Arbor Day
Arbor Day is a holiday in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant trees. Today, many countries observe such a holiday. Though observed in the spring, the date varies, depending on climate and suitable planting season; the Spanish village of Mondoñedo held the first documented arbor plantation festival in the world organized by its mayor in 1594. The place remains as Alameda de los Remedios and it is still planted with lime and horse-chestnut trees. A humble granite marker and a bronze plate recall the event. Additionally, the small Spanish village of Villanueva de la Sierra held the first modern Arbor Day, an initiative launched in 1805 by the local priest with the enthusiastic support of the entire population. While Napoleon was ravaging Europe with his ambition in this village in the Sierra de Gata lived a priest, don Juan Abern Samtrés, according to the chronicles, "convinced of the importance of trees for health, decoration, nature and customs, decides to plant trees and give a festive air.
The festival began on Carnival Tuesday with the ringing of two bells of the church, the Middle and the Big. After the Mass, coated with church ornaments, don Juan, accompanied by clergies, teachers and a large number of neighbours, planted the first tree, a poplar, in the place known as Valley of the Ejido. Tree plantations continued by Fuente de la Mora. Afterwards, there was a feast, did not miss the dance; the party and plantations lasted three days. He drafted a manifesto in defence of the trees, sent to surrounding towns to spread the love and respect for nature, he advised to make tree plantations in their localities; the first American Arbor Day was originated in Nebraska by J. Sterling Morton. On April 10, 1872, an estimated one million trees were planted in Nebraska. Birdsey Northrop of Connecticut was responsible for globalizing the idea when he visited Japan in 1883 and delivered his Arbor Day and Village Improvement message. In that same year, the American Forestry Association made Northrop the Chairman of the committee to campaign for Arbor Day nationwide.
He brought his enthusiasm for Arbor Day to Australia and Europe. Beginning in 1906, Pennsylvania conservationist Major Israel McCreight of DuBois, argued that President Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation speeches were limited to businessmen in the lumber industry and recommended a campaign of youth education and a national policy on conservation education. McCreight urged Roosevelt to make a public statement to school children about trees and the destruction of American forests. Conservationist Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the United States Forest Service, embraced McCreight’s recommendations and asked the President to speak to the public school children of the United States about conservation. On April 15, 1907, Roosevelt issued an "Arbor Day Proclamation to the School Children of the United States" about the importance of trees and that forestry deserves to be taught in U. S. schools. Pinchot wrote McCreight, "we shall all be indebted to you for having made the suggestion." Arbor Day has been observed in Australia since 20 June 1889.
National Schools Tree Day is held on the last Friday of July for schools and National Tree Day the last Sunday in July throughout Australia. Many states have Arbor Day, although Victoria has an Arbor Week, suggested by Premier Rupert Hamer in the 1980s. International Day of Treeplanting is celebrated in Flanders on or around 21 March as a theme-day/educational-day/observance, not as a public holiday. Tree planting is sometimes combined with awareness campaigns of the fight against cancer: Kom Op Tegen Kanker; the Arbor Day is celebrated on September 21. It is not a national holiday. However, schools nationwide celebrate this day with environment-related activities, namely tree planting. Arbour Day is celebrated on November 22, it is sponsored by the National Parks Trust of the Virgin Islands. Activities include an annual national Arbour Day Poetry Competition and tree planting ceremonies throughout the territory. Cambodia celebrates Arbor Day on July 9 with a tree planting ceremony attended by the king.
The day was founded by Sir George W. Ross the Premier of Ontario, when he was Minister of Education in Ontario. According to the Ontario Teachers' Manuals "History of Education", Ross established both Arbour Day and Empire Day - "the former to give the school children an interest in making and keeping the school grounds attractive, the latter to inspire the children with a spirit of patriotism"; this predates the claimed founding of the day by Don Clark of Schomberg, Ontario for his wife Margret Clark in 1906. In Canada, National Forest Week is the last full week of September, National Tree Day falls on the Wednesday of that week. Ontario celebrates Arbour Week from the last Friday in April to the first Sunday in May. Prince Edward Island celebrates Arbour Day on the third Friday in May during Arbour Week. Arbour Day is the longest running civic greening project in Calgary and is celebrated on the first Thursday in May. On this day, each grade 1 student in Calgary's schools receives a tree seedling to be taken home to be planted on private property.
