China today is the largest world country with population and third largest country in land size. Beijing is the capital now, but the capital has changed over the years depending on the ruler or dynasty of the time. In this section students will learn important facts about China's land, the culture, Ancient China and the Dynasties.
The Chinese word for "China" literally means Middle Country. China is located in the center of Asia. The graphic coordinates are latitude 35/00 north of the Equator and longitude 105/00 east of Greenwich. China is surrounded by Mongolia to the north, North and South Korea to the east, India to the west and Thailand with the South China Sea to the south. Other neighbors are Vietnam, Laos, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bhutan. More than 1,287,900,000 people live in China today (www.travelchinaguide.com). That is the largest amount of people anywhere in the world. Many Chinese families have only one child to help with the control of the large population. Many Chinese do not have cars. Can you imagine if every one in China had a car? People are encouraged to walk or use a bicycle to travel around.
Two important rivers in China are the Yangtze (alternative spelling: Yangzi). It is also known as the Chang Jiang or Long River and the Huang He (also known as the Yellow River). These two rivers are very important to China's agriculture and livelihood. The Yangtze River begins near Tibet in southwestern China. It continues to flow to Shanghai on the eastern side of China. It is the third longest river in the world. It is called the long river because it flow over 3,900 miles eastward though China. This river supplies water for the farmers who grow and sell rice. In the northern part of China, the Huang He River flows from the East China Sea coast to the southwest area just before the Plateau of Tibet. The river provides water for wheat farms. There is a big water shortage in China today so this water flow is vital to the culture and food chain. The river gets its name from the yellowish loess dust that flies into the river causing flooding in many areas. Large levees were built to help with this flooding problem. Other rivers and water shape the China land form. The Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea all play a major role in China's culture. There are over five thousand islands on China's coast. The largest island is Hainan in the South China Sea. Other islands near China include Hong Kong and Taiwan. (Dalby, 2005)
Besides the rivers, seas, and islands, China has very rugged mountainous areas. About one third of China is a mountainous area. One mountain area in Tibet is the Himalayas. It is the highest peak on Earth and was formed over 55 million years ago. This snow peaked mountain range is the highest in the world. China also has a dry area in the northwest. The Taklimakan (Takla Makan) Desert is the second largest desert in the world. The Gobi Desert is also located in China, but very few people live there due to the rocky terrain. China also has forests that are home to much wild life such as monkeys, wolves, bears and the famous giant panda. (See Appendix 2)
Modern China has many large cities. The largest city is off the gulf of the Pacific Ocean. It is Shanghai; with a population of over twelve million people. The capital, Beijing (Jing) has 14,930,000 million people residing there (www.travelchinaguide.com ) or (http://en.wikipedia.org ). This is incredible considering that Beijing is only 6336 square mile area. All of China is under government control. If you lived in China you would need special permission to move from your city to another.
To really understand China and its culture, we must travel back in time to a Chinese Dynasty and Ancient Chinese way of life for Emperor Qin. A dynasty is a ruling family under an emperor. An empire could last any where from fifteen years to eight hundred years. In ancient times the people of China supported their ruler because they believed he was chosen from heaven to rule. Some dynasties lasted a shorter time because the people of China felt as if the ruler lost his heavenly power. This next section discusses the Qin Dynasty and the importance it played on today's Chinese cultural.