China+Geography


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What do you know about China's geography?  Do you think it is flat like Illinois? Let's find out!  To give you an idea of the size of China, its' area is slightly smaller than the United States.  It's a large area of land which is home to a lot of people (which we will talk more about later!) (China, cia.gov, 2011)  **Fun Fact:** China shares a border with 14 countries! See if you can find all 14 in the map above!

Climate: The climate of China is very diverse. Its' Southern parts are tropical, but the Northern parts are subarctic. (China, cia.gov, 2011)

Do you know any other countries that are like this? Maybe the United States?  Our Southern states are warm (Florida, Texas, Arizona) and many Northern states are cold (Minnesota, Alaska, Michigan).

 Natural Hazards: Natural disasters are common in China. Typhoons frequently occur, along with floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, droughts, and land subsidence. China has some volcanoes that are currently inactive. (China, cia.gov, 2011)

China has had 6 of the world's top 10 floods/landslides, 3 of the top 10 earthquakes, and 6 of the top 10 famines. Of the top 10 **deadliest** natural disasters, China was where 5 occurred, including the top 3 deadliest disasters. (Natural Disasters in China, wikipedia.org, 2011)

Natural disasters are a huge concern and of great impact on the country of China. <span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 20px; text-align: center;">Water Mass: <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"> Of the 3,705,405 square miles of land, water takes up a small, but still significant 104,460 square miles. (China, worldatlas.com, 2011)The Yangtze River is the longest in Asia and third longest in the world; 3,988 miles long. It is a very important resource to China.(Yangtze River, wikipedia.org, 2011)



<span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 20px; text-align: center;">Terrain: <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 17px; text-align: center;"> China is mostly mountainous with high plateaus, however, to the west there are deserts, and to the east there are plains, deltas, and hills. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">(China, cia.gov, 2011) <span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%; text-align: center;">Major Land Forms : <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">China is home to the Gobi Desert which covers part of Mongolia as well. Unlike the deserts that we are most familiar with, this desert is covered by mostly rock, not sand, and it is a **<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> cold **<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">desert. It is not uncommon to see frost or snow in the plateaus of this desert! <span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Because this desert is in the Northern part of China, it's temperatures vary a lot throughout the year, but it can be very cold as a result of winds that blow in. (Gobi Desert, wikipedia.org, 2011) //<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Try to imagine what a cold desert would be like! // <span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"> China has the **world's highest point**, Mt. Everest, part of the Himalayas. It stands tall at 8,850 meters! (China, cia.gov, 2011)  <span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"> Here is a 3D image of Mt. Everest -- look for the highest peak! <span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;">

<span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"> Mt. Everest separates Nepal and Tibet. <span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"> If you click on Ter (Terrain View) in the upper right hand corner of the map below and then zoom out twice with the minus arrow, you can see Nepal,Tibet and the land form between them which is the mountainous region of Mt. Everest. Feel free to explore the land of China! media type="googlemap" key="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=South+Korea&daddr=China&hl=en&geocode=%3BFZw0IwIdReU1BinBQsblZI5QMTFvNp80fKodlQ&aq=0&sll=34.885931,75.761719&sspn=91.618103,186.152344&vpsrc=6&mra=ls&ie=UTF8&ll=34.885931,75.761719&spn=64.755762,82.715446&t=m&output=embed" width="425" height="350" align="center"

<span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Check out the website below for some fun facts about Mt. Everest! <span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;">[] <span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #299e79; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Plants and Animals: <span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Now that we know about the climate and terrain of China, we can understand what kind of plant and animal life we might find. <span style="color: #299e79; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"> __<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">China is one of the countries with the greatest diversity of wildlife in the world __<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">.

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">There are more than 100 wild animal species unique to China including such well-known rare animals as the giant panda, golden-haired monkey, South China tiger, brown-eared pheasant, red-crowned crane, red ibis, white-flag dolphin and Chinese alligator.

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">The black-and-white giant panda weighs on average 135 kg and lives on tender bamboo leaves and bamboo shoots. Because it is extremely rare - just over 1,500 are left at present - it has become the symbol of the world's protected wild animals.



<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">The white-flag dolphin is one of only two species of freshwater whales in the world. In 1980, a male white-flag dolphin was caught for the first time in the **Yangtze River**, which aroused great interest among dolphin researchers worldwide.

__<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">China is also one of the countries with the most abundant plant life in the world __<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">.

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">There are more than 32,000 species of higher plants, and almost all the major plants that grow in the northern hemisphere's frigid, temperate and tropical zones are represented in China. In addition, there are more than 7,000 species of woody plants, including 2,800-odd tree species. China is home to more than 2,000 species of plants that can be eaten and over 3,000 species of plants used in medicine. (Plants and Animals in China, china.org.cn, 2011)

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Resources <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">China. (n.d.). // World Atlas //. Retrieved December 7, 2011, from @http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/cnlarge.htm <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Giant Panda In China. (n.d.). // Animals Species //. Retrieved December 8, 2011, from @http://animalsspecies.blogspot.com/2011/05/giant-panda-in-china.html <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Gobi Desert. (2011, November 5).// Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia //. Retrieved December 8, 2011, from @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobi_Desert <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Mount Everest. (2011, December 4).// Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia //. Retrieved December 8, 2011, from @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Mt Everest History and facts. (n.d.). // Mount Everest Facts //. Retrieved December 7, 2011, from http://[|www.mnteverest.net/history.htm]// <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">//Natural disasters in China. (2011, November 3).// Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia //. Retrieved December 7, 2011, from []// <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Plants and Animals in China. (n.d.).// China.org.cn //. Retrieved December 8, 2011, from @http://china.org.cn/english/environment/222917.htm <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">//The World Factbook: China. (2011, November 10).// Central Intelligence Agency //. Retrieved December 6, 2011, from []// <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">//Yangtze River. (2011, December 7).// Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia //. Retrieved December 8, 2011, from @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangtze_River