1.
Simplified Chinese characters
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Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
2.
Traditional Chinese characters
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Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
3.
Chinese postal romanization
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Postal romanization was a system of transliterating Chinese place names developed by the Imperial Post Office in the early 1900s. The system was in use until the 1980s. For major cities and other places that already had widely accepted European names, with regard to other place names, the post office revised policy several times. Spellings given could reflect the pronunciation, Nanjing pronunciation, or Beijing pronunciation. At a conference held in 1906 in Shanghai, the post office selected a system of romanization developed by Herbert Giles called Nanking syllabary, although Beijing dialect had served as a national standard since the mid-19th century, the system adopted was based on Nanjing pronunciation. The system corresponded to traditional romanizations that were adopted in the 18th century when Nanjing dialect was considered standard. French-appointed administrators ran the post office at time, and they sought a less anglicized alternative to Wade-Giles. An imperial edict issued in 1896 renamed the Maritime Customs Post, reorganized this agency as a postal service. In 1899, Robert Hart, as general of posts. Although Hart asked for transliterations according to the pronunciation, most postmasters were reluctant to play lexicographer. The spellings that they submitted generally followed a system created by Thomas Francis Wade, the system had been developed in 1859 and was based on the Beijing pronunciation. It became the method of romanizing Chinese after Herbert Giles published a dictionary, using the system. The post office published a draft romanization map in 1903, disappointed with the Wade-based map, Hart made another attempt to promote localism in 1905. He directed the postmasters to submit romanizations not as directed by Wade, local missionaries could be consulted, Hart suggested. However, Wades system reflected pronunciation in most areas served by the post office, a more serious disadvantage was that the French viewed Wades system as anglophone. The top position in the post office was held by Postal Secretary Théophile Piry, until 1911, the post office remained part of the Maritime Customs Service. As customs inspector general, Hart was Pirys boss, but French backing effectively gave Piry a postal fiefdom, Piry responded to Harts moves by organising an Imperial Postal Joint-Session Conference in Shanghai in the spring of 1906. As it was a joint postal and telegraphic conference, it allowed Piry to go over Harts head, the conference resolved that existing spellings would be retained for all names already transliterated
4.
Standard Chinese
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Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times
5.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
6.
Cantonese
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Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a variety of Chinese spoken in the city of Guangzhou in southeastern China. It is the prestige variety of Yue, one of the major subdivisions of Chinese. In mainland China, it is the lingua franca of the province of Guangdong and some neighbouring areas such as Guangxi. In Hong Kong and Macau, Cantonese serves as one of their official languages and it is also spoken amongst overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and throughout the Western World. When Cantonese and the closely related Yuehai dialects are classified together, Cantonese is viewed as vital part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swathes of southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau. Although Cantonese shares some vocabulary with Mandarin, the two varieties are mutually unintelligible because of differences in pronunciation, grammar and lexicon, sentence structure, in particular the placement of verbs, sometimes differs between the two varieties. This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar, in English, the term Cantonese is ambiguous. Cantonese proper is the variety native to the city of Canton and this narrow sense may be specified as Canton language or Guangzhou language in English. However, Cantonese may also refer to the branch of Cantonese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang. In this article, Cantonese is used for Cantonese proper, historically, speakers called this variety Canton speech or Guangzhou speech, although this term is now seldom used outside mainland China. In Guangdong province, people call it provincial capital speech or plain speech. In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities, in mainland China, the term Guangdong speech is also increasingly being used among both native and non-native speakers. Due to its status as a prestige dialect among all the dialects of the Cantonese or Yue branch of Chinese varieties, the official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in the Hong Kong Basic Law. The Chinese language has different varieties, of which Cantonese is one. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and it is also used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation exists in neighboring Macau, where Chinese is an official language along with Portuguese. As in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The variant spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is known as Hong Kong Cantonese, Cantonese first developed around the port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China
7.
