1.
Mount Everest
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Mount Everest, also known in Nepal as Sagarmāthā and in China as Chomolungma/珠穆朗玛峰, is Earths highest mountain. Its peak is 8,848 metres above sea level, Mount Everest is in the Mahalangur Range. The international border between China and Nepal runs across Everests summit point and its massif includes neighbouring peaks Lhotse,8,516 m, Nuptse,7,855 m, and Changtse,7,580 m. In 1856, the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India established the first published height of Everest, then known as Peak XV, at 8,840 m. The current official height of 8,848 m as recognised by China and Nepal was established by a 1955 Indian survey, in 2005, China remeasured the height of the mountain and got a result of 8844.43 m. An argument regarding the height between China and Nepal lasted five years from 2005 to 2010, China argued it should be measured by its rock height which is 8,844 m but Nepal said it should be measured by its snow height 8,848 m. In 2010, an agreement was reached by both sides that the height of Everest is 8,848 m and Nepal recognises Chinas claim that the rock height of Everest is 8,844 m. In 1865, Everest was given its official English name by the Royal Geographical Society upon a recommendation by Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India. As there appeared to be several different local names, Waugh chose to name the mountain after his predecessor in the post, Sir George Everest, Mount Everest attracts many climbers, some of them highly experienced mountaineers. There are two main climbing routes, one approaching the summit from the southeast in Nepal and the other from the north in Tibet, as of 2016 there are well over 200 corpses on the mountain, with some of them even serving as landmarks. The first recorded efforts to reach Everests summit were made by British mountaineers, with Nepal not allowing foreigners into the country at the time, the British made several attempts on the north ridge route from the Tibetan side. Tragedy struck on the descent from the North Col when seven porters were killed in an avalanche. They had been spotted high on the mountain that day but disappeared in the clouds, never to be seen again, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary made the first official ascent of Everest in 1953 using the southeast ridge route. Tenzing had reached 8,595 m the previous year as a member of the 1952 Swiss expedition, the Chinese mountaineering team of Wang Fuzhou, Gonpo, and Qu Yinhua made the first reported ascent of the peak from the north ridge on 25 May 1960. In 1802, the British began the Great Trigonometric Survey of India to fix the locations, heights, starting in southern India, the survey teams moved northward using giant theodolites, each weighing 500 kg and requiring 12 men to carry, to measure heights as accurately as possible. They reached the Himalayan foothills by the 1830s, but Nepal was unwilling to allow the British to enter the country due to suspicions of political aggression, several requests by the surveyors to enter Nepal were turned down. The British were forced to continue their observations from Terai, a region south of Nepal which is parallel to the Himalayas, conditions in Terai were difficult because of torrential rains and malaria. Three survey officers died from malaria while two others had to retire because of failing health, nonetheless, in 1847, the British continued the survey and began detailed observations of the Himalayan peaks from observation stations up to 240 km distant
2.
Turpan Depression
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It includes the fourth lowest exposed point on the Earths surface, after the Dead Sea, Sea of Galilee, and Lake Assal. It is entirely sea level. By some measures, it is also the hottest and driest area in China, the Turpan Basin is a fault-bounded trough located in the eastern part of the Tian Shan. It covers an area of 50,000 square kilometres, the surrounding mountain ranges are, the central Tian Shan in the west, the Bogda Shan in the north-west, the Haerlike Shan in the north-west, and the Jueluotage Shan in the south. Beyond the surrounding mountain ranges lie the Junggar Basin in the north, some geographers also use the term Turpan-Hami Basin, which is understood as including the Turpan Depression along with the Hami Depression and the Liaodong Uplift separating the two depressions. A source using this terminology gave the area of the Turpan Depression proper as 28,600 km2, that of the Hami Depression as 19,300 km2, and for the entire Turpan-Hami Basin, as 48,000 km2. The Turpan Basin formed in a zone during the Late Permian due to motion between the East European and the Angaran craton. It was subsequently deformed by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates in the Cenozoic, in the latter deformation, a thrust fault belt running from east to west, the Flaming Mountains, was formed in the center of the basin. The Flaming Mountains are 98 km long and 9 km wide, the Turfan volcano is located near Turpan. Also in the center of the lies the Ayding Lake which has an elevation of 154.5 m below sea level. Its shores mark the third lowest exposed elevation on the Earths land surface, after the Dead Sea, which reaches down to more than 400 m below sea level and it is the lowest surface point in China. The Shihongtan uranium ore deposit is located at the margin of the Turpan Depression. The Turpan Basin has a harsh, continental climate in which the precipitation is far less than the potential evaporation. At Turpan City, July is the hottest month with a 24-hour average temperature of 32.2 °C, monthly rainfall is highest in June, at 2.9 millimetres and lowest in February and April, at 0.5 mm. The annual average precipitation is only 15.7 mm, falling on only 13 days per year, in contrast to this, the potential annual evaporation rate reaches 3,000 mm. Because of its climate, the area is counted as one of the Furnaces of China. On the shores of Aydingkol Lake, reeds, tamarisks, saxauls, as well as other shrubs, away from sources of water, the Turpan Basin is not covered by vegetation. Consequently, agriculture is limited to oasis and depends on an irrigation system known as the Karez System
3.
Yangtze
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The Yangtze River, known in China as the Cháng Jiāng or the Yángzǐ Jiāng, is the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world. The river is the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country and it drains one-fifth of the land area of the Peoples Republic of China and its river basin is home to one-third of the countrys population. The Yangtze is the sixth-largest river by volume in the world. The Yangtze River plays a role in the history, culture. The prosperous Yangtze River Delta generates as much as 20% of the PRCs GDP, for thousands of years, the river has been used for water, irrigation, sanitation, transportation, industry, boundary-marking and war. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world, in recent years, the river has suffered from industrial pollution, agricultural run-off, siltation, and loss of wetland and lakes, which exacerbates seasonal flooding. Some sections of the river are now protected as nature reserves, a stretch of the upstream Yangtze flowing through deep gorges in western Yunnan is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In mid-2014 the Chinese government announced it was building a transport network, comprising railways, roads and airports. Because the source of the Yangtze was not ascertained until modern times, Yangtze was actually the name of Chang Jiang for the lower part from Nanjing to the river mouth at Shanghai. In modern Chinese, Yangtze is still used to refer to the part of Chang Jiang from Nanjing to the river mouth. Yangtze never stands for the whole Chang Jiang, Chang Jiang is the modern Chinese name for the lower 2,884 km of the Yangtze from its confluence with the Min River at Yibin in Sichuan Province to the river mouth at Shanghai. Chang Jiang literally means the Long River, in Old Chinese, this stretch of the Yangtze was simply called Jiang/Kiang 江, a character of phono-semantic compound origin, combining the water radical 氵 with the homophone 工. Krong was probably a word in the Austroasiatic language of local peoples such as the Yue, similar to *krong in Proto-Vietnamese and krung in Mon, all meaning river, it is related to modern Vietnamese sông and Khmer kôngkea. By the Han Dynasty, Jiang had come to any river in Chinese. The epithet 長, means long, was first formally applied to the river during the Six Dynasties period, various sections of Chang Jiang have local names. From Yibin to Yichang, the river through Sichuan and Chongqing Municipality is also known as the Chuan Jiang or Sichuan River, in the Hubei Province, the river is also called the Jing Jiang or the Jing River after Jingzhou. In Anhui Province, the takes on the local name Wan Jiang after the shorthand name for Anhui. And Yangzi Jiang t 揚子江s 扬子江, p Yángzǐjiāng) or the Yangzi River, the name likely comes from an ancient ferry crossing called Yangzi or Yangzijin
4.
Qinghai Lake
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Qinghai Lake, Kokonor or Tsongon Po is the largest lake in the Peoples Republic of China. Located in Qinghai province on a basin, Qinghai Lake is classified as a saline and alkaline lake. Qinghai Lake has an area of 4,317 square kilometres, an average depth of 21 metres. The current Chinese name Qinghai, the older Mongolian name Kokonor, Qinghai Lake is located about 100 kilometres west of the provincial capital of Xining at 3,205 m above sea level in a hollow of the Tibetan plateau. Twenty-three rivers and streams empty into Qinghai Lake, most of them seasonal, five permanent streams provide 80% of total influx. The lake has fluctuated in size, shrinking over much of the 20th century, there are five native fish species, The edible naked carp, which is the most abundant in the lake, and four stoneloaches. 14 parts per thousand and pH of 9.3, Qinghai Lake became isolated from the Yellow River about 150,000 years ago. Qinghai Lake is sandwiched between Hainan and Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures in northeastern Qinghai, the lake is located at the crossroads of several bird migration routes across Asia. Many species use Qinghai as a stop during migration. As such, it is a point in global concerns regarding avian influenza, as a major outbreak here could spread the virus across Europe and Asia. Minor outbreaks of H5N1 have already identified at the lake. At the tip of the peninsula on the side of the lake are the Bird Islands. The lake often remains frozen for three months continuously in winter, there is an island in the western part of the lake with a temple and a few hermitages called Mahādeva, the Heart of the Lake which historically was home to a Buddhist monastery. No boat was used during summer, so monks and pilgrims travelled to and it is also known as the place where Gushri Khan and other Khoshut Mongols migrated to during the 1620s. The lake is circumambulated by pilgrims, mainly Tibetan Buddhists, especially every Horse Year of the 12-year cycle, in the Han Dynasty, Qinghai Lake was called the West Sea, and substantial numbers of Han Chinese lived in the Xining valley. In the 17th century, Mongolic-speaking Oirat and Khalkha tribals migrated to Qinghai, in 1724, the Qinghai Mongols led by Lobzang Danjin revolted against Chinas Qing Dynasty. The Yongzheng Emperor, after putting down the rebellion, stripped away Qinghais autonomy, Yongzheng also sent Manchu and Han settlers to dilute the Mongols. During Nationalist rule, Hans formed a majority of Qinghai Provinces residents, during the ritual, the Chinese national anthem was sung, all participants bowed to a Portrait of Kuomintang party founder Dr. Sun Yat-sen, as well as to the God of the Lake
5.