National Tree Planting Day is on July 20. The Arbor Day in China was founded by the famous forestry scientist Ling Dao-yang in 1915. From 1916 to 1928, Arbor Day was celebrated on the Chinese Qingming Festival, on the first day of the fifth solar term of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. In 1929, the date for Arbor Day was changed to March 12 to commemorate Sun Yat-sen. In 1979, the fourth session of the Fifth Nation
East Asia
East Asia is the eastern subregion of Asia, defined in either geographical or ethno-cultural terms. China, Japan and Vietnam belong to the East Asian cultural sphere. Geographically and geopolitically, the region includes China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea; the region was the cradle of various ancient civilizations such as ancient China, ancient Japan, ancient Korea, the Mongol Empire. East Asia was one of the cradles of world civilization, with China, an ancient East Asian civilization being one of the earliest cradles of civilization in human history. For thousands of years, China influenced East Asia as it was principally the leading civilization in the region exerting its enormous prestige and influence on its neighbors. Societies in East Asia have been part of the Chinese cultural sphere, East Asian vocabulary and scripts are derived from Classical Chinese and Chinese script; the Chinese calendar preserves traditional East Asian culture and serves as the root to which many other East Asian calendars are derived from.
Major religions in East Asia include Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism, Ancestral worship, Chinese folk religion in Greater China and Shintoism in Japan, Christianity and Sindoism in Korea. Shamanism is prevalent among Mongols and other indigenous populations of northern East Asia such as the Manchus. East Asians comprise around 1.6 billion people, making up about 38% of the population in Continental Asia and 22% of the global population. The region is home to major world metropolises such as Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. Although the coastal and riparian areas of the region form one of the world's most populated places, the population in Mongolia and Western China, both landlocked areas, is sparsely distributed, with Mongolia having the lowest population density of any sovereign state; the overall population density of the region is 133 inhabitants per square kilometre, about three times the world average of 45/km2. In comparison with the profound influence of the Ancient Greeks and Romans on Europe and the Western World, China would possess an advanced civilization nearly half a millennia before Japan and Korea.
As Chinese civilization existed for about 1500 years before other East Asian civilizations emerged into history, Imperial China would exert much of its cultural, economic and political muscle onto its neighbors. Succeeding Chinese dynasties exerted enormous influence across East Asia culturally, economically and militarily for over two millennia. Imperial China's cultural preeminence not only led the country to become East Asia's first literate nation in the entire region, it supplied Japan and Korea with Chinese loanwords and linguistic influences rooted in their writing systems. In addition, the Chinese Han dynasty hosted the largest unified population in East Asia, the most literate and urbanized as well as being the most technologically and culturally advanced civilization in the region. Cultural and religious interaction between the Chinese and other regional East Asian dynasties and kingdoms occurred. China's impact and influence on Korea began with the Han dynasty's northeastern expansion in 108 BC when the Han Chinese conquered the northern part of the Korean peninsula and established a province called Lelang.
Chinese influence would soon take root in Korea through the inclusion of the Chinese writing system, monetary system, rice culture, Confucian political institutions. Jōmon society in ancient Japan incorporated wet-rice cultivation and metallurgy through its contact with Korea. Vietnamese society was impacted by Chinese influence, the northern part of Vietnam was occupied by Chinese empires and states for all of the period from 111 BC to 938 AD. In addition to administration, making Chinese the language of administration, the long period of Chinese domination introduced Chinese techniques of dike construction, rice cultivation, animal husbandry. Chinese culture, having been established among the elite mandarin class, remained the dominant current among that elite for most of the next 1,000 years until the loss of independence under French Indochina; this cultural affiliation to China remained true when militarily defending Vietnam against attempted invasion, such as against the Mongol Kublai Khan.