Jyutping
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Jyutping is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong, an academic group, in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanisation Scheme, the LSHK promotes the use of this romanisation system. The name Jyutping is a contraction consisting of the first Chinese characters of the terms Jyut6jyu5, only the finals m and ng can be used as standalone nasal syllables. ^ ^ ^ Referring to the pronunciation of these words. There are nine tones in six distinct tone contours in Cantonese, however, as three of the nine are entering tones, which only appear in syllables ending with p, t, and k, they do not have separate tone numbers in Jyutping. Jyutping and the Yale Romanisation of Cantonese represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they differ in the following, The vowels eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping, the initial j represents /j/ in Jyutping whereas y is used instead in Yale. The initial z represents /ts/ in Jyutping whereas j is used instead in Yale, the initial c represents /tsʰ/ in Jyutping whereas ch is used instead in Yale. In Jyutping, if no consonant precedes the vowel yu, then the initial j is appended before the vowel, in Yale, the corresponding initial y is never appended before yu under any circumstances. Jyutping defines three finals not in Yale, eu /ɛːu/, em /ɛːm/, and ep /ɛːp/ and these three finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as deu6, lem2, and gep6. To represent tones, only tone numbers are used in Jyutping whereas Yale traditionally uses tone marks together with the letter h. Jyutping and Cantonese Pinyin represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they have differences, The vowel oe represents both /ɵ/ and /œː/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping. The vowel y represents /y/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas both yu and i are used in Jyutping, the initial dz represents /ts/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas z is used instead in Jyutping. The initial ts represents /tsʰ/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas c is used instead in Jyutping. To represent tones, the numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in Cantonese Pinyin, however, only the numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping
8.
Southern Min
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Southern Min, or Minnan, is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in certain parts of China including southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and southern Zhejiang, and in Taiwan. The Min Nan dialects are spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora, most notably the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia. In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to Hokkien, including Amoy and Taiwanese Hokkien, the Southern Min dialect group also includes Teochew, though Teochew has limited mutual intelligibility with Hokkien. Hainanese is not mutually intellgible with other Southern Min and is considered a separate branch of Min. Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Pu-Xian Min, any other Min branch, Hakka, Cantonese, Shanghainese or Mandarin. Southern Min dialects are spoken in the part of Fujian. The variant spoken in Leizhou, Guangdong as well as Hainan is Hainanese and is not mutually intelligible with other Southern Min or Teochew, Hainanese is classified in some schemes as part of Southern Min and in other schemes as separate. Puxian Min was originally based on the Quanzhou dialect, but over time became heavily influenced by Eastern Min, eventually losing intellegility with Minnan. A forms of Southern Min spoken in Taiwan, collectively known as Taiwanese, Southern Min is a first language for most of the Hoklo people, the main ethnicity of Taiwan. The correspondence between language and ethnicity is not absolute, as some Hoklo have very limited proficiency in Southern Min while some non-Hoklo speak Southern Min fluently, there are many Southern Min speakers also among Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Many ethnic Chinese immigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present-day Malaysia and Singapore. In general, Southern Min from southern Fujian is known as Hokkien, Hokkienese, many Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese also originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong and speak Teochew language, the variant of Southern Min from that region. Southern Min-speakers form the majority of Chinese in Singapore, with the largest group being Hokkien, despite the similarities the two groups are rarely seen as part of the same Minnan Chinese subgroups. The variants of Southern Min spoken in Zhejiang province are most akin to that spoken in Quanzhou, the variants spoken in Taiwan are similar to the three Fujian variants and are collectively known as Taiwanese. Those Southern Min variants that are known as Hokkien in Southeast Asia also originate from these variants. The variants of Southern Min in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province are known as Teochew or Chaozhou. Teochew is of importance in the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora, particularly in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sumatra. The Philippines variant is mostly from the Quanzhou area as most of their forefathers are from the aforementioned area, the Southern Min language variant spoken around Shanwei and Haifeng differs markedly from Teochew and may represent a later migration from Zhangzhou
9.
