Geography and Early China

Geography and Early China

EQ: How did geography determine where the first people

of China settled?

China’s Physical Geography

• Geography played a major role in the development of Chinese civilization.

• Many geographical features.

• Some features separated groups of people within China.

• Others separated China from the rest of the world.

EQ: How did geography determine where the first people of China settled?

Geography of China

China covers an area of nearly 4 million square miles, about the same size as the United States.

• Physical barriers that separates China from its neighbors is a harsh desert, the Gobi.

• East of the Gobi are low-lying plains. – cover most of eastern China– form one of the world’s largest farming regions.

• The Pacific Ocean forms the country’s eastern boundary.


Geography of China

• Southwest - the Plateau of Tibet

- has several mountain peaks that reach more than 26,000 feet.

• From the plateau, smaller mountain ranges spread eastward.

• The most important of these ranges is the Qinling Shandi it separates northern China from southern China.


Northeast China

• Climate is cold and dry.

• Winter temperatures drop well below 0°F.

• Rivers are frozen for more than half of the year.


Northwest China

• the deserts are very dry.

• on the eastern plains of China, heavy rains


Eastern Plains

• Heavy rains fall.

• The tropical southeast is the wettest

region.

Monsoons can bring 250 inches of rain each year. That’s enough water to cover a two-story house!


Rivers of China

Two great rivers flow from west to east in China.

The Huang He, or Yellow River,– stretches for nearly 3,000 miles across northern

China. – The river often floods and leaves behind layers of silt

on the surrounding countryside.

• Sometimes called “China’s Sorrow” because these floods can be very destructive

• Over the years, millions of people have died in Huang He floods.


Rivers of China

• the Chang Jiang, or Yangzi River, – cuts through central China. – Flows from the mountains of Tibet to the

Pacific Ocean.

• The Chang Jiang is the longest river in Asia.


• In early China, the two rivers helped link people in the eastern part of the country with those in the west.

• At the same time, the mountains between the rivers limited contact.


Class Work and Homework• Fill In

– What did I learn– Confused– Say

– Map activity – Using a map of China in the green geography book (pp. 626-627) or the red geography book (pp. A 20-A23), label the features discussed in these notes.

– Answer the questions on the back of your map.

EQ: How did geography

determine where the first people of China

settled?

Geography and Early China

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