Title of Project: Understanding China in Geography – the network development
for educational program on China
Current results from the previous projects:
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A virtual course on China in geography at http:// chinadatacenter.org
/chinageography/
The China Culture Map project at http://chinadatacenter.org/culturemap/
The series GIS maps of county and provincial boundaries of China from
1990 to 2000.
The GIS maps of province, county and townships integrated with 2000
population Census data
The GIS maps of cities integrated with statistical data from 1996-2000.
China Atlas of Population and Environment (1990-1999).
2000 China Atlas of Population, Environment and Sustainable
Development (in both Chinese and English).
China Atlas of Industrial Economy
China Atlas of 2000 Population Census
China Atlas of the 3rd Industrial Census
The Complete Collection of China 2000 Provincial Population Census
Data Assemblies
The Complete Collection of China 2000 County/District Population Census
Data Assemblies
The regional database of socioeconomic statistics from 1949-2002.
City statistics from 1996-2002.
County statistics from 1996-2002.
Project Description
A. Background
China is the world’s largest country in population and the third largest in area. China has
the world’s oldest living civilization. Its written history goes back about 3500 years. Since China
is open its market to international investors in 1980s, the Chinese economy has experienced an
annual growth rate of about 10%. China’s global economic importance will certainly continue to
increase, and it represents what may be the world's largest experiment in contrasting development
strategies. It is likely to become a major military power and also the largest single national
contributor of greenhouse gases on the globe. Meanwhile, the declining environment of China has
become a global concern. China is thus a major testing ground for improving our understanding
of the complex interactions between population growth, economic development, and resource and
environmental mobilization and management. China is a unique laboratory, which provides a
unique case for examining the processes and consequences of the contrasting nature of regional
economies and differentials in their rates of development. It is expected that China will play a
more and more significant role in the new order of the world after it joined the WTO. With a long
history of human manipulation of the environment, China brings together a rich mixture of
ecological, ethic, economic, cultural, and other factors. Its data resources in both historical depth
and geographical coverage present unique opportunities for studying long-term developments in
various sectors and the overall interaction of humans and their environments.
Although many students are much interested in China, there is still lack of an up-to-date class as
general introduction to China from spatial aspects to meet the needs of the students. This project
will develop a network for curriculum development, web site development and self-learning
process for instructors, undergraduate students or even high school students to help them a better
understanding in the characteristics of environment, natural resources, population, and human
development of China. The project is based on a learning-by-doing strategy. The students will
learn the environment of China by participating in our research projects. The web site will
provide a rich source on China with extensive collection of maps, charts, tables and datasets. It is
expected that the curriculum and the web site developed from this project will also serve as a
reference library for faculty who are interested in teaching classes on China. The web site will be
offered in both English and Chinese and will be updated timely by data and news by keeping
tracks of changes in the environment of China.
This project will develop an international network for improving understanding in
Chinese environment. It will include:
A network for educational program development.
The project will be supported by some educational institutions in the U.S. and China with
participants from both sides.
A network for instructors
The instructors will have opportunities to make their contributions to the project by
joining a partnership network with other instructors.
A network for students
This project will develop a mechanism for students to participate in the project by selflearning process. The project will organize some competitions for students’ projects and select the
winners to visit China.
B. Objectives
The objectives of this project include:
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To design a curriculum for the class on the introduction to the environment and
development of China in terms of spatial distribution.
To collect and combine data and documents from different resources (such as
geographical, cultural, environmental, and socioeconomic data) into the frame of
economic, cultural and environmental geography of China
To improve students' understanding of the characteristics of environment, natural
resources, population, recent economic development and culture features of China
To establish a virtual course of economic, cultural and environmental geography of
China
C. Contents
Here is a proposed curriculum:
1. Natural Environment of China
2. Resource Geography of China
3. History in Geography
4. Population in Geography
5. Economic in Geography
6. Culture in Geography
The China Data Center has a rich collection of non-spatial and spatial data on China.
Those data include socioeconomic data (such as economic statistics, census data, and social
survey data at national and local levels), geographical data (such as evaluation, administrative
boundaries, rivers, roads, and railways), and environmental data (such as pollution, soil, climate
and precipitation), and hundreds of images of paintings and sculptures from many canvas in
China.
D. Project Plans
The project will include the following tasks:
o Design the curriculum of the class
o Collect new data and historical data on China
o Compile the data and other resources, and create maps that overlay the geo-reference
mapping, showing the characteristics of environment, natural resources, population,
economic development and cultural feature.
o Compile the reference materials for the class
o Develop a virtual course on the web site
o Develop a new research seminar class for undergraduate students on Ann Arbor
campus
E. Benefits:
The students will help collect the data and documents, compile different resources,
organize the teaching materials for the class, and develop web files for a virtual course to be
distributed on the Internet.
The students will not only make their direct contributions to the project, but also benefit
from this project through a better understanding of China in terms of time and space. This project
will provide a good opportunity for undergraduate students to be involved in research on China
directly.
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The project will also benefit other students and faculty through development of such a
new seminar class on China, and may foster more campus interest and research activities on
China.
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