Hokkien
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Hokkien /hɒˈkiɛn/ is a group of Southern Min dialects spoken throughout Southeastern China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and by other overseas Chinese. Hokkien originated in southern Fujian, the Min-speaking province and it is closely related to Teochew, though there is limited mutual intelligibility, and is somewhat more distantly related to Hainanese and Leizhou dialect. Besides Hokkien, there are also other Min and Hakka dialects in Fujian province, the term Hokkien is etymologically derived from the Southern Min pronunciation for Fujian, the province from which the language hails. The variety is known by other terms such as the more general Min Nan or Southern Min. Fujianese and Fukienese are also used, although they are somewhat imprecise, the term Hokkien is not usually used in Mainland China or Taiwan. Conversely Hokkien is the name in Southeast Asia in both English, Chinese or other languages. Speakers of Hokkien, particularly those in Southeast Asia, typically refer to Hokkien as a dialect, people in Taiwan most often refer to Hokkien as the Taiwanese language, with Minnan and Holo also being used and 福建話 is not as common. Hokkien originated in the area of Fujian province, an important center for trade and migration. The major pole of Hokkien varieties outside of Fujian is Taiwan, the Taiwanese version mostly have origins with the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou variants, but since then, the Amoy dialect is becoming the modern prestige standard for the language. There are many Hokkien speakers among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia as well as in the United States, many ethnic Han Chinese emigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian, and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present day Malaysia and Singapore. Many of the Hokkien dialects of this region are similar to Taiwanese and Amoynese. Hokkien is reportedly the native language of up to 80% of the Chinese people in the Philippines, Hokkien speakers form the largest group of overseas Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines. Southern and part of western Fujian is home to four principal Hokkien dialects, Chinchew, Amoy, Chiangchew and Longyan, originating from the cities of Quanzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Longyan. As Xiamen is the city of southern Fujian, Amoy is considered the most important, or even the prestige dialect. It is a hybrid of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects, same as Amoy dialect, the varieties of Hokkien spoken in Taiwan are hybrids of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects, and are collectively known as Taiwanese Hokkien or just Taiwanese. Used by a majority of the population, it bears much importance from a socio-political perspective, the varieties of Hokkien in Southeast Asia originate from these dialects. The Singaporeans, Southern Malaysians and people in Indonesias Riau and surrounding islands variant is from the Quanzhou area and they speak a distinct form of Quanzhou Hokkien called Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien. Among ethnic Chinese inhabitants of Penang, and other states in Northern Malaysia and Medan, with areas in North Sumatra, Indonesia
10.
Leizhou Min
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Leizhou Min is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Leizhou city and neighbouring areas on the Leizhou peninsula in the west of Guangdong province. In the classification of Yuan Jiahua, it was included in the Southern Min group, in the classification of Li Rong, used by the Language Atlas of China, it was treated as a separate Min subgroup. It is sometimes combined with Hainanese in a Qiong–Lei group, Leizhou has six tones, which are reduced to two in checked syllables. Taiwanese Hokkien Teochew dialect List of Chinese dialects Li, Charles, Thompson, a Grammatical description of Xuwen, A colloquial dialect of Lei-zhou Peninsula. A Grammatical description of Xuwen, A colloquial dialect of Lei-zhou Peninsula, the Suixi Dialect of Leizhou, A Study of Its Phonological, Lexical and Syntactic Structure. Cantonese and other dialects Classification of Northern Min Dialects from Glossika
11.
Peninsula
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A peninsula is a piece of land surrounded by water on the majority of its border, while being connected to a mainland from which it extends out. Examples include the upper and lower peninsulas of the state of Michigan, the surrounding water is usually understood to be continuous, though not necessarily named as a single body of water. Peninsulas are not always named as such, one can also be a headland, cape, island promontory, bill, point, a point is generally considered a tapering piece of land projecting into a body of water that is less prominent than a cape. A river which courses through a very tight meander is also said to form a peninsula within the loop of water. In English, the plural of peninsula is peninsulas or, less commonly, peninsulas can be found on coastlines and in smaller bodies of water throughout the world, ranging in scale from square meters to millions of square kilometers. Theres the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe, and in Southern Europe theres the Iberian Peninsula, the Italian Peninsula, south America has the Brunswick Peninsula, and Antarctica has the Antarctic Peninsula. In Africa, theres the Horn of Africa, and in Australia, asia has the 3 largest peninsulas in the world, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Peninsula, and the Indochinese Peninsula
12.