South China Sea
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The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Karimata and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around 3,500,000 square kilometres. The areas importance largely results from one-third of the worlds shipping sailing through its waters, the sea and its mostly uninhabited islands are subject to competing claims of sovereignty by several countries. These claims are reflected in the variety of names used for the islands. South China Sea is the dominant term used in English for the sea, and this name is a result of early European interest in the sea as a route from Europe and South Asia to the trading opportunities of China. In the sixteenth century Portuguese sailors called it the China Sea, the International Hydrographic Organization refers to the sea as South China Sea. The Classic of Poetry, Zuo Zhuan, and Guoyu classics of the Spring and Autumn period also referred to the sea, Nan Hai, the South Sea, was one of the Four Seas of Chinese literature. There are three other seas, one for each of the four cardinal directions, during the Eastern Han dynasty, Chinas rulers called the Sea Zhang Hai. Fei Hai became popular during the Southern and Northern Dynasties period, usage of the current Chinese name, Nan Hai, became gradually widespread during the Qing Dynasty. In Southeast Asia it was called the Champa Sea or Sea of Cham. The majority of the sea came under Japanese naval control during World War II following the acquisition of many surrounding South East Asian territories in 1941. Japan calls the sea Minami Shina Kai South China Sea and this was written 南支那海 until 2004, when the Japanese Foreign Ministry and other departments switched the spelling 南シナ海, which has become the standard usage in Japan. In China, it is called the South Sea, 南海 Nánhǎi, in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, it was long called the South China Sea, with the part within Philippine territorial waters often called the Luzon Sea, Dagat Luzon, by the Philippines. However, following an escalation of the Spratly Islands dispute in 2011, a PAGASA spokesperson said that the sea to the east of the Philippines will continue to be called the Philippine Sea. In September 2012, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III signed Administrative Order No, states and territories with borders on the sea include, the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam. Major rivers that flow into the South China Sea include the Pearl, Min, Jiulong, Red, Mekong, Rajang, Pahang, Pampanga, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the South China Sea as follows, On the South. From Fuki Kaku the North point of Formosa to Kiushan Tao on to the South point of Haitan Tao, the Mainland, the Southern limit of the Gulf of Thailand and the East coast of the Malay Peninsula. The sea lies above a drowned continental shelf, during recent ice ages global sea level was hundreds of metres lower, the South China Sea opened around 45 million years ago when the Dangerous Ground rifted away from southern China. Extension culminated in seafloor spreading around 30 million years ago, a process that propagated to the SW resulting in the V-shaped basin we see today, extension ceased around 17 million years ago
6.
Hainan
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Hainan is the smallest and southernmost province of the Peoples Republic of China, consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. Hainan Island, separated from Guangdongs Leizhou Peninsula by the Qiongzhou Strait, is the largest island under PRC control and makes up the majority of the province. The province has an area of 33,920 square kilometers, with Hainan Island making up 32,900 square kilometers, there are a total of ten major cities and ten counties in Hainan Province. Haikou on the northern coast of Hainan Island is the capital while Sanya is a well-known tourist destination on the southern coast, the other major cities are Wenchang, Qionghai, Wanning, Wuzhishan, Dongfang, and Danzhou. Chinas controversial claims in the South China Sea, including the Nansha and Xisha Islands, are administered as part of the province. The provincial name derives from its island, Hainan, which is named for its position south of the Qiongzhou Strait. Former names for Hainan Island include Zhuya, Qiongya, and Qiongzhou, the later two gave rise to the provincial abbreviation 瓊 or 琼. Hainan Island first entered history in 110 BC, when the Han dynasty of China established a military garrison there following the arrival of General Lu Bode. In 46 BC the Han court decided that the conquest was too expensive, around that time, Han Chinese people together with military personnel and officials began to migrate to Hainan Island from the mainland. Among them were the offspring of those who were banished to Hainan for political reasons, most of them arrived in Hainan Island from the southern Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Guangxi. Li people are the inhabitants of Hainan. They are believed to be the descendants of the ancient tribes from the mainland, some others live elsewhere on Hainan with other ethnic groups in Danzhou, Wanning, Qionghai, Lingshui and Tunchang. The area inhabited by the Li ethnic group totals 18,700 square kilometers, during the Three Kingdoms Period, Hainan was the Zhuya Commandery under the control of Eastern Wu. At the time of the Song dynasty, Hainan became part of Guangxi, under the Mongol Empire the island became an independent province then in 1370 was placed under the administration of Guangdong by the ruling Ming dynasty. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, large numbers of Han people from Fujian and Guangdong began migrating to Hainan, in the eighteenth century, the Li rebelled against the Qing Empire, which responded by bringing in mercenaries from the Miao regions of Guizhou. Many of the Miao settled on the island and their descendants live in the highlands to this day. During the 17th and 18th centuries, explorers referred to the island as Aynam, in 1906, the revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen proposed that Hainan should become a separate province although this did not happen until 1988. Hainan was historically part of Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces and as such was the Qiongya Circuit under the 1912 establishment of the Republic of China
7.
Luoping County
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Luoping County is located in Qujing Prefecture, Yunnan, China. Located near where Yunnan meets Guizhou and Guangxi, Luoping is about 240 kilometers east of Kunming, not unlike the terraced fields of Yuanyang in southern Yunnan, Luopings canola fields attract many photographers. Luopings golden beauty lasts until late June, during this high travel season for the county regular buses leave from Kunmings bus stations on an almost hourly basis. Accommodation in Luoping ranges from cheap 10-yuan boarding houses to more expensive star-rated hotels, the Luoping County Almanac lists the following Yi subgroups and their respective locations
8.
Yunnan
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Yunnan is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country. It spans approximately 394,000 square kilometres and has a population of 45.7 million in 2009, the capital of the province is Kunming, formerly also known as Yunnan. The province borders Vietnam, Laos, and Burma, Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with high elevations in the northwest and low elevations in the southeast. Most of the lives in the eastern part of the province. In the west, the altitude can vary from the peaks to river valleys as much as 3,000 metres. Yunnan is rich in resources and has the largest diversity of plant life in China. Of the approximately 30,000 species of plants in China. Yunnans reserves of aluminium, lead, zinc and tin are the largest in China, the Han Empire first recorded diplomatic relations with the province at the end of the 2nd century BC. It became the seat of a Sino-Tibetan-speaking kingdom of Nanzhao in the 8th centuryAD, Nanzhao was multi-ethnic, but the elite most-likely spoke a northern dialect of Yi. The Mongols conquered the region in the 13th century, with local control exercised by warlords until the 1930s, as with other parts of Chinas southwest, Japanese occupation in the north during World War II forced another migration of majority Han people into the region. These two wave of migration contributed to Yunnan being one of the most ethnically diverse provinces of China, major ethnic groups include Yi, Bai, Hani, Zhuang, Dai and Miao. The Yuanmou Man, a Homo erectus fossil unearthed by railway engineers in the 1960s, has determined to be the oldest-known hominid fossil in China. By the Neolithic period, there were settlements in the area of Lake Dian. These people used tools and constructed simple wooden structures. Around the 3rd century BC, the area of Yunnan around present day Kunming was known as Dian. The Chu general Zhuang Qiao entered the region from the upper Yangtze River and he and his followers brought into Yunnan an influx of Chinese influence, the start of a long history of migration and cultural expansion. In 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang unified China and extended his authority south, commanderies and counties were established in Yunnan. An existing road in Sichuan – the Five Foot Way – was extended south to present day Qujing
9.
Drainage basin
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A drainage basin or catchment area is any area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water. Drainage basins connect into other drainage basins at elevations in a hierarchical pattern, with smaller sub-drainage basins. Other terms used to describe drainage basins are catchment, catchment basin, drainage area, river basin and water basin. In closed drainage basins the water converges to a point inside the basin, known as a sink, which may be a permanent lake. The drainage basin acts as a funnel by collecting all the water within the covered by the basin. Each drainage basin is separated topographically from adjacent basins by a perimeter, drainage basins are similar but not identical to hydrologic units, which are drainage areas delineated so as to nest into a multi-level hierarchical drainage system. Hydrologic units are defined to allow multiple inlets, outlets, or sinks, in a strict sense, all drainage basins are hydrologic units but not all hydrologic units are drainage basins. Drainage basins of the oceans and seas of the world. Grey areas are endorheic basins that do not drain to the oceans, the following is a list of the major ocean basins, About 48. 7% of the worlds land drains to the Atlantic Ocean. The two major mediterranean seas of the world also flow to the Atlantic, The Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico basin includes most of the U. S. The Mediterranean Sea basin includes much of North Africa, east-central Africa, Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, Turkey, and the areas of Israel, Lebanon. Just over 13% of the land in the world drains to the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Oceans drainage basin also comprises about 13% of Earths land. It drains the eastern coast of Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent, Burma, antarctica comprises approximately eight percent of the Earths land. The five largest river basins, from largest to smallest, are the basins of the Amazon, the Río de la Plata, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi. The three rivers that drain the most water, from most to least, are the Amazon, Ganga, endorheic drainage basins are inland basins that do not drain to an ocean. Around 18% of all land drains to endorheic lakes or seas or sinks, the largest of these consists of much of the interior of Asia, which drains into the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, and numerous smaller lakes. Some of these, such as the Great Basin, are not single drainage basins but collections of separate, in endorheic bodies of standing water where evaporation is the primary means of water loss, the water is typically more saline than the oceans. An extreme example of this is the Dead Sea, drainage basins have been historically important for determining territorial boundaries, particularly in regions where trade by water has been important
10.