The only significant exceptions to this were the 7 years of the anti-Chinese Hồ dynasty which banned the use of Chinese, but after the expulsion of the Ming the rise in vernacular chữ nôm literature. Although 1,000 years of Chinese rule left many traces, the collective memory of the period reinforced Vietnam's cultural and political independence; as full-fledged medieval East Asian states were established, Korea by the fourth century AD and Japan by the seventh century AD, Korea and Vietnam began to incorporate Chinese influences such as Confucianism, the use of written Han characters, Chinese style architecture, state institutions, political philosophies, urban planning, various scientific and technological methods into their culture and society through direct contacts with succeeding Chinese dynasties. For many centuries, most notably from the 7th to the 14th centuries, China stood as East Asia's most advanced civilization, commanding influence across the region up until the early modern period.
The Imperial Chinese tributary system shaped much of East Asia's history for over two millennia due to Imperial China's economic and cultural influence over the region, thus played a huge role in the history of East Asia in particular. The trans
Korean Peninsula
The Korean Peninsula is located in East Asia. It extends southwards for about 1,100 km from continental Asia into the Pacific Ocean and is surrounded by the Sea of Japan to the east and the Yellow Sea to the west, the Korea Strait connecting the two bodies of water; the peninsula's names, in Korean and Japanese, all share the same origin, that being Joseon, the old name of Korea under the Joseon Dynasty and Gojoseon longer before that. In North Korea's standard language, the peninsula is called Chosŏn Pando, while in China, as well as in Singapore and Malaysia it is called Cháoxiǎn Bàndǎo. In Japan, it is either Chōsenhantō or Kanhantō. In Vietnam, it is called Bán đảo Triều Tiên. Meanwhile, in South Korea, it is called Hanbando, referring to the Samhan the Three Kingdoms of Korea, not the ancient confederacies in the southern Korean Peninsula, they both use "Korea" as part of their official English names, a name that comes from the Goryeo dynasty. Until the end of World War II, Korea was a single political entity whose territory coincided with the Korean Peninsula.
In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Imperial Japan, as a result of an agreement with the United States, liberated Korea north of the 38th parallel. U. S. forces subsequently moved into the south. By 1948, as a product of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Korea was divided into two regions, with separate governments. Both claimed to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, neither accepted the border as permanent; the conflict escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces—supported by the Soviet Union and China—moved into the south on 25 June 1950. Since the Armistice Agreement ended the Korean War in 1953, the northern section of the peninsula has been governed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, while the southern portion has been governed by the Republic of Korea; the northern boundaries for the Korean Peninsula are taken to coincide with today's political borders between North Korea and its northern neighbors and Russia. These borders are formed by the rivers Amnok and Duman.
Taking this definition, the Korean Peninsula has an area of 220,847 km2. The Korean Peninsula has a temperate climate with comparatively fewer typhoons than other countries in East Asia. Due to the peninsula's position, it has a unique climate influenced from Siberia in the north, the Pacific Ocean in the east and the rest of Eurasia in the west; the peninsula has four distinct seasons: spring, summer and winter. As influence from Siberia weakens, temperatures begin to increase while the high pressure begins to move away. If the weather is abnormally dry, Siberia will have more influence on the peninsula leading to wintry weather such as snow. During June at the start of the summer, there tends to be a lot of rain due to the cold and wet air from the Sea of Okhotsk and the hot and humid air from the Pacific Ocean combining; when these fronts combine, it leads to a so-called rainy season with cloudy days with rain, sometimes heavy. The hot and humid winds from the south west blow causing an increasing amount of humidity and this leads to the fronts moving towards Manchuria in China and thus there is less rain and this is known as midsummer.