Guangdong
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Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the Peoples Republic of China. The provincial capital Guangzhou and economic hub Shenzhen are among the most populous, the population increase since the census has been modest, the province at 2014 end had 107,240,000 people. Since 1989, Guangdong has topped the total GDP rankings among all divisions, with Jiangsu and Shandong second. According to state statistics, Guangdongs GDP in 2014 reached RMB6,779 billion, or US$1.104 trillion, since 2011, Guangdong has the highest GDP among all provinces of Mainland China. The province contributes approximately 12% of the PRCs national economic output, Guangdong also hosts the largest import and export fair in China called the Canton Fair in Guangdongs capital city Guangzhou. Guǎng means expanse or vast, and has associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD226. Guangdong and neighbouring Guangxi literally mean expanse east and expanse west, together, Guangdong and Guangxi are called Loeng gwong. During the Song dynasty, the Two Guangs were formally separated as Guǎngnán Dōnglù and Guǎngnán Xīlù, one should note that Canton, though etymologically derived from Cantão, refers only to the provincial capital instead of the whole province, as documented by authoritative English dictionaries. The local people of the city of Guangzhou and their language are commonly referred to as Cantonese in English. Because of the prestige of Canton and its accent, Cantonese sensu lato can also be used for the phylogenetically related residents, Chinese administration and reliable historical records in the region began with the Qin dynasty. After establishing the first unified Chinese empire, the Qin expanded southwards and set up Nanhai Commandery at Panyu, the region was independent as Nanyue between the fall of Qin and the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. Under the Wu Kingdom of the Three Kingdoms period, Guangdong was made its own province, for example, internal strife in northern China following the rebellion of An Lushan resulted in a 75% increase in the population of Guangzhou prefecture between 740s–750s and 800s–810s. As more migrants arrived, the population was gradually assimilated to Han Chinese culture or displaced. Multiple women originating from the Persian Gulf lived in Guangzhous foreign quarter, together with Guangxi, Guangdong was made part of Lingnan Circuit, or Mountain-South Circuit, in 627 during the Tang dynasty. The Guangdong part of Lingnan Circuit was renamed Guangnan East Circuit guǎng nán dōng lù in 971 during the Song dynasty, Guangnan East is the source of Guangdong. As Mongols from the north engaged in their conquest of China in the 13th century, the Battle of Yamen 1279 in Guangdong marked the end of the Southern Song Dynasty. During the Mongol Yuan dynasty, large parts of current Guangdong belonged to Jiangxi and its present name, Guangdong Province was given in early Ming dynasty. Since the 16th century, Guangdong has had extensive links with the rest of the world
13.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
14.
Gulf of Tonkin
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The Gulf of Tonkin is a body of water located off the coast of northern Vietnam and southern China. It is an arm of the South China Sea. The Gulf is defined in the west by the coastline of Vietnam, in the north by Chinas Guangxi province. The bays Vietnamese and Chinese names – Vịnh Bắc Bộ and Běibù Wān, the name Tonkin, written 東京 in Hán-Nôm characters and Đông Kinh in the Vietnamese alphabet, means eastern capital, and is the former toponym for Hanoi, the present capital of Vietnam. It should not to be confused with Tokyo, which is also written 東京, during Vietnams French colonial era, Tonkin was used to refer to the north of the country. On 2 August 1964, United States President Lyndon B. Johnson claimed that North Vietnamese forces had twice attacked American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Known today as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, this event spawned the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution of 7 August 1964 and it furthermore foreshadowed the major escalation of the Vietnam War in South Vietnam, which began with the landing of US regular combat troops at Da Nang in 1965. Geography of China Geography of Vietnam Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club Xinhua – China to hold forum to boost Beibu Bay economic zone
15.
Qiongzhou Strait
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The Qiongzhou Strait, also called the Hainan Strait, is a body of water that separates the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong, southern China, to the north from Hainan Island to its south. The strait connects the Gulf of Tonkin in the west to the South China Sea on the east, the strait is on average 30 km wide and centered at 20°09′N 110°16′E with a maximum water depth of approximately 120 m. The Guangdong–Hainan Ferry carries rail cars and automotive vehicles across the strait, a 140 billion RMB bridge across the strait is planned to begin construction in 2012. The bridge is designed to have levels for both trains and cars, and is expected to be 26.3 km long. Currently the strait is susceptible to closure during strong typhoon activity, whales and dugongs were once common in the strait. The strait was crossed by the Peoples Liberation Army forces in the spring of 1950, haikou, formerly called Qiongzhou Shi et al. The Role of Qiongzhou Strait in the Seasonal Variation of the South China Sea Circulation Media related to Qiongzhou Strait at Wikimedia Commons
16.