Gobi Desert
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The Gobi Desert is a large desert region in Asia. It covers parts of northern and northwestern China, and of southern Mongolia, the Gobi is most notable in history as part of the great Mongol Empire, and as the location of several important cities along the Silk Road. The Gobi is a rain shadow desert, formed by the Himalayan mountain range blocking rain-carrying clouds from the Indian Ocean reaching the Gobi territory, the Gobi measures over 1,600 km from southwest to northeast and 800 km from north to south. The desert is widest in the west, along the joining the Lake Bosten. It occupies an arc of land 1,295,000 km2 in area as of 2007, it is the fifth-largest desert in the world, much of the Gobi is not sandy but has exposed bare rock. The Gobi is a desert, with frost and occasionally snow occurring on its dunes. Besides being quite far north, it is located on a plateau roughly 910–1,520 metres above sea level. An average of approximately 194 millimetres of rain falls annually in the Gobi, additional moisture reaches parts of the Gobi in winter as snow is blown by the wind from the Siberian Steppes. These winds cause the Gobi to reach extremes of temperature ranging from −40 °C or −40 °F in winter to 45 °C or 113 °F in summer, the climate of the Gobi is one of great extremes, combined with rapid changes of temperature of as much as 35 °C. These can occur not only seasonally but within 24 hours, in southern Mongolia, the temperature has been recorded as low as −32.8 °C. In contrast, in Alxa, Inner Mongolia, it rises as high as 37 °C in July, average winter minimums are a frigid −25 °C while summertime temperatures are warm to hot, with highs that range up to 50 °C. Most of the falls during the summer. Hence, the icy sandstorms and snowstorms of spring and early summer plus early January, the Gobi Desert is the source of many important fossil finds, including the first dinosaur eggs. They are occasionally visited by snow leopards, brown bears, drought-adapted shrubs in the desert included gray sparrows saltwort, gray sagebrush, and low grasses such as needle grass and bridlegrass. Several large nature reserves have established in the Gobi, including Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, Great Gobi A. The area is vulnerable to trampling by livestock and off-road vehicles, in Mongolia, grasslands have been degraded by goats, which are raised by nomadic herders as source of cashmere wool. The economic trends of livestock privatization and the collapse of the economy have caused people to return to subsistence rural lifestyles. Large copper and gold deposits located at Oyuu Tolgoi, about 80 kilometres from the Chinese border into Mongolia, are being investigated for development as mining operations
11.
Taklamakan Desert
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The Taklamakan Desert /ˌtæk. lə. məˈkæn/, also spelled Taklimakan and Teklimakan, is a desert in southwest Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, northwest China. It is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, the Pamir Mountains and Tian Shan to the west and north, the name may be an Uyghur borrowing of the Persian tark, to leave alone/out/behind, relinquish, abandon + makan, place. Some sources claimed it means Place of No Return, more commonly interpreted as once you get in, another plausible explanation suggests it is derived from Turki taqlar makan, describing the place of ruins. The Taklamakan Desert has an area of 337,000 km2, making it smaller than Germany, and includes the Tarim Basin. It is crossed at its northern and at its edge by two branches of the Silk Road as travellers sought to avoid the arid wasteland. It is the second largest shifting sand desert with about 85% made up of shifting sand dunes ranking 16th in size in a ranking of the worlds largest deserts. Some geographers and ecologists prefer to regard the Taklamakan Desert as separate, the Peoples Republic of China has constructed two cross-desert highways. The Tarim Desert Highway links the cities of Hotan and Luntai, in recent years, the desert has expanded in some areas, its sands enveloping farms and villages as a result of desertification. Because it lies in the shadow of the Himalayas, Taklamakan is a paradigmatic cold desert climate. Its extreme inland position, virtually in the heartland of Asia and thousands of kilometres from any open body of water. The Taklamakan Desert has very little water, therefore it is hazardous to cross, merchant caravans on the Silk Road would stop for relief at the thriving oasis towns. The key oasis towns, watered by rainfall from the mountains, were Kashgar, Marin, Niya, Yarkand, and Khotan to the south, Kuqa and Turpan in the north, and Loulan and Dunhuang in the east. Now, many, such as Marin and Gaochang, are ruined cities in sparsely inhabited areas in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China, the archaeological treasures found in its sand-buried ruins point to Tocharian, early Hellenistic, Indian, and Buddhist influences. Its treasures and dangers have been described by Aurel Stein, Sven Hedin, Albert von Le Coq. Mummies, some 4000 years old, have found in the region. Later, the Taklamakan was inhabited by Turkic peoples, starting with the Han Dynasty, the Chinese sporadically extended their control to the oasis cities of the Taklamakan Desert in order to control the important silk route trade across Central Asia. Periods of Chinese rule were interspersed with rule by Turkic, Mongol, the present population consists largely of Turkic Uyghur people and ethnic Han people. This desert was explored by scientists as Xuanzang, a monk in the 7th century
12.
Plateau
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Plateaus can be formed by a number of processes, including upwelling of volcanic magma, extrusion of lava, and erosion by water and glaciers. Magma rises from the mantle, causing the ground to swell upward, in way, large, flat areas of rock are uplifted. Plateaus can also be built up by lava spreading outward from cracks, plateaus can also be formed by the erosional processes of glaciers on mountain ranges, leaving them sitting between the mountain ranges. Water can also erode mountains and other landforms down into plateaus, volcanic plateaus are produced by volcanic activity. The Columbia Plateau in the northwestern United States is an example, dissected plateaus are highly eroded plateaus cut by rivers and broken by deep narrow valleys. Plateaus are classified according to their surrounding environment, intermontane plateaus are the highest in the world, bordered by mountains. The Tibetan Plateau is one such plateau, Piedmont plateaus are bordered on one side by mountains and on the other by a plain or a sea. The Piedmont Plateau of the Eastern United States between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Coastal Plain is an example, continental plateaus are bordered on all sides by plains or oceans, forming away from the mountains. The Tibetan plateau covers approximately 2,500,000 km2, the plateau is sufficiently high enough to reverse the Hadley cell convection cycles and to drive the monsoons of India towards the south. The second-highest plateau is the Deosai Plateau of the Deosai National Park at an elevation of 4,114 m. It is located in the Astore and Skardu districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, Deosai means the land of giants. The park protects an area of 3,000 km2 and it is known for its rich flora and fauna of the Karakoram-West Tibetan Plateau alpine steppe ecoregion. In spring it is covered by sweeps of wildflowers and a variety of butterflies. The highest point in Deosai is Deosai Lake, or Sheosar Lake from the Shina language meaning Blind lake near the Chilim Valley. The lake lies at an elevation of 4,142 m, one of the highest lakes in the world, and is 2.3 km long,1.8 km wide, and 40 m deep on average. Some other major plateaus in Asia are, Armenian Highlands, Iranian plateau, Anatolian Plateau, Mongolian Plateau, and the Deccan Plateau. This polar ice cap is so massive that the echolocation sound measurements of ice thickness have shown that parts of the Antarctic dry land surface have been pressed below sea level. Thus, if that same ice cap were removed, the large areas of the frozen white continent would be flooded by the surrounding Antarctic Ocean or Southern Ocean
13.
Massif
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In geology, a massif is a section of a planets crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its structure while being displaced as a whole. The term is used to refer to a group of mountains formed by such a structure. In mountaineering and climbing literature, a massif is frequently used to denote the mass of an individual mountain. The massif is a structural unit of the crust than a tectonic plate and is considered the fourth largest driving force in geomorphology. The word is taken from French, where it is used to refer to a mountain mass or compact group of connected mountains forming an independent portion of a range. One of the most notable European examples of a massif is the Massif Central of the Auvergne region of France, the Face on Mars is an example of an extraterrestrial massif. Massifs may also form such as with the Atlantis Massif
14.
Tibetan Plateau
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It stretches approximately 1,000 kilometres north to south and 2,500 kilometres east to west. Sometimes termed the Third Pole, the Tibetan Plateau contains the headwaters of the basins of most of the streams in surrounding regions. Its tens of thousands of glaciers and other geographical and ecological features serve as a water tower storing water, the impact of global warming on the Tibetan Plateau is of intense scientific interest. The Tibetan Plateau is surrounded by mountain ranges. In the west the curve of the rugged Karakoram range of northern Kashmir embraces the plateau, the Indus River originates in the western Tibetan Plateau in the vicinity of Lake Mansarovar. The Tibetan Plateau is bounded in the north by an escarpment where the altitude drops from around 5,000 metres to 1,500 metres over a horizontal distance of less than 150 kilometres. Along the escarpment is a range of mountains, in the west the Kunlun Mountains separate the plateau from the Tarim Basin. About halfway across the Tarim the bounding range becomes the Altyn-Tagh, in the V formed by this split is the western part of the Qaidam Basin. The Altyn-Tagh ends near the Dangjin pass on the Dunhuang-Golmud road, to the west are short ranges called the Danghe, Yema, Shule, and Tulai Nanshans. The easternmost range is the Qilian Mountains, the line of mountains continues east of the plateau as the Qin Mountains which separate the Ordos Region from Sichuan. North of the runs the Gansu or Hexi Corridor which was the main silk-road route from China proper to the West. The plateau is an arid steppe interspersed with mountain ranges. Annual precipitation ranges from 100 to 300 millimetres and falls mainly as hail, the southern and eastern edges of the steppe have grasslands which can sustainably support populations of nomadic herdsmen, although frost occurs for six months of the year. Permafrost occurs over parts of the plateau. Proceeding to the north and northwest, the plateau becomes progressively higher, colder and drier, here the average altitude exceeds 5,000 metres and winter temperatures can drop to −40 °C. The geological history of the Tibetan Plateau is closely related to that of the Himalayan mountain range, the Himalayas are among the youngest mountain ranges on the planet and consist mostly of uplifted sedimentary and metamorphic rock. Their formation is a result of a collision or orogeny along the convergent boundary between the Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The collision began in the Upper Cretaceous period about 70 million years ago, since these sediments were light, they crumpled into mountain ranges rather than sinking to the floor
15.
