Geography and People of East Asia
China’s Population
• Most populated country
• home to over 1.3 billion
people
– 1/5 of world’s population
• Where do most people
live? Why?
• Third largest nation
• Mountains cover about
80% of land, few flat areas
• only about 10% good for
farming
China’s People
• 95% are HAN- ethnic
Chinese
• homogenous society
• language- Mandarin is
official dialect
• Multiple minority
ethnic groups
A Land of Beauty
A Land of Contrasts: Traditional…
Buddhist
monk in
Beijing
Pagoda in
Beijing
…and Modern
Beijing at
night
Chengdu:
Capital of
Sichuan
Province
China Reaches Outer Space, 2003
The use of names similar to those of
famous foreign brands is common
throughout China.
Terrace Farming
• Due to lack of farm
land
• To develop more
farmland
• cut fields into sides of
hills
Tibetan Plateau- Relative location?
Llasa
Movement and collision of
tectonic plates created the
mountains and plateaus
Gobi Desert
Potential for oil reserves
far greater than the US
Petroleum trucks in
the Taklimakan Desert
Himalayas
Huang He
• Yellow River
• loess- yellow-brown
soil carried into river
by the wind
• “River of sorrow”
• second longest river in
China
In some places in
China’s Shanxi
Province
(northeast), the
loess is so thick
and firm that
people can build
energy-efficient,
cave-like houses
in it.
Chang Jiang
• Yangtze River
– longest river in China
– major river for trade
– Shanghai port
• Three Gorges Dam
– Hydroelectric power
– very controversial
• flooding
• force people to move
– @ 3 million ppl
Japan
• Archipelago: define?
• Located along the Pacific
Ring of Fire
• Very volcanic, not part of
the continental shift
• numerous earthquakes
• Mount Fuji – volcano
– Japan’s most cultural
symbol
• over 3000 islands