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
17.
Haikou City
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Hǎikǒu, is the capital and most populous city of Hainan province, China. It is situated on the northern coast of Hainan, by the mouth of the Nandu River, the northern part of the city is the district of Haidian Island, which is separated from the main part of Haikou by the Haidian River, a branch of the Nandu. Administratively, Haikou is a city, comprising four districts. There are 2,046,189 inhabitants in the built up area all living within the 4 urban districts of the city, Haikou was originally a port city. Today, more than half of the total trade still goes through its ports. The city is home to Hainan University, which has its campus on Haidian Island. The hanzi characters comprising the name, 海口, mean ocean/sea and mouth/port. Thus, the name Haikou is also a word for seaport - similar to Portsmouth in England, Haikou originally served as the port for Qiongshan, the ancient administrative capital of Hainan island, located some 5 kilometres inland to the south east. During its early history Haikou was a part of Guangdong province, in the 13th century it was fortified and became a military post under the Ming dynasty. The port is located west of the mouth of the Nandu River, when Qiongshan was opened to foreign trade under the Treaty of Tianjin in 1858, Haikou started to rival the old administrative city. It was known internationally as Hoihow, based on the local dialect, in 1926, Haikou overtook Qiongshan in population and it was declared a separate administrative city. Haikou was developed as a port during the Sino-Japanese War when the Japanese invaded and occupied Hainan Island from early 1939 to 1945, since 1949, Haikou has maintained its position as Hainans main port, handling more than half of the islands total trade. It has replaced Qiongshan as the administrative capital. In 1988, Haikou was made a city as well as the capital of the newly created Hainan Province. Haikou old town contains the oldest buildings in the city and was built by wealthy Chinese from the mainland. The houses are a mixture of styles including Portuguese, French, various projects are currently under discussion to decide the best way to restore and preserve these historical buildings. Most of the city is almost completely flat and only a few metres above sea level and it has an area of 2,304.84 square kilometres. The northern part of Haikou City, the district of Haidian Island, is separated from the part of Haikou by the Haidian River
18.
Basalt
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Basalt is a common extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of basaltic lava exposed at or very near the surface of a planet or moon. Flood basalt describes the formation in a series of basalt flows. By definition, basalt is an igneous rock with generally 45-55% silica and less than 10% feldspathoid by volume. Basalt commonly features a very fine-grained or glassy matrix interspersed with visible mineral grains, the average density is 3.0 gm/cm3. Basalt is defined by its content and texture, and physical descriptions without mineralogical context may be unreliable in some circumstances. Basalt is usually grey to black in colour, but rapidly weathers to brown or rust-red due to oxidation of its mafic minerals into hematite, although usually characterized as dark, basaltic rocks exhibit a wide range of shading due to regional geochemical processes. Due to weathering or high concentrations of plagioclase, some basalts can be quite light-coloured and these phenocrysts usually are of olivine or a calcium-rich plagioclase, which have the highest melting temperatures of the typical minerals that can crystallize from the melt. Basalt with a texture is called vesicular basalt, when the bulk of the rock is mostly solid. Gabbro is often marketed commercially as black granite and these ultramafic volcanic rocks, with silica contents below 45% are usually classified as komatiites. Agricola applied basalt to the black rock of the Schloßberg at Stolpen. Tholeiitic basalt is relatively rich in silica and poor in sodium, included in this category are most basalts of the ocean floor, most large oceanic islands, and continental flood basalts such as the Columbia River Plateau. Basalt rocks are in some cases classified after their content in High-Ti and Low-Ti varieties. High-Ti and Low-Ti basalts have been distinguished in the Paraná and Etendeka traps and it has greater than 17% alumina and is intermediate in composition between tholeiite and alkali basalt, the relatively alumina-rich composition is based on rocks without phenocrysts of plagioclase. Alkali basalt is relatively poor in silica and rich in sodium and it is silica-undersaturated and may contain feldspathoids, alkali feldspar and phlogopite. Boninite is a form of basalt that is erupted generally in back-arc basins. Ocean island basalt Lunar basalt On Earth, most basalt magmas have formed by melting of the mantle. Basalt commonly erupts on Io, the third largest moon of Jupiter, and has formed on the Moon, Mars, Venus. The crustal portions of oceanic tectonic plates are composed predominantly of basalt, produced from upwelling mantle below, the mineralogy of basalt is characterized by a preponderance of calcic plagioclase feldspar and pyroxene
19.