High pressure is dominant during autumn leading to clear conditions. Furthermore, temperatures remain high but the humidity becomes low; the weather becomes dominated by Siberia during winter and the jet stream moves further south causing a drop in temperature. This season is dry with some snow falling at times. Temperatures can drop to -20 °C in the mountainous areas; the Korean Peninsula is located in East Asia. To the northwest, the Amnok River separates the peninsula from China and to the northeast, the Duman River separates it from China and Russia; the peninsula is surrounded by the Yellow Sea to the west, the East China Sea and Korea Strait to the south, the Sea of Japan to the east. Notable islands include Ulleung Island, Dokdo; the southern and western parts of the peninsula have well-developed plains, while the eastern and northern parts are mountainous. The highest mountain in Korea is Mount Paektu; the southern extension of Mount Paektu is a highland called Gaema Heights. This highland was raised during the Cenozoic orogeny and covered by volcanic matter.
To the south of Gaema Gowon, successive high mountains are located along the eastern coast of the peninsula. This mountain range is named Baekdudaegan; some significant mountains include Mount Sobaek or Sobaeksan, Mount Kumgang, Mount Seorak, Mount Taebaek, Mount Jiri. There are several lower, secondary mountain series whose direction is perpendicular to that of Baekdudaegan, they are developed along the tectonic line of Mesozoic orogeny and their directions are northwest. Unlike most ancient mountains on the mainland, many important islands in Korea were formed by volcanic activity in the Cenozoic orogeny. Jeju Island, situated off the southern coast, is a large volcanic island whose main mountain Mount Halla or Hallasan is the highest in South Korea. Ulleung Island is a volcanic island in the Sea of
Liancourt Rocks
The Liancourt Rocks are a group of small islets in the Sea of Japan. While South Korea controls the islets, its sovereignty over them is contested by Japan. South Korea classifies the islets as Dokdo-ri, Ulleung-eup, Ulleung County, North Gyeongsang Province, calls them Dokdo. Japan classifies the islands as part of Okinoshima, Oki District, Shimane Prefecture, calls them Takeshima; the Franco-English name of the islets derives from Le Liancourt, the name of a French whaling ship that came close to being wrecked on the rocks in 1849. The Liancourt Rocks consist of 35 smaller rocks; the Liancourt Rocks lie in rich fishing grounds. The Liancourt Rocks consist of two main islets and numerous surrounding rocks; the two main islets, called Ojima and Mejima in Japanese, Seodo and Dongdo in Korean, are 151 metres apart. The Western Island is the larger of the two, with a wider base and higher peak, while the Eastern Island offers more usable surface area. Altogether, there are about 90 islets and reefs, volcanic rocks formed in the Cenozoic era, more 4.6 to 2.5 million years ago.
A total of 37 of these islets are recognized as permanent land. The total area of the islets is about 187,554 square metres, with their highest point at 168.5 metres on the West Islet. The western islet is about 88,740 square metres; the western islet features many caves along the coastline. The cliffs of the eastern islet are about 10 to 20 metres high. There are two large caves giving access to the sea, as well as a crater. In 2006, a geologist reported that the islets formed 4.5 million years ago and are eroding. The Liancourt Rocks are located at about 37°14′N 131°52′E; the western islet is located at 37°14′31″N 131°51′55″E and the Eastern Islet is located at 37°14′27″N 131°52′10″E. The Liancourt Rocks are situated at a distance of 211 kilometres from the main island of Japan and 216.8 kilometres from mainland Korea. The nearest Japanese island, Oki Islands, is at a distance of 157 kilometres. and the nearest Korean island, Ulleungdo, is 87.4 kilometres. Due to their location and small size, the Liancourt Rocks can have harsh weather.
If the swell is greater than 3 to 5 metres landing is not possible so on average ferries can only dock about once in every forty days. Overall, the climate is warm and humid, influenced by warm sea currents. Precipitation is high throughout the year, with occasional snowfall. Fog is common. In summer, southerly winds dominate; the water around the islets is about 10 °C in early spring, when the water is coldest, warming to about 24 °C in late summer. The islets are volcanic rocks, with only a thin layer of soil and moss. About 49 plant species, 107 bird species, 93 insect species have been found to inhabit the islets, in addition to local marine life with 160 algal and 368 invertebrate species identified. Although between 1,100 and 1,200 litres of fresh water flow daily, desalinization plants have been installed on the islets for human consumption because existing spring water suffers from guano contamination. Since the early 1970s trees and some types of flowers were planted. According to historical records, there used to be trees indigenous to Liancourt Rocks, which have been wiped out by overharvesting and fires caused by bombing drills over the islets.
