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
Buddha
Taoism
Lao-tzu
CHINA’S POLITICAL MAP



4 CENTRAL-GOVERNMENT-ADMINISTERED
MUNICIPALITIES
 BEIJING (CAPITAL); TIANJIN (PORT CITY);
SHANGHAI (LARGEST CITY);
CHONGQUING (INTERIOR RIVER PORT)
5 AUTONOMOUS REGIONS
 NEI MONGOL (INNER MONGOLIA);
NINGXIA HUI; XINJIANG UYGUR (NW);
GUANGXI ZHUANG (SOUTH); XIZANG
(TIBET)
22 PROVINCES
 LARGER 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
Other
8%
Han
92%
Han
Other
LANGUAGES



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.
PINYIN

THE MOST ACCEPTED SYSTEM OF
ROMANIZING CHINESE
Chinese
Bei
Nan
Xi
Dong
Jing
Shan
He
Jiang
Translation
North
South
West
East
Capital
Mountain
River (in the north)
River (in the south)