Terrace (agriculture)
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This type of landscaping, therefore, is called terracing. Graduated terrace steps are used to farm on hilly or mountainous terrain. Terraced fields decrease both erosion and surface runoff, and may be used to growing crops that require irrigation. The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the significance of this technique, terraced paddy fields are used widely in rice, wheat and barley farming in east, south, and southeast Asia, as well as other places. In the South American Andes, farmers have used terraces, known as andenes, for over a years to farm potatoes, maize. Terraced farming was developed by the Wari and other peoples of the south-central Andes before 1000 AD, centuries before they were used by the Inca, the terraces were built to make the most efficient use of shallow soil and to enable irrigation of crops. The Inca built on these, developing a system of canals, aqueducts and these terraced farms are found wherever mountain villages have existed in the Andes. They provided the necessary to support the populations of great Inca cities. Terracing is also used for sloping terrain, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon may have built on an artificial mountain with stepped terraces. At the seaside Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, the gardens of Julius Caesars father-in-law were designed in terraces to give pleasant. Terraced fields are common in islands with steep slopes, the Canary Islands present a complex system of terraces covering the landscape from the coastal irrigated plantations to the dry fields in the highlands. These terraces, which are named cadenas, are built with walls of skillful design. In Old English, a terrace was also called a lynch, an example of an ancient Lynch Mill is in Lyme Regis. The water is directed from a river by a duct along a terrace and this set-up was used in steep hilly areas in the UK. Anden Banaue Rice Terraces Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras Satoyama Terrace garden Terrace Fields around the World
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Marine terrace
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Thus, it lies above or under the current sea level, depending on the time of its formation. It is bounded by a steeper ascending slope on the landward side, due to its generally flat shape it is often used for anthropogenic structures such as settlements and infrastructure. A raised beach is an emergent coastal landform, raised beaches and marine terraces are beaches or wave-cut platforms raised above the shoreline by a relative fall in the sea level. A marine terrace commonly retains a shoreline angle or inner edge, the shoreline angle represents the maximum shoreline of a transgression and therefore a paleo-sea level. The platform of a marine terrace usually has a gradient between 1°–5° depending on the tidal range with, commonly, a linear to concave profile. The width is variable, reaching up to 1,000 metres. The cliff faces that delimit the platform can vary in steepness depending on the roles of marine. Sub-horizontal platforms usually terminate in a low cliff, and it is believed that the occurrence of these platforms depends on tidal activity. Marine terraces can extend for tens of kilometers parallel to the coast. Older terraces are covered by marine and/or alluvial or colluvial materials while the uppermost terrace levels usually are less well preserved, marine terraces can be covered by a wide variety of soils with complex histories and different ages. In protected areas, allochtonous sandy parent materials from tsunami deposits may be found, common soil types found on marine terraces include planosols and solonetz. It is now thought that marine terraces are formed during the separated highstands of interglacial stages correlated to marine isotope stages. The formation of marine terraces is controlled by changes in environmental conditions, changes in climatic conditions have led to eustatic sea-level oscillations and isostatic movements of the Earth’s crust, especially with the changes between glacial and interglacial periods. Processes of eustasy lead to sea level fluctuations due to changes of the water volume in the oceans. At times of maximum glacial extent during the last glacial period, eustatic sea level changes can also be caused by changes in the void volume of the oceans, either through sedimento-eustasy or tectono-eustasy. Processes of isostasy involve the uplift of continental crusts along with their shorelines, today, the process of glacial isostatic adjustment mainly applies to Pleistocene glaciated areas. In Scandinavia, for instance, the present rate of uplift reaches up to 10 millimetres /year, in general, eustatic marine terraces were formed during separate sea level highstands of interglacial stages and can be correlated to marine oxygene isotopic stages. Glacioisostatic marine terraces were created during stillstands of the isostatic uplift
21.