Zhongyuan
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It forms part of the North China Plain. In its narrowest sense, the Central Plain covers modern-day Henan, the part of Hebei, the southern part of Shanxi. A broader interpretation of the Central Plains extent would add the Guanzhong plain of Shaanxi, the part of Jiangsu. Since the beginning of recorded history, the Central Plain has been an important site for Chinese civilization, inscriptions on some bronze objects from this era contain references to the Central States, Eastern States, or Southern States. This indicates that the Central Plain, which was referred to as the Central States in these inscriptions, was considered to occupy the center of the world. In a broader context, the term Zhongyuan refers to Chinese civilization and China proper, regions directly governed by centralized Chinese governments, however, when used to describe the Chinese civilization, Zhongyuan often connotes Huaxia and Han Chinese cultural dominance. The Dungans, a Chinese-affiliated ethnic group, are referred to using terms linked to Zhongyuan, North China Plain Yellow River Delta and Bohai Sea Yangtze River Delta Pearl River Delta Chungyuan Standard Time
16.
Yellow River
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The Yellow River or Huang He is the second-longest river in Asia, following the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of 5,464 km. Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai province of western China, it flows through nine provinces, the Yellow River basin has an east–west extent of about 1,900 kilometers and a north–south extent of about 1,100 km. Its total basin area is about 742,443 square kilometers and its basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization, and it was the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. Early Chinese literature including the Yu Gong or Tribute of Yu dating to the Warring States period refers to the Yellow River as simply 河, the first appearance of the name 黃河 is in the Book of Han written during the Eastern Han dynasty about the Western Han dynasty. The adjective yellow describes the color of the muddy water in the lower course of the river. One of its older Mongolian names was the Black River, because the river runs clear before it enters the Loess Plateau, in Mongolia itself, it is simply called the Šar Mörön. In Qinghai, the rivers Tibetan name is River of the Peacock above sea level they are the two largest plateau freshwater lakes nationwide, flowing east at the eastern edge of the Amne Machin Mountains, the Yellow River enters Maqu County in Gansu. Here, the river skirts through the peat bog known as the Zoigê Wetlands. Flowing now along the edge of Amne Machin, the river reenters Qinghai. The valley section stretches from Longyang Gorge in Qinghai to Qingtong Gorge in Gansu, steep cliffs line both sides of the river. The water bed is narrow and the drop is large, so the flow in this section is extremely turbulent. There are 20 gorges in this section, the most famous of these being the Longyang, Jishi, Liujia, Bapan, the flow conditions in this section makes it the best location for hydroelectric plants. The Yellow River exits Qinghai for the second and final time in these gorges, downstream from the Yanguo Gorge, the provincial capital of Lanzhou is built upon the Yellow Rivers banks. The Yellow River flows northeasterly out of Gansu and into Ningxia before the Qingtong Gorge, after emerging from the Qingtong Gorge, the river comes into a section of vast alluvial plains, the Yinchuan Plain and Hetao Plain. In this section, the regions along the river are mostly deserts and grasslands, the Hetao Plain has a length of 900 km and width of 30 to 50 km. It is historically the most important irrigation plain along the Yellow River, the Ordos Loop formed by an enormous twist of the Yellow River, beginning at Zhongning County in Ningxia and ending with a drastic eastward turn at its confluence with the Wei at Tongguan in Shaanxi. However, the division for the middle reaches of the river run from Hekou in Togtoh County, Inner Mongolia, to Zhengzhou. The middle reaches are 1,206 km long, with an area of 344,000 square kilometers,45. 7% of the total, with a total elevation drop of 890 m
17.
Political status of Taiwan
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In 1945, the ROC took control of Formosa, the Pescadores and other nearby islands, under the direction of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers. In addition, the situation can be confusing because of the different parties, what a formal declaration of independence would consist of is not clear. Taiwan was first populated by Austronesian people and was colonized by the Dutch, the Kingdom of Tungning, lasting from 1661 to 1683, was the first Han Chinese government to rule on Taiwan. From 1683, the Qing dynasty ruled Taiwan and the Pescadores as Taiwan Prefecture, in 1885 the island was made into a separate Chinese province to speed up development in this region. In the aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan and Penghu were ceded by the Qing dynasty to Japan in 1895. Upon losing the Chinese civil war in 1949, the ROC government retreated to Taipei, the Peoples Republic of China was established in mainland China on 1 October 1949, claiming to be the successor to the ROC. Quemoy, Matsu and Wuqiu on the coast of Fukien, Taiping and Pratas in the South China Sea, are part of the ROCs present territory, some arguments supporting the independence of Taiwan do not apply to these islands. China, during the Qing dynasty, ceded the island of Taiwan, including Penghu, according to the viewpoints of both the Peoples Republic of China and the Republic of China, this agreement was given legal force by the Instrument of Surrender of Japan in 1945. The ROC argues that the Treaty of Taipei implicitly transferred sovereignty of Taiwan to it, in addition, the ROCs Foreign Minister Yeh stated that no provision has been made either in the San Francisco Treaty of Peace as to the future of Taiwan and Penghu. On the other hand, a number of supporters of Taiwan independence argue that Taiwan was only incorporated as a Chinese territory under the Qing dynasty in 1683. Subsequently, because of the Shimonoseki Treaty of 1895, Taiwan had been de jure part of Japan when the ROC was established in 1912 and thus was not part of the Chinese republic. Also, because the Cairo Declaration was an unsigned press communiqué, therefore, only a military occupation of Taiwan began on 25 October 1945, and both the Treaty of San Francisco and Treaty of Taipei hold legal supremacy over the surrender instrument. These treaties did not transfer the title of Taiwan from Japan to China, according to this argument, the sovereignty of Taiwan was undetermined when Japan renounced sovereignty of Taiwan in the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951. Except for Taiwan independence supporters, most Taiwanese support the popular sovereignty theory, in fact, former president Chen Shui-bian has been frequently emphasizing the popular sovereignty theory in his speeches. However, as of 2016, the conflict between these two theories still plays a role in internal Taiwanese politics, the popular sovereignty theory, which the Pan-Green Coalition emphasizes, suggests that Taiwan could make fundamental constitutional changes by means of a popular referendum. Kinmen and Matsu Islands on the coast of Fukien, and the islands in the South China Sea administered by the Republic of China on Taiwan were not part of the cession. In 1895, subsequent to the Treaty of Shimonoseki, officials in Taiwan declared independence in the hope of returning the island to Qing rule, the Republic of Taiwan collapsed after 12 days due to political infighting, but local leaders continued resistance in the hope of achieving self-rule. The incoming Japanese crushed the islands independence bid in a five-month campaign, the Qing Dynasty was subsequently overthrown and replaced by the ROC in 1912
18.
Aksai Chin
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Aksai Chin is one of the two main disputed border areas between China and India, the other being a part of Arunachal Pradesh. In 1962, China and India fought a war over Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh, but in 1993 and 1996. The etymology of Aksai Chin is uncertain regarding the word chin, as a word of Turkic origin, aksai literally means white brook but whether the word chin refers to Chinese or pass is disputed. The Chinese name of the region, 阿克赛钦, is composed of Chinese characters chosen for their phonetic values, Aksai Chin is one of the two large disputed border areas between India and China. India claims Aksai Chin as the easternmost part of the Jammu, China claims that Aksai Chin is part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The line that separates Indian-administered areas of Jammu and Kashmir from Aksai Chin is known as the Line of Actual Control and is concurrent with the Chinese Aksai Chin claim line. Aksai Chin covers an area of about 37,244 square kilometres. The area is largely a vast high-altitude desert with a low point at about 4,300 m above sea level. In the southwest, mountains up to 7,000 m extending southeast from the Depsang Plains form the de facto border between Aksai Chin and Indian-controlled Kashmir. In the north, the Kunlun Range separates Aksai Chin from the Tarim Basin, according to a recent detailed Chinese map, no roads cross the Kunlun Range within Hotan Prefecture, and only one track does so, over the Hindutash Pass. Aksai Chin area has number of basins with many salt or soda lakes. The major salt lakes are Surigh yil ganning kol, Tso tang, Aksai Chin Lake, Hongshan hu, the western part of Aksai Chin region is drained by the Tarim River. The eastern part of the region contains several small endorheic basins, the largest of them is that of the Aksai Chin Lake, which is fed by the river of the same name. The region as a whole receives little precipitation as the Himalayas, besides officials from the Chinese military, the inhabitants of Aksai Chin are, for the most part, members of nomadic groups such as the Bakarwal who regularly pass through the area. The best known settlements are the town of Tianshuihai and the village of Tielongtan, one of the earliest treaties regarding the boundaries in the western sector was signed in 1842. The Sikh Confederacy of the Punjab region in India had annexed Ladakh into the state of Jammu in 1834, in 1841, they invaded Tibet with an army. Chinese forces defeated the Sikh army and in turn entered Ladakh, after being checked by the Sikh forces, the Chinese and the Sikhs signed a treaty in September 1842, which stipulated no transgressions or interference in the other countrys frontiers. However, both sides were sufficiently satisfied that a traditional border was recognized and defined by natural elements. The boundaries beyond the extremities of Aksai Chin near Pangong Lake and near the Karakoram Pass were well-defined, william Johnson, a civil servant with the Survey of India proposed the Johnson Line in 1865, which put Aksai Chin in Kashmir
19.
