Talk:The Land of China
The Mysterious & Fabulous Asia Country-China
The history, geography, and location
In ancient times, the geography of China separated it and its people from the rest of the world. Mountains, deserts, and large bodies of water made travel to and from China difficult. This led the people of China to develop a unique respect for the land around them. China's geography helped shaped the civilization, culture, and beliefs of the people who lived there. China, one of the country that can boast of an ancient civilization, has a long and mysterious history-almost 5000 years of it! Like most other great civilizations of the world, China can trace her culture back to a blend of small original tribes which became the great country we have today. It is recorded that Yuanmou man is the oldest hominoid in China and the oldest dynasty is Xia Dynasty. From the long history of China, there emerge many eminent people that have contributed a lot to the development of the whole country and to the enrichment of her history. Among them, there are emperors like Li Shimin, philosophers like Confucius, great patriotic poets like Qu Yuan and so on. Chinese society has progressed through five major stages-Primitive Society, Slave Society, Feudal Society, Capitalist Society, and Socialist Society. The rise and fall of the great dynasties form a thread that runs through Chinese history. Almost from beginning, since the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949. China has become a Socialist Society and become stronger and stronger. China is located at the far-eastern end of the continent of Asia. Present-day China covers more than 3,696,100 square miles and is the third largest country in the world. It stretches about 3,100 miles from east to west and about 3,400 miles from north to south. The entire United States mainland could fit inside China's borders. China has many long and wide rivers that flows across the country. The largest of these rivers are the Huang He, or "Yellow River" in the north and the Chang Jiang or "Long River" in the south. China is known not only for its might rivers but also for its rugged mountains ranges are high, rocky, and hard to cross, one such mountain range-the Taihang Mountains-runs north and south through the center of the northern China. Another range, the Qinling Mountains, runs east and west. The Chinese phrase Four Great Ancient Capitals of China traditionally refers to Beijing, Nanjing, Luoyang, and Chang'an (Xi'an). The later phrase Seven Ancient Capitals of China included Kaifeng, Hangzhou, Anyang, and Zhengzhou.
The dynasties
China is made up of many dynasties, and each dynasty is made up of many emperors. The dynasties of China include the Xia, the Shang, the Western Zhou, the Eastern Zhou, the Spring and Autumn Period, Warring States Period, the Qin, the Western Han, the Three Kingdoms (the Wei, the Shu, and the Wu), the Western Jin, the Eastern Jin, the Southern and Northern Dynasties (Southern Dynasties: the Song, the Qi, the Liang, and the Chen; Northern Dynasties: the Northern Wei, the Eastern Wei, the Western Wei, the Northern Qi, and the Northern Zhou), the Sui, the Tang, the Five Dynasties (the Later Liang, the Later Tang, the Later Jin, the Later Han, and the Later Zhou), the Ten Kingdoms/States (the Wu, the Earlier Shu, the Wu Yue, the Chu, the Min, the Southern Han, the Later Tang, the LAter Shu, the Southern Tang, and the Northern Han), the Song (the Northern Song, and the Southern Song), the Liao,t he Western Xia, the Jin, the Yuan, the Ming, the Qing, the Republic of China (in mainland China, and in Taiwan), and the People's Republic of China.
The physical features
There are several physical features of China. Such as the Himalayas, Mt. Everest, Kunlun Mountains, Tian Shan Mountains, Altay Mountains, Greater Khingan Mountains, Plateau of Tibet, TAklimakan Desert, Gobi Desert, Northern China Plain, Manchurian Plain, Huang He, Chang Jiang, Xi Jiang, and the Yellow sea... China's topography was formed around the emergence of the Qinhai-Tibet Plateau created millions of years ago in the collision of the Indian and Eurasian Plate. The Qinhai-Tibet Plateau rose continuously to become the "roof of the world," averaging more than 4,000m above sea level. The terrain in China then gradually descends from west to east like a staircase. The second step of the staircase includes the gently sloping Inner Mongolia Plateau, the Loess Plateau, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, the Tarim Basin, with an average elevation of between 1,000m to 2,000m. The third step, dropping to 500m to 1,000m in elevation, begins at a line drawn around the Greater Khingan, Taihang, Wushan and Xuefeng mountain ranges and extends eastward to the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Here, from the north to south are the Northeast Plain, the North China Plain and the Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain. Interspersed among the plains are hills and foothills. To the east is the fourth step of the staircase, land that consists the vast continental shelf formed by the shallows together with the islands on rim of the mainland. The Huang He twists and turns about 2,900 miles from its source in the high plateaus of the western China to its mouth at the Yellow Sea. It picks up loess, a yellow silt, as it flows through China's northern deserts. This yellow silt colors the water and gives the Huang He, or "Yellow River" its name. The largest tributary of the Huang He is the Wei River. The Wei River begins in central China and travels to the east until it empties into the Huang He. The Chang Jiang, also called the Yangtze River, is the third longest river in the world. Only the Nile River in and the Amazon River in South America are longer. The Chang Jiang flows about 3,430 miles from the highlands of the Tibet to the Pacific Ocean. It winds through mountains and plunges through deep gorges before it reaches the ocean.
The Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China was built over 2,000 years ago, by the Qin ShiHuangdi, the first emperor of China during the Qin Dynasty. In Chinese, the wall is called "Wan-Li Chang-Cheng" which means 10,000-Li long wall. After subjugating and uniting China from seven warring states, the emperor connected and extended four old fortification walls along the north of China that originated about 700 BC. Armies were stationed along the wall as a first line of defense against the invading nomadic Xiong Nu tribes north of China, signal fire from the wall provided early warning of an attack. The Great Wall is of the longest building construction projects ever completed. It stretches across the mountains of northern China, winding north and northwest of Beijing. It is constructed of masonry, rocks and packed-earth. It was over 5,000km long. Its thickness range from about 4.5 to 9 meters and was up tp 7.5 meters tall. During the Ming Dynasty, the Great Wall was enlarged to 6,400 kilometers and renovated over a 200 year period, with watch-towers and cannons added. The Great Wall of China was the largest structure ever built.
Summary
China's geography is very unique. It has many long, wide rivers and high,rocky mountains can protect China from attacks. The large bodies of water help China's farming, the water can also help trade, and transportation easier. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wwinnie (talk • contribs) 21:45, 21 June 2008 (UTC)