A recent investigation, identified ten spindle trees aged 100–120 years. Cetaceans such as Minke whales and dolphins are known to migrate through these areas. Records of the human impact on the Liancourt Rocks before the late 20th century are scarce, although both Japanese and Koreans claim to have felled trees and killed Japanese sea lions there for many decades. There is a serious concern for pollution in the seas surrounding the Liancourt Rocks; the sewage water treatment system established on the islets has malfunctioned and sewage water produced by inhabitants of the Liancourt Rocks such as South Korean Coast Guard and lighthouse staff is being dumped directly into the ocean. Significant water pollution has been observed; the pollution is causing loss of biodiversity in the surrounding seas. In November 2004, eight tons of malodorous sludge was being dumped into the ocean every day. Efforts have since been made by both public and private organizations to help curb the level of pollution surrounding the Rocks.
As of February 2017, there were two civilian residents, two government officials, six lighthouse managers, 40 members of the coast guard living on the islets. Since the South Korean Coast Guard was sent to the islets, civilian travel has been subject to South Korean government approval. In March 1965, Choi Jong-duk moved from the nearby Ulleungdo to the islets to make a living from fishing, he helped install facilities from May 1968. In 1981, Choi Jong-duk changed his administrative address to the Liancourt Rocks, making himself the first person to live
Korean Demilitarized Zone
The Korean Demilitarized Zone is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula. It is established by the provisions of the Korean Armistice Agreement to serve as a buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea; the demilitarized zone is a border barrier that divides the Korean Peninsula in half. It was created by agreement between North Korea, the People's Republic of China and the United Nations Command in 1953; the DMZ is 250 kilometres long, about 4 kilometres wide. Within the DMZ is a meeting point between the two nations in the small Joint Security Area near the western end of the zone, where negotiations take place. There have been various incidents in and around the DMZ, with military and civilian casualties on both sides; the Korean Demilitarized Zone intersects but does not follow the 38th parallel north, the border before the Korean War. It crosses the parallel on an angle, with the west end of the DMZ lying south of the parallel and the east end lying north of it; the DMZ is 250 kilometres long 4 km wide.
Though the zone separating both sides is demilitarized, the border beyond that strip is one of the most militarized borders in the world. The Northern Limit Line, or NLL, is the disputed maritime demarcation line between North and South Korea in the Yellow Sea, not agreed in the armistice; the coastline and islands on both sides of the NLL are heavily militarized. The 38th parallel north—which divides the Korean Peninsula in half—was the original boundary between the United States and Soviet Union's brief administration areas of Korea at the end of World War II. Upon the creation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea in 1948, it became a de facto international border and one of the most tense fronts in the Cold War. Both the North and the South remained dependent on their sponsor states from 1948 to the outbreak of the Korean War; that conflict, which claimed over three million lives and divided the Korean Peninsula along ideological lines, commenced on 25 June 1950, with a full-front DPRK invasion across the 38th parallel, ended in 1953 after international intervention pushed the front of the war back to near the 38th parallel.
In the Armistice Agreement of 27 July 1953, the DMZ was created as each side agreed to move their troops back 2,000 m from the front line, creating a buffer zone 4 km wide. The Military Demarcation Line goes through the center of the DMZ and indicates where the front was when the agreement was signed. Owing to this theoretical stalemate, genuine hostility between the North and the South, large numbers of troops are stationed along both sides of the line, each side guarding against potential aggression from the other side 65 years after its establishment; the armistice agreement explains how many military personnel and what kind of weapons are allowed in the DMZ. Soldiers from both sides may patrol inside the DMZ, but they may not cross the MDL; however armed ROK soldiers patrol under the aegis of military police, have memorized each line of the armistice. Sporadic outbreaks of violence have killed over 500 South Korean soldiers, 50 US soldiers and 250 soldiers from DPRK along the DMZ between 1953 and 1999.