Trans-Karakoram Tract
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The Trans-Karakoram Tract, also known as Shaksgam or the Shaksgam Tract, is an area of more than 9,900 km2 along both sides of the Shaksgam River and extending from the Karakoram to the Kunlun range. It is claimed by India as part of the state of Jammu, most of the tract is composed of the Shaksgam Valley and was formerly administered as a part of Shigar, a valley in the Baltistan region. The Raja of Shigar controlled most of land until 1971. A polo ground in Shaksgam was built by the Amacha Royal family of Shigar, most of the names of the mountains, lakes, rivers and passes are in Balti/Ladakhi, suggesting that this land had been part of Baltistan/Ladakh region for a long time. The tract is one of the most inhospitable areas of the world, historically the people of Hunza cultivated and grazed areas to the north of the Karakoram, and the Mir of Hunza claimed those areas as part of Hunzas territories. Those areas included the Raskam Valley, north of the Shaksgam Valley, in 1889 the first expedition to the Shaksgam Valley by a European was undertaken by Francis Younghusband. In March 1899 the British proposed, in a formal Note from Sir Claude MacDonald to China, the Note proposed that China should relinquish its claims to suzerainty over Hunza, and in return Hunza should relinquish its claims to most of the Taghdumbash and Raskam districts. The Chinese did not respond to the Note, and the British took that as acquiescence. The Macdonald line was modified in 1905 to include in India a small area east of the Shimshal Pass, to put the border on the Oprang Jilga River and this followed a line proposed by Sir John Ardagh in a Memorandum of 1897. That border included the Mir of Hunzas claim over the Raskam Valley, however, British administration never extended north of the Karakoram watershed. From 1899 until the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, by 1959, however, Chinese maps were published showing large areas west and south of the Macdonald line in China. That year, the Government of Pakistan announced its willingness to consult on the boundary question, from 1947 India claimed sovereignty over the entire area of the pre-1947 independent state of Jammu and Kashmir, and therefore maintained that Pakistan and China did not share a common border. The aforesaid Gazetteer states in pages 520 and 364 that “The eastern range forms the boundary of Khotan”. It describes Khotan as “ A province of the Chinese Empire lying to the north of the Eastern Kuenlun range, in 1959 the Pakistani government became concerned over Chinese maps that showed areas the Pakistanis considered their own as part of China. In 1961 Ayub Khan sent a note to China, there was no reply. It is thought that the Chinese might not have been motivated to negotiate with Pakistan because of Pakistans relations with India, According to Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru, The agreement resulted in the surrendering of 13,000 square miles of territory. According to Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru, According to the survey of Pakistan maps, even published in 1962. If one goes by these maps, Pakistan has obviously surrendered over 13,000 square miles of territory, after Pakistan voted to grant China a seat in the United Nations, the Chinese withdrew the disputed maps in January 1962, agreeing to enter border talks in March
20.
Central Intelligence Agency
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As one of the principal members of the U. S. Intelligence Community, the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is focused on providing intelligence for the President. Though it is not the only U. S. government agency specializing in HUMINT and it exerts foreign political influence through its tactical divisions, such as the Special Activities Division. Despite transferring some of its powers to the DNI, the CIA has grown in size as a result of the September 11 attacks. In 2013, The Washington Post reported that in fiscal year 2010, the CIA has increasingly expanded its roles, including covert paramilitary operations. One of its largest divisions, the Information Operations Center, has shifted focus from counter-terrorism to offensive cyber-operations, when the CIA was created, its purpose was to create a clearinghouse for foreign policy intelligence and analysis. Today its primary purpose is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence, warning/informing American leaders of important overseas events, with Pakistan described as an intractable target. Counterintelligence, with China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, the Executive Office also supports the U. S. military by providing it with information it gathers, receiving information from military intelligence organizations, and cooperates on field activities. The Executive Director is in charge of the day to day operation of the CIA, each branch of the military service has its own Director. The Directorate has four regional groups, six groups for transnational issues. There is a dedicated to Iraq, regional analytical offices covering the Near East and South Asia, Russia and Europe, and the Asian Pacific, Latin American. The Directorate of Operations is responsible for collecting intelligence. The name reflects its role as the coordinator of intelligence activities between other elements of the wider U. S. intelligence community with their own HUMINT operations. This Directorate was created in an attempt to end years of rivalry over influence, philosophy, in spite of this, the Department of Defense recently organized its own global clandestine intelligence service, the Defense Clandestine Service, under the Defense Intelligence Agency. This Directorate is known to be organized by regions and issues. The Directorate of Science & Technology was established to research, create, many of its innovations were transferred to other intelligence organizations, or, as they became more overt, to the military services. For example, the development of the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was done in cooperation with the United States Air Force, the U-2s original mission was clandestine imagery intelligence over denied areas such as the Soviet Union. It was subsequently provided with signals intelligence and measurement and signature intelligence capabilities, subsequently, NPIC was transferred to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
21.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
22.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
23.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
24.
Brazil
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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama
25.
Topography
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Topography is the study of the shape and features of the surface of the Earth and other observable astronomical objects including planets, moons, and asteroids. The topography of an area could refer to the shapes and features themselves. This field of geoscience and planetary science is concerned with detail in general, including not only relief but also natural and artificial features. This meaning is common in the United States, where topographic maps with elevation contours have made topography synonymous with relief. The older sense of topography as the study of place still has currency in Europe, topography in a narrow sense involves the recording of relief or terrain, the three-dimensional quality of the surface, and the identification of specific landforms. This is also known as geomorphometry, in modern usage, this involves generation of elevation data in digital form. It is often considered to include the representation of the landform on a map by a variety of techniques, including contour lines, hypsometric tints. The term topography originated in ancient Greece and continued in ancient Rome, the word comes from the Greek τόπος and -γραφία. In classical literature this refers to writing about a place or places, in Britain and in Europe in general, the word topography is still sometimes used in its original sense. Detailed military surveys in Britain were called Ordnance Surveys, and this term was used into the 20th century as generic for topographic surveys, the earliest scientific surveys in France were called the Cassini maps after the family who produced them over four generations. The term topographic surveys appears to be American in origin, the earliest detailed surveys in the United States were made by the “Topographical Bureau of the Army, ” formed during the War of 1812, which became the Corps of Topographical Engineers in 1838. In the 20th century, the term started to be used to describe surface description in other fields where mapping in a broader sense is used. An objective of topography is to determine the position of any feature or more generally any point in terms of both a horizontal coordinate system such as latitude, longitude, and altitude, identifying features, and recognizing typical landform patterns are also part of the field. There are a variety of approaches to studying topography, which method to use depend on the scale and size of the area under study, its accessibility, and the quality of existing surveys. Work on one of the first topographic maps was begun in France by Giovanni Domenico Cassini, in areas where there has been an extensive direct survey and mapping program, the compiled data forms the basis of basic digital elevation datasets such as USGS DEM data. This data must often be cleaned to eliminate discrepancies between surveys, but it forms a valuable set of information for large-scale analysis. The original American topographic surveys involved not only recording of relief, remote sensing is a general term for geodata collection at a distance from the subject area. Besides their role in photogrammetry, aerial and satellite imagery can be used to identify and delineate terrain features, certainly they have become more and more a part of geovisualization, whether maps or GIS systems
26.
Structural basin
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A structural basin is a large-scale structural formation of rock strata formed by tectonic warping of previously flat-lying strata. Structural basins are geological depressions, and are the inverse of domes, some elongated structural basins are also known as synclines. Basins may appear on a map as roughly circular or elliptical. Because the strata dip toward the center, the strata in a basin are progressively younger from the outside in. Basins are often large in extent, often hundreds of kilometers across. Structural basins are important sources of coal, petroleum, and groundwater. The Changing Earth, Exploring Geology and Evolution, 2nd ed. Belmont, Wadsworth Publishing Company,1997
27.
Transport in China
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Transport in China has experienced major growth and expansion in recent years. Airports, roads, and railway construction will provide a massive employment boost in China over the next decade, the larger cities have metro systems in operation, under construction, or in the planning stage. The highway and road also has gone through rapid expansion. The physical state and comprehensiveness of Chinas transport infrastructure tend to vary widely by geography, much of contemporary Chinas transport systems have been built since the establishment of the Peoples Republic in 1949. Prior to 1950, there were only 21,800 km of railway lines, in 2010, the railway network has since been expanded to 90,000 km. Rail travel remained the most popular form of transport, although air travel has also experienced significant growth since the late 1990s, China is in the midst of a massive upgrade of its transport infrastructure. Until recently, Chinas economy was able to continue to grow despite deficiencies in infrastructure development and this is no longer the case, and the Government realizes that to keep the economy moving forward, they need an efficient system in place to move goods and people across the country. According to World Bank statistics, goods lost due to poor or obsolete transport infrastructure amounted to one percent of Chinas GDP as recently as the most current survey. Logistic costs account for 20% of a price in China, compared to 10% in the United States. Ports are being improved for use of Chinas waterways. Related industries such as equipment, engineering, container security. Transport in Mainland China is regulated by a new agency formed from the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Railways, the aforementioned transport authorities have no jurisdiction in Hong Kong and Macau. Hong Kongs transport is regulated by Transport Department of Hong Kong whereas Macaus transport is regulated by Land, Public works, rail is the major mode of transport in China. In 2011 Chinas railways carried 2,947 billion tonne-kilometers of freight and 961.23 billion passenger-kilometers, the high volume of traffic that Chinas railway system carries makes it critical to Chinas economy. Chinas railway system carries 24% of the railway transport volume on only 6% of the worlds railways. China has the worlds third-largest rail network, as of 2010 it is 91,000 km long, about 47% of the network is electrified. In 2011 Chinas railway inventory included 19,431 locomotives owned by the railway system. The remaining locomotives are either diesel- or electric-powered, another 352 locomotives are owned by local railroads and 604 operated by joint-venture railways
28.
