CHINA

CHINA Ring of Fire Where Pacific, Philippine, and Eurasian tectonic plates meet Tectonic activity helped create the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea

CHINA Pamirs Numerous mountain ranges in western China which include high peeks and deep valleys Kunlun Shan and Tian Shan Shan is Chinese for mountain Altay Shan form a natural barrier between China and Mongolia Himalaya, world’s highest mountains, separate China from South Asia Mount Everest

CHINA Plateau of Tibet, Plateau of Xizang, in the southwest is East Asia’s highest plateau region There are two deserts the Taklimakan and the Gobi The Gobi has frequent dust storms that make life difficult and only get 3 inches of rain annually

CHINA The Huang He, Yellow River, is northern China’s major river system It is called the Yellow River because it carries tons of fine, yellowish-brown topsoil called loess North China Plain, also called “China’s sorrow” because the Huang He often floods and kills hundreds of thousands of people

CHINA Chang Jiang, Yangtze River, is Asia’s longest river at 3,965 miles It is a major transport because it dumps into the ocean in Shanghai Construction of the Three Gorges Dam, a hydroelectric dam, will hopefully put an end to the flooding along the lower portions

CHINA Xi River, West River, is southern China’s most important river Near many port cities the Xi forms a huge fertile delta The Grand Canal, which began in about 400 B.C., moves people and goods 1,085 miles from Beijing to Hangzhou

CHINA China contains the greatest share and widest range of minerals Iron ore Tin Tungsten Gold Large oil deposits lie in the South China Sea and Taklimakan Desert Abundant coal deposits are located in Northeast China

CHINA Southern China’s “rice bowl” yields two harvests a year, making China the world’s largest producer of rice Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China have the world’s biggest deep-sea fishing industries