Daeseong-dong and Kijŏng-dong are the only settlements allowed by the armistice committee to remain within the boundaries of the DMZ. Residents of Tae Sung Dong are governed and protected by the United Nations Command and are required to spend at least 240 nights per year in the village to maintain their residency. In 2008, the village had a population of 218 people; the villagers of Tae Sung Dong are direct descendants of people who owned the land before the 1950–53 Korean War. To continue to deter North Korean incursion, in 2014 the United States government exempted the Korean DMZ from its pledge to eliminate anti-personnel landmines. On 1 October 2018, however, a 20-day process began to remove landmines from both sides of the DMZ. Inside the DMZ, near the western coast of the peninsula, Panmunjom is the home of the Joint Security Area, it was the only connection between North and South Korea but that changed on 17 May 2007, when a Korail train went through the DMZ to the North on the new Donghae Bukbu Line built on the east coast of Korea.
However, the resurrection of this line was short-lived, as it closed again in July 2008 following an incident in which a South Korean tourist was shot and killed. There are several buildings on both the north and the south side of the Military Demarcation Line, there have been some built on top of it; the JSA is the location where all negotiations since 1953 have been held, including statements of Korean solidarity, which have amounted to little except a slight decline of tensions. The MDL goes through the conference rooms and down the middle of the conference tables where the North Koreans and the United Nations Command meet face to face. Within the JSA are a number of buildings for joint meetings called Conference Rooms; these are used for direct talks between the Korean War parties to the armistice. Facing the Conference Row buildings are the North Korean Panmungak and the South Korean Freedom House. In 1994, North Korea enlarged Panmungak by adding a third floor. In 1998, South Korea built a new Freedom House for its Red Cross staff and to host reunions of families separated by the Korean War.
The new building incorporated the old Freedom House Pagoda within its design. Since 1
Geum River
The Geum River is located in South Korea. It is a major river that originates in North Jeolla Province, it flows northward through North Jeolla and North Chungcheong Provinces and changes direction in the vicinity of Greater Daejeon and flows southwest through South Chungcheong Province before emptying into the Yellow Sea near Gunsan city. The river is 401 kilometres long; the area of the Geum River Basin is 9,859 square kilometres. The upper part of the river flows through part of the Noryeong Mountains and is marked by extensive stream meandering. On the other hand, river curves on middle and lower parts of the river are more gradual and there is comparatively less stream meandering. Tributary streams of the Geum include the Gap-cheon, Yugu-cheon, Miho-cheon, Unsan-cheon, Seokseong-cheon, Nonsan-cheon. Several small alluvial plains including the Honam and Nonsan Plain have been formed by the flow of the Geum and its tributaries. In the area of Buyeo County, the river bears the name Baengma-gang.
Numerous legends associate the ancient kingdom of Baekje with the Baengma. The Baengma River is the subject of a well-known song of the sin minyo tradition, Kkumkkuneun Baengma-gang; the Geum River and its tributaries were a means of cultural contact from prehistoric times and into the Three Kingdoms of Korea through their ancient function as a transportation route that begins on the west coast and penetrates deep in the interior of the Peninsula. Bronze Culture flourished in this area from c. 850 B. C.-A. D. 100. Archaeological evidence suggests that some of the first complex societies in southern Korea flourished in the valleys formed by tributaries of this river; the Geum River Basin contained the chiefdoms of Mahan, a former centres of the early kingdom of Baekje such as Ungjin and Sabi are located along the Baengma portion of the river. The river's Korean name is a homonym of the word for "diamond" and should not be confused with Kŭmgang Mountain in North Korea. Dams have been built on the Upper Geum to facilitate water for agriculture and industry.
They include the Yongdam Dam. The city of Greater Daejeon and the farms and industries of South Chungcheong Province rely on the Geum River and its tributaries; the alluvial plains formed by the Geum and its tributaries are the locations of significant agricultural production in Korea. "Corea",'Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1878, pp. 390–394. Rivers of Asia Rivers of Korea List of Korea-related topics Geography of South Korea
This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook website https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html.
This article incorporates 