Agriculture in China
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Agriculture is a vital industry in China, employing over 300 million farmers. China ranks first in worldwide farm output, primarily producing rice, wheat, potatoes, tomato, sorghum, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, cotton, oilseed and soybeans. Although accounting for only 10 percent of land worldwide, it produces food for 20 percent of the worlds population. The development of farming over the course of Chinas history has played a key role in supporting the growth of what is now the largest population in the world. Analysis of stone tools by Professor Liu Li and others has shown that the origins of Chinese agriculture is rooted in the pre-agricultural Paleolithic, during this time, hunter-gatherers harvested wild plants with the same tools that would later be used for millet and rice. Remains of domesticated millet have been found in northern China at Xinglonggou, Yuezhang, Dadiwan, Cishan and these sites cover a period over 6250-5050 BCE. The amount of domesticated millet eaten at these sites was proportionally quite low compared to other plants, at Xinglonggou, millet made up only 15% of all plant remains around 6200-5400 BCE, a ratio that changed to 99% by 2050-1550 BCE. Excavations at Kuahuqiao, the earliest known Neolithic site in eastern China, have documented rice cultivation 7,700 years ago, approximately half of the plant remains belonged to domesticated japonica species, whilst the other half were wild types of rice. It is possible that the people at Kuahuqiao also cultivated the wild type, finds at sites of the Hemudu Culture in Yuyao and Banpo near Xian include millet and spade-like tools made of stone and bone. Evidence of settled agriculture has been found at the Hemudu site of Tianluoshan. There is also a tradition involving agriculture in Chinese mythology. In his book Permanent Agriculture, Farmers of Forty Centuries, Professor Franklin Hiram King described and extolled the values of the farming practices of China. Due to Chinas status as a country and its severe shortage of arable land. However, throughout its history, various methods have developed or imported that enabled greater farming production. They also utilized the seed drill to improve on row farming. During the Spring and Autumn period, two revolutionary improvements in farming took place. One was the use of cast iron tools and beasts of burden to pull plows, and the other was the large-scale harnessing of rivers and development of water conservation projects. The engineer Sunshu Ao of the 6th century BC and Ximen Bao of the 5th century BC are two of the oldest hydraulic engineers from China, and their works were focused upon improving irrigation systems
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Forestry
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Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, using, conserving, and repairing forests and associated resources to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human and environment benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands, the science of forestry has elements that belong to the biological, physical, social, political and managerial sciences. A practitioner of forestry is known as a forester, other terms are used a verderer and a silviculturalist being common ones. Silviculture is narrower than forestry, being concerned only with forest plants, Forest ecosystems have come to be seen as the most important component of the biosphere, and forestry has emerged as a vital applied science, craft, and technology. Forestry is an important economic segment in various industrial countries, the preindustrial age has been dubbed by Werner Sombart and others as the wooden age, as timber and firewood were the basic resources for energy, construction and housing. The development of forestry is closely connected with the rise of capitalism, economy as a science and varying notions of land use. Roman Latifundiae, large estates, were quite successful in maintaining the large supply of wood that was necessary for the Roman Empire. Large deforestations came with respectively after the decline of the Romans, however already in the 5th century, monks in the then Byzantine Romagna on the Adriatic coast, were able to establish stone pine plantations to provide fuelwood and food. This was the beginning of the massive forest mentioned by Dante Alighieri in his 1308 poem Divine Comedy, the use and management of many forest resources has a long history in China as well, dating back to the Han Dynasty and taking place under the landowning gentry. A similar approach was used in Japan and it was also later written about by the Ming Dynasty Chinese scholar Xu Guangqi. In Europe, land rights in medieval and early modern times allowed different users to access forests. The notion of commons refers to the traditional legal term of common land. The idea of enclosed private property came about during modern times, however, most hunting rights were retained by members of the nobility which preserved the right of the nobility to access and use common land for recreation, like fox hunting. Systematic management of forests for a yield of timber is said to have begun in the German states in the 14th century, e. g. in Nuremberg. Typically, a forest was divided into sections and mapped. Large firs in the black forest were called „Holländer“, as they were traded to the Dutch ship yards, large timber rafts on the Rhine were 200 to 400m in length, 40m in width and consisted of several thousand logs. The crew consisted of 400 to 500 men, including shelter, bakeries, ovens, timber rafting infrastructure allowed for large interconnected networks all over continental Europe and is still of importance in Finland. The notion of Nachhaltigkeit, sustainability in forestry, is connected to the work of Hans Carl von Carlowitz
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Mineral
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A mineral is a naturally occurring chemical compound, usually of crystalline form and abiogenic in origin. A mineral has one specific chemical composition, whereas a rock can be an aggregate of different minerals or mineraloids, the study of minerals is called mineralogy. There are over 5,300 known mineral species, over 5,070 of these have been approved by the International Mineralogical Association, the silicate minerals compose over 90% of the Earths crust. The diversity and abundance of species is controlled by the Earths chemistry. Silicon and oxygen constitute approximately 75% of the Earths crust, which translates directly into the predominance of silicate minerals, minerals are distinguished by various chemical and physical properties. Differences in chemical composition and crystal structure distinguish the various species, changes in the temperature, pressure, or bulk composition of a rock mass cause changes in its minerals. Minerals can be described by their various properties, which are related to their chemical structure. Common distinguishing characteristics include crystal structure and habit, hardness, lustre, diaphaneity, colour, streak, tenacity, cleavage, fracture, parting, more specific tests for describing minerals include magnetism, taste or smell, radioactivity and reaction to acid. Minerals are classified by key chemical constituents, the two dominant systems are the Dana classification and the Strunz classification, the silicate class of minerals is subdivided into six subclasses by the degree of polymerization in the chemical structure. All silicate minerals have a unit of a 4− silica tetrahedron—that is, a silicon cation coordinated by four oxygen anions. These tetrahedra can be polymerized to give the subclasses, orthosilicates, disilicates, cyclosilicates, inosilicates, phyllosilicates, other important mineral groups include the native elements, sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, sulfates, and phosphates. The first criterion means that a mineral has to form by a natural process, stability at room temperature, in the simplest sense, is synonymous to the mineral being solid. More specifically, a compound has to be stable or metastable at 25 °C, modern advances have included extensive study of liquid crystals, which also extensively involve mineralogy. Minerals are chemical compounds, and as such they can be described by fixed or a variable formula, many mineral groups and species are composed of a solid solution, pure substances are not usually found because of contamination or chemical substitution. Finally, the requirement of an ordered atomic arrangement is usually synonymous with crystallinity, however, crystals are also periodic, an ordered atomic arrangement gives rise to a variety of macroscopic physical properties, such as crystal form, hardness, and cleavage. There have been recent proposals to amend the definition to consider biogenic or amorphous substances as minerals. The formal definition of an approved by the IMA in 1995, A mineral is an element or chemical compound that is normally crystalline. However, if geological processes were involved in the genesis of the compound, Mineral classification schemes and their definitions are evolving to match recent advances in mineral science
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Hydropower
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Hydropower or water power is power derived from the energy of falling water or fast running water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes. A trompe, which compressed air from falling water, is sometimes used to power other machinery at a distance. In the late 19th century, hydropower became a source for generating electricity, cragside in Northumberland was the first house powered by hydroelectricity in 1878 and the first commercial hydroelectric power plant was built at Niagara Falls in 1879. In 1881, street lamps in the city of Niagara Falls were powered by hydropower, since the early 20th century, the term has been used almost exclusively in conjunction with the modern development of hydroelectric power. In China and the rest of the Far East, hydraulically operated pot wheel pumps raised water into crop or irrigation canals, the power of a wave of water released from a tank was used for extraction of metal ores in a method known as hushing. The method was first used at the Dolaucothi Gold Mines in Wales from 75 AD onwards, hushing was also widely used in Britain in the Medieval and later periods to extract lead and tin ores. It later evolved into hydraulic mining when used during the California Gold Rush and these include an endless belt with jugs attached, a cow-powered shadoof, and a reciprocating device with hinged valves. In 1753, French engineer Bernard Forest de Bélidor published Architecture Hydraulique which described vertical-, the growing demand for the Industrial Revolution would drive development as well. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, water was the source of power for new inventions such as Richard Arkwrights water frame. In the 1830s, at the peak in US canal-building, hydropower provided the energy to transport barge traffic up. Technological advances had moved the water wheel into an enclosed turbine or water motor. Francis, while working as engineer of Lowells Locks and Canals company. He applied scientific principles and testing methods to the problem of turbine design and his mathematical and graphical calculation methods allowed confident design of high efficiency turbines to exactly match a sites specific flow conditions. The Francis reaction turbine is still in use today. Hydraulic power networks used pipes to carrying pressurized water and transmit power from the source to end users. The power source was normally a head of water, which could also be assisted by a pump and these were extensive in Victorian cities in the United Kingdom. A hydraulic power network was developed in Geneva, Switzerland. The world-famous Jet dEau was originally designed as the relief valve for the network
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Tourism in China
