East Asia Lecture 1
Major Geographic Characteristics of East Asia
China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Tibet
1.
World’s most populous geographic realm, with the world’s most populous country,
China.
2.
The leading stage for the emergence of the western Pacific Rim, which extends from
eastern Australia in the south to Japan in the north.
3.
The Jakota Triangle (Japan-Korea-Taiwan) lies at the vanguard of Pacific Rim’s
economic development and may presage the kind of economic growth that may lie
ahead for other parts of East and Southeast Asia.
4.
The pacific Rim in East Asia is the western anchor of a greater Pacific Rim
phenomenon that discontinuously encircles the Pacific Ocean from southern new
Zealand clockwise to central Chile.
5.
From China’s western Islamic frontier to Taiwan’s burgeoning cities, political and
economic developments are transforming traditional cultural landscapes.
6.
Intensifying regional disparities mark large regions of the East Asian realm.
7.
East Asia was the scene of a successful campaign of colonial expansion by a nonEuropean power, Japan; the impact of Japan’s hegemony still lingers in its former
empire.
8.
Population in the East Asian realm remains concentrated in its eastern regions, which
reflects the historical-geographical importance of the lower basins of the realm’s
great rivers.
9.
The political geography of East Asia displays potential instability and change in
numerous locales, including Japan’s Kurile Islands, divided Korea, secessionist
Taiwan, reabsorbed Xianggang (Hong Kong), and colonial Tibet.
10.
East Asia may witness the rise of the world’s next superpower as China’s economic
and military strength and influence grow—and if China avoids the revolutionary forces that
fractured the Soviet Union.
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East Asia’s Physiography
Climates
 Aw (savannah0 and Am (monsoon) in southern China
 Gobi Desert, BWk, a high-latitude cold desert in western China and Mongolia
 Grasslands, BS, on desert margins; Loess plateau, Mongolia
 Humid Midlatitude, Cfa, in southeastern China, centered on Shang’hai; southern Japan, S. Korea
 Dfa, Dfb (Boreal) northern Japan
 Cwa, slightly drier on Cfa margins
 Boreal Dwa and b (cool summer) in central China and Manchuria; N. Korea
 Highland continental on Tibetan plateau and western mountain margins
Physiographic Features
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Northeast China Plain: Manchurian Lowland
Tibetan Plateau
Himalayas
Gobi Desert
Inner Mongolia
Taklamakan Desert
Tarim Basin
Korean Peninsula
DMZ
Japanese Archipelago
Eurasian, Pacific, Philippine Plates
Sichuan Basin (Iron Rice Bowl)
Three Gorges Dam
Loess Plateau
Tropic of Cancer
Daba Shan
Xi Basin
Rivers and Seas