GEOGRAPHY AND THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF CHINA

•China is the largest country in Eastern Asia•The world’s largest mountains , the Himalayas are in China.

China geography China is the 3rd

largest country in the world, with a population of 1.2 billion, more people live in China than in any other country in the world.

China is divided into two areas: Outer China and Inner China

The Geography of Outer China Outer China includes

the western and northern parts of China.

The key geographical region in this area is the Tibet-Qinghai, the world’s largest plateau.

The region is bitterly cold, with only about 50 days without frost.

The geography of inner china

Inner China includes the southern part of present day China.

It’s a land of rolling hills, river valleys, and plains.

Rivers flow from the west and provide water for irrigation and floods enrich the soil.

Inner China has two main regions: 1. The North China Plain 2. Low River basins of middle and lower Chang Jiang basins.

The Tibet-Qinghai Plateau The Southwestern part of

China is dominated by the high Tibet-Qinghai Plateau know as the Tibetan Plateau.

The Tibetan plateau is called “The Roof of World”, because it’s average elevation is 13,500 feet more than two miles above sea level.

The Tibet-Qinghai Plateau The Tibetan Plateau hold

the Himalayan Mountains including Mt. Everest the tallest mountain in the world.

Two of China’s major rivers begin in this area, the Yellow River and the Yangtze.

The climate is very cold so it was difficult to grow crops and instead the people of China herded yaks.

The Northwest Desert The northwest part

of China is known for its vast deserts including the Taklimakan and Gobi deserts.

The climate varies from very hot to cold.

The Taklimakan Desert The Taklimakan

desert covers an area in china about 150,000 square kilometers.

It is considered one of the most dangerous in the world, with sand dunes that shift and sandstorms arise with stunning speeds

The Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert is

one of the largest deserts in the world .

Unlike the Taklimakan Desert the Gobi Desert does not have sand dunes and is very stony, made up of small pebbles and bits of sand.

The Northeastern plain The Northeastern

plain is located in present day Mongolia.

It’s a land of low hills and plains, and in ancient times natural vegetation was prairie grass that provided food for horses, sheep, and other animals raised by herders.

The Northeastern plain

In the South, a narrow coastal plain links the northwestern plain to the rest of China.

This plain was used in ancient times by several groups of invaders as a route to Inner China.

The North China Plain One of the two

major regions in Inner China is the North China Plain, a flat region of grassland.

The region is sometime called “Land of the Yellow Earth” because the ground is covered by yellow limestone silt.

North China Plain The Huang He (Yellow)

river is one of the longest rivers in the world.

The silt it carries helps fertilize the surrounding lands, making the North China Plain a good place in which to settle and grow crops.

The Chang Jiang Basins The Chang Jiang

Basins are areas of low, wet coastal plains.

The basins are located along the 3rd longest river in the world the Chang Jiang. (Yangtze River)

Life in Outer China

Mainly because Outer China did not have good farmland, fewer people settled there.

Most people in Outer China were nomads who had to move to find new grazing lands.

Their main food was meat because of raising livestock and often invaded Inner China (North China Plain) to get needed supplies. Eventually the people of Inner China built the great Wall of China to keep invaders out.

Life in Inner China The fertile land of Inner

China supported larger, more settled populations on the North China plain.

The Chang Jiang basin had limited farmland, but rice thrived in this warm, wet area.

Inner China was protected by the natural barriers in the southwest of mountains and in the northwest deserts.