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Tourism in China has greatly expanded over the last few decades since the beginning of reform and opening. The emergence of a rich middle class and an easing of restrictions on movement by the Chinese authorities are both fueling this travel boom. China has become one of the worlds most-watched and hottest inbound and outbound tourist markets, the world is on the cusp of a sustained Chinese tourism boom. China is the third most visited country in the world, the number of overseas tourists was 55.98 million in 2010. Foreign exchange income was 45.8 billion U. S. dollars, the number of domestic tourist visits totaled 1.61 billion, with a total income of 777.1 billion yuan. According to the WTO, in 2020, China will become the largest tourist country and among the largest for overseas travel. In terms of total travel spending, China is expected to be the fastest growing in the world from 2006 all the way to 2015. Chinas growing economy is also generating a surge in business travel, between 1949 and 1974, the Peoples Republic was closed to all but selected foreign visitors. In the late 1970s, when Deng Xiaoping decided to promote tourism vigorously as a means of earning foreign exchange, the expansion of domestic and international airline traffic and other tourist transportation facilities made travel more convenient. Over 250 cities and counties had been opened to visitors by the mid-1980s. Travelers needed only valid visas or residence permits to visit 100 locations, in 1985 approximately 1.4 million foreigners visited China, and nearly US$1.3 billion was earned from tourism. China has become a major tourist destination following its reform and opening to the world in the late 1970s instigated by Deng Xiaoping. In 1978, China received about 230,000 international foreign tourists, mostly because of the limitations that the government placed on who was allowed to visit the country. In 2006 China received 49.6 million international visitors, making it the fourth most-visited country in the world, in 2007 international tourist arrivals to China increased to 54.7 million. Although many Chinese do not speak English, due to the system, many Chinese near and in urban areas can read and write it. Terracotta Army, Xian, Shaanxi, the ancient capital. Confucius Mansion, Qufu, Shandong, home to nearly eighty generations of the great sages clan and it hosts most of Chinas tropical resorts, and because of this, is extremely popular with mainland Chinese, as well as those from Hong Kong and nearby Asian countries. During the past few years, the Chinese government has heavily promoted Hainan Island as a world class resort with beaches, the Chinese and Hainan governments intend to continue to spend a great deal of money on infrastructure and promotion of Hainan Island
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Greater Khingan
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The Greater Khingan Range, is a volcanic mountain range in northeast China. The range extends roughly 1,200 kilometres from northeast to southwest, the area has an elevation of 1,200 to 1,300 metres, and the highest peak reaches 2,035 metres. The range is broader in the north, at 306 kilometres, than it is in the south. It was formed during the Jurassic Period, and is essentially a tilted fault block, its ancient fault line forms its eastern edge, facing the Northeast China Plain. The ranges are markedly asymmetrical, with a sharp eastern face, the eastern slopes are more heavily dissected by the numerous tributaries of the Nen and Songhua rivers, but generally the mountains are rounded with flat peaks. The ranges are composed largely of igneous rocks and its slopes are a relatively rich grazing area. The Khitan people lived on the slopes before establishing the Liao Dynasty in the tenth century. On the western slopes lived the nomadic people, who raised sheep and camels, much of the area is inhabited by peoples speaking Mongol and, in the north, Tungusic languages, such as the Oroqen people and the Evenk people. Logging continues to be the economic activity. Lesser Khingan Xingan This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Wood, James. London and New York, Frederick Warne
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Changbai Mountains
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The Changbai Mountain Range is a mountain range on the border between China and North Korea. It is also referred to as the Šanggiyan, Jangbaek, or Ohnan mountains, the range extends from the Northeast Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning to the North Korean provinces of Ryanggang and Chagang. Most peaks exceed 2,000 metres in height, with the highest mountain being Paektu Mountain. The range represents the mythical birthplace of Bukūri Yongšon, ancestor of Nurhaci and the Aisin Gioro imperial family, who were the founders of the Manchu state, the Chinese name literally means Perpetually-White Mountain Region. The mountains are the source of the Songhua, Tumen and Yalu Rivers, the Changbai Mountains are characterized by long and cold winters. Precipitation is low in the winter but higher in the summer, the vegetation of the mountain slopes is divided into several different zones. At the top, above 2000 metres, tundra predominates, from 1700 to 2000 metres, vegetation is dominated by mountain birch and larch. Below this zone, and down to 1100 metres, the dominant trees are spruce, fir, from 600 to 1100 metres, the landscape is dominated by mixed forest, consisting of Amur linden, Korean pine, maple, and elm. Further down, a hardwood forest is found, dominated by second-growth poplar. Longwanqun National Forest Park Baekdu Mountain Changbai Waterfall List of mountains in Korea Baekdu mountain at changbaimountain. com
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Taihang Mountains
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The Taihang Mountains are a Chinese mountain range running down the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau in Shanxi, Henan and Hebei provinces. The range extends over 400 kilometres from north to south and has an elevation of 1,500 to 2,000 metres. The principal peak is Xiao Wutaishan, cangyan Shan in Hebei forms the eastern tip of the Taihang range. The name of Shanxi Province, meaning west of the mountains, derives from its location west of the Taihang Mountains, the Red Flag Canal is located on the south edge of the Taihang Mountains. The Shitai Passenger Railway crosses under the Taihang Mountains via the Taihang Tunnel, a Walk in the Taihang Mountains
36.
North China Plain
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The North China Plain is based on the deposits of the Yellow River and is the largest alluvial plain of China. The plain is bordered on the north by the Yanshan Mountains and on the west by the Taihang Mountains, the Yellow River flows through the middle of the plain into Bohai Sea. The North China Plain extends over much of Henan, Hebei, and merges with the Yangtze delta in northern Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. The Yellow River meanders over the fertile, densely populated plain emptying into the Bohai Sea, the plain is one of Chinas most important agricultural regions, producing corn, sorghum, winter wheat, vegetables, and cotton. Its nickname is Land of the yellow earth, the southern part of the plain is traditionally referred to as the Central Plain, which formed the cradle of Chinese civilization. The plain covers an area of about 409,500 square kilometers and this flat yellow-soil plain is the main area of sorghum, millet, maize, and Kaleb Cotten production in China. Wheat, sesame seed, and peanuts are grown here. The plain is one of the most densely populated regions in the world, beijing, the national capital, is located on the northeast edge of the plain, with Tianjin, an important industrial city and commercial port, near its northeast coast. Shengli Oilfield in Shandong is an important petroleum base and it is also home to the Yellow River. The geography of the North China Plain has had cultural and political implications. Unlike areas to the south of the Yangtze, the plain generally runs uninterrupted by mountains and has far fewer rivers, as a result, the spoken language is relatively uniform in contrast to the plethora of languages and dialects in southern China. In addition the possibility of communication has meant that the political center of China has tended to be located here. Although the soil of the North China Plain is fertile, the weather is unpredictable, being at the intersection of humid winds from the Pacific and this makes the plain prone to both floods and drought. Moreover, the flatness of the plain promotes massive flooding when river works are damaged
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Mount Tai
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Mount Tai is a mountain of historical and cultural significance located north of the city of Taian, in Shandong province, China. The tallest peak is the Jade Emperor Peak, which is reported as 1,545 metres tall. Mount Tai is known as the mountain of the Five Great Mountains of China. It is associated with sunrise, birth, and renewal, and is regarded the foremost of the five. Mount Tai has been a place of worship for at least 3,000 years, Mount Tai is located in western Shandong, just north of the city of Taian and to the south of the provincial capital Jinan. It extends from 150 to 1,545 metres above sea level, the Jade Emperor Peak is 1,532.7 metres above sea level and located at 36° 16′N and 117° 6′E. Traces of human presence at Mount Tai date back to the Paleolithic period, human settlement of the area can be proven from the neolithic period onwards. During this time, two cultures had emerged near the mountain, the Dawenkou culture to the south and the Longshan culture to the north. During the Xia Dynasty the mountain was known as Mount Dai and lay within the borders of Qingzhou, religious worship of Mount Tai has a tradition dating back 3,000 years, from the time of the Shang to the Qing Dynasty. The two sacrifices are referred to together as the Fengshan sacrifices. Carving of an inscription as part of the sacrifices marked the attainment of the great peace, by the time of the Zhou Dynasty sacrifices at Mount Tai had become highly ritualized ceremonies in which a local feudal lord would travel there to make sacrifices of food and jade ritual items. These would then be arranged in a ritually correct pattern before being buried on the mountain. In the Spring and Autumn period the states of Qi and Lu bordered Mount Tai to the north and south respectively. In the ensuing Warring States period, to protect itself against invasion, the State of Qi erected a 500 kilometres wall, the name Taian of the neighboring city is attributed to the saying If Mount Tai is stable, so is the entire country. In 219 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, held a ceremony on the summit, during the Han Dynasty, the Feng and Shan sacrifices were considered the highest of all sacrifices. Rituals and sacrifices were conducted by the Sui, Mount Tai has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. In 2003, it attracted around 6 million visitors, a renovation project was completed in late October 2005, which aimed at restoring cultural relics and renovating damaged buildings of cultural significance. Widely known for its special ceremonies and sacrifices, Mount Tai has seen visits by many poets, there are grandiose temples, many stone inscriptions and stone tablets with the mountain playing an important role in the development of both Buddhism and Taoism
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Dabie Mountains