Alluvial plain
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An alluvial plain is a largely flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. As the highlands due to weathering and water flow, the sediment from the hills is transported to the lower plain. Various creeks will carry the water further to a river, lake, bay, as the sediments are deposited during flood conditions in the floodplain of a creek, the elevation of the floodplain will be raised. As this reduces the channel capacity, the creek will, over time, seek new, lower paths. These processes, over time, will form the plain. The NCSS glossary instead suggests flood plain
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Volcano
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A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. Earths volcanoes occur because its crust is broken into 17 major, therefore, on Earth, volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging. This type of volcanism falls under the umbrella of plate hypothesis volcanism, Volcanism away from plate boundaries has also been explained as mantle plumes. These so-called hotspots, for example Hawaii, are postulated to arise from upwelling diapirs with magma from the boundary,3,000 km deep in the Earth. Volcanoes are usually not created where two plates slide past one another. Erupting volcanoes can pose hazards, not only in the immediate vicinity of the eruption. Historically, so-called volcanic winters have caused catastrophic famines, the word volcano is derived from the name of Vulcano, a volcanic island in the Aeolian Islands of Italy whose name in turn comes from Vulcan, the god of fire in Roman mythology. The study of volcanoes is called volcanology, sometimes spelled vulcanology, at the mid-oceanic ridges, two tectonic plates diverge from one another as new oceanic crust is formed by the cooling and solidifying of hot molten rock. Most divergent plate boundaries are at the bottom of the oceans, therefore, most volcanic activity is submarine, black smokers are evidence of this kind of volcanic activity. Where the mid-oceanic ridge is above sea-level, volcanic islands are formed, for example, subduction zones are places where two plates, usually an oceanic plate and a continental plate, collide. In this case, the plate subducts, or submerges under the continental plate forming a deep ocean trench just offshore. In a process called flux melting, water released from the subducting plate lowers the temperature of the overlying mantle wedge. This magma tends to be very viscous due to its high content, so it often does not reach the surface. When it does reach the surface, a volcano is formed, typical examples of this kind of volcano are Mount Etna and the volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Because tectonic plates move across them, each volcano becomes dormant and is eventually re-formed as the plate advances over the postulated plume and this theory is currently under criticism, however. The most common perception of a volcano is of a mountain, spewing lava and poisonous gases from a crater at its summit, however. The features of volcanoes are more complicated and their structure. Some volcanoes have rugged peaks formed by lava domes rather than a summit crater while others have features such as massive plateaus
23.
Diluvium
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The term was formerly given to the boulder clay deposits, supposed to have been caused by the Noachian deluge. The term diluvium in the meaning of A. N. Rudoy has become accepted, nearly all intermountain depressions in southern Siberia and northern Mongolia hosted glacier-dammed lakes during the Pleistocene ice ages. Climatic changes and hydrostatic alterations of the ice dams were followed by repeated fillings, the lake outbursts had a cataclysmic character. In accordance with conditions, the glaciers would protrude again into the main drainage valleys immediately after dam deformations and lake outbursts. The greatest of the lakes achieved volumes up to hundreds of cubic kilometres and these floods transformed the drainage valleys, repeatedly building new sediment deposits. The dating of the latter proves the occurrence of floods in the Chuya. During that period there were at least five large-scale flooding events, enormous water masses were drained simultaneously and repeatedly toward the south of West Siberia. The total water volume out of the Altai basins only used to reach 10 thousand cubic kilometres, with some periodicity, all of the basins of South Siberia were able to deliver northwards about 60 thousand cubic kilometres of flood waters. Alluvium Altai flood Channeled Scablands Colluvium Eluvium Giant current ripples Illuvium Chuya Flood Video Rudoy, glacier-dammed lakes and geological work of glacial superfloods in the Late Pleistocene, Southern Siberia, Altai Mountains, Quaternary International,2002, Vol. 87/1, pp. 119-140. Ice-dammed lakes and glacial debris super-flows in the Altay and the Sayan Mountains in late Wurm, Новые результаты моделирования гидравлических характеристик дилювиальных потоков из позднечетвертичного Чуйско-Курайского ледниково-подпрудного озера. Diluvium Video Athabasca-video in large Scale Alexei Rudoy, Giant gravel bars - дилювиально-аккумулятивные валы. Glacial Lakes and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods in Nepal, - International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, March 2011
24.
