze River

Major Deserts: Gobi Desert

Buddhism Taoism

Lao-tzuBuddha

CHINA’S POLITICAL MAP 4 CENTRAL-GOVERNMENT-ADMINISTERED

MUNICIPALITIESBEIJING (CAPITAL); TIANJIN (PORT CITY);

SHANGHAI (LARGEST CITY); CHONGQUING (INTERIOR RIVER PORT)

5 AUTONOMOUS REGIONSNEI MONGOL (INNER MONGOLIA); NINGXIA

HUI; XINJIANG UYGUR (NW); GUANGXI ZHUANG (SOUTH); XIZANG (TIBET)

22 PROVINCESLARGER IN THE WEST

China Political Geography

Most populated country in the world. Pop: 1,321,851,888

Capital: Beijing Major Cities:

Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macao, Nanjing

China’s Government Government:

Communist Economy: Mixed

(socialist/market) Fast becoming the world’s largest economies.

Has had problems with human rights issues.

Historical Perspectives: China

One of the world’s greatest cultural hearths Continuous civilization for over 4,000 years View of China as the center of the civilized

world. Historically China is a closed society

CONFUCIUS CHINA’S MOST INFLUENTIAL

PHILOSOPHER AND TEACHER 551- 479 BC.

EMPHASIZED THAT HUMAN VIRTUES, RATHER THAN GODLY CONNECTIONS, SHOULD DETERMINE A PERSON’S PLACE IN SOCIETY

TEACHINGS HAVE DOMINATED CHINESE LIFE AND THOUGHT FOR MORE THAN 20 CENTURIES

China’s History

China has a long and ancient history.

The Great Wall of China built to keep out Mongols.

Gunpowder was invented in China. (First used for fireworks)

The Great Wall

The Forbidden City

ETHNIC GROUPS

Chinese is one of the world’s oldest active languages.

Spoken Chinese varies dialect to dialect although the characters (over 50,000) used to represent the language remain the same.

Since Chinese is written in characters rather than by a phonetic alphabet, Chinese words must be translated so foreigners can pronounce them.

LANGUAGES

PINYIN THE MOST ACCEPTED SYSTEM OF

ROMANIZING CHINESE

Chinese TranslationBei NorthNan SouthXi WestDong EastJing CapitalShan MountainHe River (in the north)Jiang River (in the south)