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The Dabie Mountains are a major mountain range located in central China. Running northwest-to-southeast, they form the watershed between the Huai and Yangtze rivers. The range also marks the boundary between Hubei Province and its neighbors of Henan and Anhui, the western part of Dabie Mountains has a low elevation of only 1, 000–1,300 feet, though there are a few peaks rising to 3,000 feet. The eastern part is higher, averaging more than 3,300 feet, the highest peak is Mount Tianzhu at 5,820 feet, with several others topping 5,000 feet including the 1,729.13 metres high Tiantangzhai. The range is forested and yields valuable bamboo as well as oak, particularly cork oak. The region is poor, and subsistence agriculture is the heart of its economy with rice. The main transportation route across the range is from Macheng in Hubei to Huangchuan in Hunan. The main rail and road crossings go north from Wuhan, through the lower elevations, in 2009, the high-speed Hewu Passenger Railway opened, connecting Hefei with Wuhan along a short direct route. It uses a number of tunnels when crossing the Dabie range, geologically, the range is a complex, stressed structure, making it and the surrounding area subject to earthquakes. It caused tremors in Qichun County in Hubei province and beyond and this scenic park centered on Tiantangzhai is a key tourist attraction in the highest part of the Dabie mountain range. Total area of the park is 300 square kilometers, dabeishan International Forest Park website, in Chinese. Huanggang Government website page on Dabie Mountains
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Bohai Sea
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The Bohai Sea or Bo Sea, also known as Bohai Gulf or Bo Gulf, is the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea and Korea Bay on the coast of Northeastern and North China. It is approximately 78,000 km2 in area and its proximity to Beijing, until the early 20th century, Bo Hai was often called the Gulf of Chihli or the Gulf of Pechihli or Pechili. Zhili and Beizhili were historic provinces in the area surrounding Beijing, the Bohai Sea is bounded by the Changshan Islands chain between the Liaodong and Shandong Peninsulas. It has become one of busiest sea routes in recent times, there are three major bays inside the Bohai Sea, Laizhou Bay to the south, Liaodong Bay to the north, and Bohai Bay to the west. At the easternmost end of the Bohai Sea, between the southernmost end of the Liaodong Peninsula and northernmost end of the Shandong Peninsula, is the Bohai Strait, a few of the rivers entering the gulf include the Yellow, Hai, Liao, and Luan Rivers. There are a few important oil reserves in the vicinity of the gulf, important island groups or islands in the gulf include the Changshan Islands, Changxing Island, and Xizhong Island. The PRC provincial-level divisions that have a Bohai Sea coastline are, from the south, going clockwise, Shandong, Hebei, Tianjin, Hebei again, and Liaoning. The ports of Dalian and Yantai are also considered part of the Bohai rim. The Port of Longkou reached 70 million tons of cargo in 2013, the main field in the region is named Shengli and has been exploited since the 1960s. It is still producing about half a million barrels a day, production is dominated by Chinese majors but foreign companies are also present, like ConocoPhilips, Roc Oil, and others. The Gudao Field, located in the Zhanhua sedimentary basin, was discovered in 1968, based on gravity, the reservoir includes the Guantao and Minghuazhen geologic formations within the dome-like anticline. The Suizhong 36-1 Oil Field was discovered in 1987, and produces from Oligocene fluvial-deltaic, Oil spills have been reported frequently in this region, three spills occurred in a two-month timeframe in 2011. In February 2011, the PRC announced that it would build a road, when completed, the tunnel would be 106 kilometres long. This plan seems have been superseded as of July 2013, with a plan involving a 123-kilometre tunnel between Dalian, Liaoning and Yantai, Shandong. The overall concept had its origins in a 1994 plan, which had intended for completion by 2010 at a cost of $10 billion. Balhae, Korean kingdom named after Bohai Bijia Mountain Bohai Economic Rim Bastion Unep Reports – Regional Definition, Bohai Sea
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Hexi Corridor
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Hexi Corridor or Gansu Corridor refers to the historical route in Gansu province of China. The corridor is a string of oases along the edge of the Tibetan Plateau. To the south is the high and desolate Tibetan Plateau and to the north, the Gobi Desert, at the west end the route splits in three, going either north of the Tian Shan or south on either side of the Tarim Basin. At the east end are mountains around Lanzhou before one reaches the Wei River valley, cultivated wheat, originating at the Fertile Crescent, already appeared in China around 2800 BC at Donghuishan at the Hexi corridor. Several other crops are also attested at this time period, xishanping is another similar site in Gansu. According to Dodson et al. wheat entered via the Hexi Corridor into northern Gangsu around 3000 BC, although other scholars date this somewhat later. The Chinese millets, rice, as well as other crops travelled the opposite way through the Corridor, as early as the 1st millennium BCE, silk goods began appearing in Siberia, having traveled over the Northern branch of the Silk Road, including the Hexi Corridor segment. At the end of the Qin dynasty, the Yuezhi overcame previous settlers, later, Northern Xiongnu armies vanquished the Yuezhi and established dominance here during the early Han dynasty. During the Han–Xiongnu War, Han China expelled the Xiongnu from the Hexi Corridor in 121 BCE, the Han acquired a territory stretching from the Hexi Corridor to Lop Nur, thus cutting the Xiongnu off from their Qiang allies. Again, Han forces repelled a joint Xiongnu-Qiang invasion of this territory in 111 BCE. After 111 BCE, new outposts were established, four of them in the Hexi Corridor, namely Jiuquan, Zhangye, Dunhuang, from roughly 115–60 BCE, Han forces fought the Xiongnu over control of the oasis city-states in the Tarim Basin. Han was eventually victorious and established the Protectorate of the Western Regions in 60 BCE, which dealt with the regions defense and foreign affairs. During the turbulent reign of Wang Mang, Han lost control over the Tarim Basin, which was conquered by the Xiongnu in 63 CE, and used as a base to invade the Hexi Corridor. Dou Gu defeated the Xiongnu again at the Battle of Yiwulu in 73 CE, evicting them from Turpan and chasing them as far as Lake Barkol before establishing a garrison at Hami. After the new Protector General of the Western Regions Chen Mu was killed in 75 CE by allies of the Xiongnu in Karasahr and Kucha, at the Battle of the Altai Mountains in 89 CE, Dou Xian defeated the Northern Chanyu, who retreated into the Altai Mountains. The Tang dynasty fought the Tibetan Empire for control of areas in Inner, there was a long string of conflicts with Tibet over territories in the Tarim Basin between 670–692 CE. In 763 the Tibetans even captured the Tang capital of Changan for fifteen days during the An Lushan Rebellion. It was during this rebellion that the Tang withdrew its western garrisons stationed in what is now Gansu and Qinghai, hostilities between the Tang and Tibet continued until they signed a formal peace treaty in 821
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Karst
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Karst topography is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves and it has also been documented for more weathering-resistant rocks, such as quartzite, given the right conditions. Subterranean drainage may limit surface water, with few to no rivers or lakes, the English word karst was borrowed from German Karst in the late 19th century. The German word came into use before the 19th century, according to the prevalent interpretation, the term is derived from the German name for the Karst region, a limestone plateau above the city of Trieste in the northern Adriatic. Scholars disagree, however, on whether the German word was borrowed from Slovene, the Slovene common noun kras was first attested in the 18th century, and the adjective form kraški in the 16th century. The Slovene words arose through metathesis from the reconstructed form *korsъ, ultimately, the word is of Mediterranean origin, believed to derive from some Romanized Illyrian base. It has been suggested that the word may derive from the Proto-Indo-European root karra- rock, the name may also be connected to the oronym Karsádios oros cited by Ptolemy, and perhaps also to Latin Carusardius. The development of karst occurs whenever acidic water starts to break down the surface of bedrock near its cracks, as the bedrock continues to degrade, its cracks tend to get bigger. As time goes on, these fractures will become wider, if this underground drainage system does form, it will speed up the development of karst formations there because more water will be able to flow through the region, giving it more erosive power. The carbonic acid that causes karstic features is formed as rain passes through the atmosphere picking up carbon dioxide, once the rain reaches the ground, it may pass through soil that can provide much more CO2 to form a weak carbonic acid solution, which dissolves calcium carbonate. The oxidation of sulfides leading to the formation of acid can also be one of the corrosion factors in karst formation. As oxygen -rich surface waters seep into deep anoxic karst systems, they bring oxygen, sulfuric acid then reacts with calcium carbonate, causing increased erosion within the limestone formation. This chain of reactions is, This reaction chain forms gypsum, the karstification of a landscape may result in a variety of large- or small-scale features both on the surface and beneath. On exposed surfaces, small features may include solution flutes, runnels, limestone pavement, medium-sized surface features may include sinkholes or cenotes, vertical shafts, foibe, disappearing streams, and reappearing springs. Large-scale features may include limestone pavements, poljes, and karst valleys, mature karst landscapes, where more bedrock has been removed than remains, may result in karst towers, or haystack/eggbox landscapes. Beneath the surface, complex underground systems and extensive caves. Some of the most dramatic of these formations can be seen in Thailands Phangnga Bay, calcium carbonate dissolved into water may precipitate out where the water discharges some of its dissolved carbon dioxide. Rivers which emerge from springs may produce tufa terraces, consisting of layers of calcite deposited over extended periods of time, in caves, a variety of features collectively called speleothems are formed by deposition of calcium carbonate and other dissolved minerals
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Yangshuo County
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Yangshuo County is a county under the jurisdiction of Guilin City, in the northeast of Guangxi Province, China. Its seat is located in Yangshuo Town, surrounded by karst peaks and bordered on one side by the Li River it is easily accessible by bus or by boat from nearby Guilin. In the 1980s, the town popular with foreign backpackers. At that time, domestic tourism represented only a fraction of the tourists. Today, the town has become a destination for both domestic and foreign travelers. The history of West Street dates back to over 1400 years ago, at that time, there were only a few grocery stores in the street. Now, the street has become popular with locals and foreigners alike, there are signs written in both Chinese and English. Due to the high number of foreign visitors to the area many locals in Yangshuo can speak some English. The Yangshuo region has numerous locations for climbing, most easily accessible by bicycle, the most famous of these crags is Moon Hill with several 5.13 graded lines. Other crags of note include Low Mountain, Twin Gates, Baby Frog, The Egg, Bamboo Grove, a digital panorama of the distinctive scenery of Yangshuo was used in the landmark 1993 video game, Doom as one of the backgrounds. Official website of Yangshuo County A comprehensive guide to the city of Yangshuo, focused on lifestyle, travel, culture insights & events in Yangshuo
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