1A: Map-Geography of China http://china.mrdonn.org/geography.htm
Q. What are the boundaries?
A. ______________________________________
Q . Why was this useful?
A. ______________________________________
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1B: Excerpt from the ancient myth, The Legend of Yu:
"I opened passages for the streams throughout the nine provinces, and conducted them to the sea. I deepened the channels and canals, and conducted them to the streams."
Task: Identify the way Yu responded to the Chinese people's need for water.
A: ____________________________ http://www.mrmoore.net/UNIT%205%20CHINA/Ancient%20China%20Handouts%20ALL.pdf

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1C: Handout:
Life in Ancient China
China is a very large country in eastern Asia. The ancient civilization of China began around 3000 B.C. It began near a very long river called the Huang He. Huang He means "Yellow River." Chinese people farmed the fertile soil along the Huang He. They used the Huang He to irrigate their farms. The Huang He often flooded the land. The floods sometimes destroyed farms, houses, and even whole villages. When this happened, the people called the river "China's Sorrow." The Chinese began to work together to stop the floods. They built strong dirt walls near the river. Sometimes these walls stopped the floods from destroying their farms.
The ancient Chinese developed new ways of farming and invented more efficient farming tools. Among the many new things they introduced were the iron plow, and row cultivation, or growing crops in rows.
The ancient Chinese grew crops in rows and hoed between rows. The ancient Chinese had learned that row cultivation and hoeing led to higher yields, or more crops. An ancient Chinese book states: "If crops are grown in rows they will grow faster because they will not interfere with each other's growth." The ancient
Chinese also had a proverb that said: "There are three inches of moisture on the end of a hoe." The proverb refers to the fact that hoeing helps keep the soil wet. Hoeing kills weeds, which take water away from the crops; in addition, rain water soaks into loose soil more quickly than into hard-packed soil. Saving water in the soil was especially important in northern China, where the weather was often dry. One of the most important farming inventions of the ancient Chinese was the iron plow. The Chinese developed the first iron plows in the world. Iron plows were stronger than the older wood, stone, and bronze plows. http://www.mrmoore.net/UNIT%205%20CHINA/Ancient%20China%20Handouts%20ALL.pdf
Q. What were some positive and negative aspects of the Huang He?
A. ____________________________________________________________
Q. How did the people solve this problem?
A. ____________________________________________________________
Q. What kinds of things were people able to achieve once things got better?
A._____________________________________________________________
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1D: Paragraph from “The Geography of the Silk Road” by Ray Gonzales
The development of Central Asian trade routes caused some problems for Han rulers in China. Bandits took advantage of the terrain to plunder trade caravans along the Gansu Corridor. As a result, trade began to suffer great losses at the expense of merchants at either end of the route. Han rulers answered this threat by constructing forts and defensive walls along part of the route. These sections were later combined to form the 'Great Wall' which still stands today as a testament to human achievement and suffering at the hands of determined emperors. Unfortunately, the wall along the northern side of the Gansu Corridor was

not as effective as intended, as the Chinese periodically lost control of sections of the route. It became apparent to later Han rulers that in order to control the route, especially the Taklimakan region, a permanent local government had to be established. Once a local government in the Taklimakan region was secure, the growth of settlement along the routes really began to take off. Under the protection of the Han
Empire, the settlements were able to reap the benefits of secure and reliable trade. They also absorbed a lot of the local culture, and the cultures that passed them by along the route. http://www.humboldt.edu/~geog309i/ideas/raysilk.html
Q. How did the rulers respond to threats? To what major achievements did this lead?
A. ____________________________________________________________________

Here is the sample paragraph I did. I tried to answer the same questions you have to on your final:
-How did geography affect the development of the civilization?
-How did the people of the civilization work to master their environment?
-What was the civilization able to achieve as a result of the success?
Ancient China benefited greatly from its unique geography, but the people of Ancient China also had to work hard to achieve true success. With deserts to the north, coastline on the east, and mountains to the west and south, China was greatly protected from invasions (Map). When the natural boundaries were not enough protection, rulers responded by constructing the Great
Wall (“Geography”). Yet, within the provinces, the very rivers that provided water for crops also caused serious devastation from flooding. This was certainly the case with the Huang He (“Life”). It took a good deal of work from people to make walls and channels to stop such flooding. Perhaps the people were inspired by their legends, which often spoke of such accomplishments on a grand scale (“Life”, “Yu”). Once the flooding was solved, people were able to focus on developing better and better equipment for farming, such as the iron plow, which would have helped them produce even more food. Such a surplus must have given them a lot to trade, and it must have allowed other people within China time to develop the great items that were traded on the Silk Road
(“Geography”). With difficultly and perseverance, Ancient China and its people often found relatively great success.

Bibliography (I did ¾)
“Geography of Ancient China” [Map]. Mrdonn.org. 12 June 2008.
<http://china.mrdonn.org/geography.htm>
Gonzales, Ray. “Geography of the Silk Road” [Partial Web Paragraph]. Humboldt University
Website. 12 June 2008.
< http://www.humboldt.edu/~geog309i/ideas/raysilk.html>
“Legend of Yu” [Excerpt]. Mrmoore.net. 12 June 2008.
<http://www.mrmoore.net/UNIT%205%20CHINA/Ancient%20China%20Handouts
%20ALL.pd>
.