1. China中國 Peter Park

2. China’s Land China is located in Eastern Asia and it is the third largest country in the world. China is 9,597,000 square kilometers and has the largest population in the world. There are about 1.3 billion people living in China which is more than one sixth of the world’s population. (1) A large part of the land is made up of deserts and mountain. About one-third of China is filled by mountains. Half of the working people in China are farmers. Much of China is too steep, too cold, or too dry to support crops. 13% of China is covered with forests and only 10% is used for farming. (2) and (5-b)

3. Water in China China has an inadequate supply and uneven distribution of fresh water resource because of the various land type and monsoon climate. 80% of water resources come from Yangtse River valley and the southern parts but there is 36% of farmland around this area. In northern part, there is 18% of rivers located but 64% of farmland located. More than half of national water resources are used for agriculture. Because water is not sufficient in China, Chinese is concerned to save water resources for farmland and this make them focused on improving irrigation systems. (5-c)

4. The Climate of China In winter, northern winds coming from high latitude areas are cold and dry; in summer, southern winds from sea areas at lower latitude are warm and moist. Precipitation varies regionally and the area divides into four parts by precipitation : wet area, semi-wet area, semi-dry area and dry area. The first two are around Qinling Mountain-Huaihe River where are mainly farming areas (800mm). The Daxing'an Mountains-Great Wall-Gangdisi Mountain are semi-wet and semi-dry areas (400mm). The last two are middle Inner Mongolia and the Helan and Qilian Mountains to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (200mm). Temperatures range from minus 30°C in north in January to 28°C in south in July. It is wet monsoon in summer, and dry monsoon in winter. (1)(5-d)

5. China’s Vegetation There are great range of vegetation found in China because of its huge area and variety of regional climates. Need leaf forests are found in northern China. The broadleaf forests are mainly distributed in the eastern and southwestern humid regions where the summer monsoons influence the climate. Various types of the broadleaf forests are found from north to south. Shrubs and many small flowering plants are found in desert area. (1)(2)

6. China’s Natural Resources China has a large and various kinds of natural resources. The variety of different landforms, soils and climate gives various kinds of agricultural production. China has one of the world’s largest supplies of coal but relatively low in some raw materials. (1) (5-e)

7. China’s Historic Traditions China is an ancient country with thousands of years of history. This history remains as a basis of Chinese. China is the country with the early civilization than other countries and this made China have the early development of irrigations, inventions of paper, gunpowder, silk weaving etc. People in China thought their country was the center of the whole world and named their country the Middle Kingdom. China influenced into Korea and Japan in their inventions, culture, Buddhism and Confucius idea. China was reluctant to open their county to the Westerners and was forced to be opened. After WWII, China was divided into two groups-Communist and Nationalist. The communists made a communist nation, The Peoples Republic of China, and the Nationalist made Taiwan. (1)(3)

8. The People in China There are over one billion people living in China. The towns and cities in China are very crowded because China has such a large population. There are over one billion people living in China. The towns and cities in China are very crowded because China has such a large population. Although many aspects of life in China are better than in the past, Chinese people still have little say in the decisions made by the communist government. In China there are many different national groups who have different beliefs and customs. There are 56 national groups including the Hui, Miao, Bai, Bouyei, Tibetans, and Mongols. The majority of China's population are Han Chinese. The extended family has been a long part of Chinese society. Chinese homes in the past were crowded because several generations lived together and couples had many children. In the past, population stayed about the same because although there were many births, just as many people died from disease or starvation. Today food supplies, sanitation and medical conditions have improved so people are living for much longer. To control the population, the government has convinced families to have only one child. Families with one child are given special advantages like free medical care. Families with more than one child are punished like having to pay fines. Changes in 1988 allowed families in rural areas and minority groups to have more than one child and a city couple may have a second child if their first is a girl, that is because once their son gets older, the son is expected to take care of their family once their parents are getting older and older. (4) and (6)

9. China ’ s Culture After 1949, culture of China has been changed as it became to Communism and there were major changes in the Chinese way of life. -Communes : communities own land and members work together. Not private ownership -Slow in population growth : changes from large family to small family -Position of women has improved : woman’s ownership of property, having jobs, choice of husband and divorce. -Mixture of old and new culture in China : New traditions in cities, old traditions in rural area. While some of old Chinese cultural traditions have been forgotten or are no longer observed, many of them are still remembered and showed in everyday life like weigi game. (1)

10. China ’ s Transformation Huge problems began to occur when the Communists took control in China. China had not had peace for almost a century. Most of the Chinese were extremely poor. Their methods of farming and manufacturing used new machines. China made huge changes under the leadership of Mao Zedong. The government seized landowners, factories, businesses. But however, sin economic growth was slow, Mao wasn’t happy. In the 1950s, Mao began a extreme, or radical change. The policy was called “Great Leap Forward”, but it turned out to be the opposite. The Communists rushed to increase production by forcing people to work on large communes. But they ignored the need for experiences and planning. IN 1966, Mao introduced another radical policy called the Cultural Revolution. His aim was to create a completely new society with no connections to the past. He began urging students to rebel against their teachers and families. The students formed bands of radicals called the Red Guard. These bands destroyed some of China’s most beautiful buildings. They imprisoned many people in China. When the Red Guard raged and went out of control, and began to threaten Mao’s government, they were imprisoned, too. Mao called for a end of Cultural Revolution in 1969. The three years of destruction has left China into broken little pieces of glass, leaving of citizens dead. (1)

11. Bibliography (1) Social Studies Textbook (2) CHINA: The Land (3) CHINA: The Culture (4) CHINA: The People (5) Wikipedia (a lot of articles in Wikipedia) (6) http://alex.edfac.usyd.edu.au Bibliography (1) Social Studies Textbook (2) CHINA: The Land (3) CHINA: The Culture (4) CHINA: The People (5) Other websites a) www.wikipedia.com b) http://chinadatacenter.org/chinageographyhttp://chinadatacenter.org/chinageography c) http://www.lanl.gov/chinawaterhttp://www.lanl.gov/chinawater d) http://travelchanaguide.com/intro.climate.htm e ) http://www.theodora.com/wfb/china_geography.html

12. Where the Images were From clip art (Slides backgrounds).