Pleistocene
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The Pleistocene is the geological epoch which lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the worlds most recent period of repeated glaciations. The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period, the Pleistocene is the first epoch of the Quaternary Period or sixth epoch of the Cenozoic Era. In the ICS timescale, the Pleistocene is divided into four stages or ages, all of these stages were defined in southern Europe. In addition to this subdivision, various regional subdivisions are often used. Charles Lyell introduced the term pleistocene in 1839 to describe strata in Sicily that had at least 70% of their molluscan fauna still living today and this distinguished it from the older Pliocene Epoch, which Lyell had originally thought to be the youngest fossil rock layer. The Pleistocene has been dated from 2.588 million to 11,700 years before present and it covers most of the latest period of repeated glaciation, up to and including the Younger Dryas cold spell. The end of the Younger Dryas has been dated to about 9640 BC, the IUGS has yet to approve a type section, Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point, for the upper Pleistocene/Holocene boundary. The proposed section is the North Greenland Ice Core Project ice core 75°06 N 42°18 W, the lower boundary of the Pleistocene Series is formally defined magnetostratigraphically as the base of the Matuyama chronozone, isotopic stage 103. Above this point there are notable extinctions of the calcareous nanofossils, Discoaster pentaradiatus, the Pleistocene covers the recent period of repeated glaciations. The name Plio-Pleistocene has, in the past, been used to mean the last ice age. The revised definition of the Quaternary, by pushing back the date of the Pleistocene to 2.58 Ma. Pleistocene climate was marked by repeated glacial cycles in which continental glaciers pushed to the 40th parallel in some places and it is estimated that, at maximum glacial extent, 30% of the Earths surface was covered by ice. In addition, a zone of permafrost stretched southward from the edge of the sheet, a few hundred kilometres in North America. The mean annual temperature at the edge of the ice was −6 °C, during interglacial times, such as at present, drowned coastlines were common, mitigated by isostatic or other emergent motion of some regions. The effects of glaciation were global, antarctica was ice-bound throughout the Pleistocene as well as the preceding Pliocene. The Andes were covered in the south by the Patagonian ice cap, there were glaciers in New Zealand and Tasmania. The current decaying glaciers of Mount Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro, glaciers existed in the mountains of Ethiopia and to the west in the Atlas mountains. In the northern hemisphere, many glaciers fused into one, the Cordilleran ice sheet covered the North American northwest, the east was covered by the Laurentide
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Holocene
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The Holocene is the geological epoch that began after the Pleistocene at approximately 11,700 years before present. The term Recent has often used as an exact synonym of Holocene. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period and its name comes from the Ancient Greek words ὅλος and καινός, meaning entirely recent. It has been identified with the current warm period, known as MIS1, given these, a new term, Anthropocene, is specifically proposed and used informally only for the very latest part of modern history involving significant human impact. It is accepted by the International Commission on Stratigraphy that the Holocene started approximately 11,700 years ago, the epoch follows the Pleistocene and the last glacial period. The Holocene can be subdivided into five time intervals, or chronozones, based on climatic fluctuations, Preboreal, Boreal, Atlantic, Subboreal and they find a general correspondence across Eurasia and North America, though the method was once thought to be of no interest. The scheme was defined for Northern Europe, but the changes were claimed to occur more widely. The periods of the include a few of the final pre-Holocene oscillations of the last glacial period. Paleontologists have not defined any faunal stages for the Holocene, if subdivision is necessary, periods of human technological development, such as the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age, are usually used. However, the time periods referenced by these terms vary with the emergence of those technologies in different parts of the world, climatically, the Holocene may be divided evenly into the Hypsithermal and Neoglacial periods, the boundary coincides with the start of the Bronze Age in Europe. According to some scholars, a division, the Anthropocene, has now begun. Continental motions due to plate tectonics are less than a kilometre over a span of only 10,000 years, however, ice melt caused world sea levels to rise about 35 m in the early part of the Holocene. The sea level rise and temporary land depression allowed temporary marine incursions into areas that are now far from the sea, Holocene marine fossils are known, for example, from Vermont and Michigan. Other than higher-latitude temporary marine incursions associated with depression, Holocene fossils are found primarily in lakebed, floodplain. Holocene marine deposits along low-latitude coastlines are rare because the rise in sea levels during the period exceeds any likely tectonic uplift of non-glacial origin, post-glacial rebound in the Scandinavia region resulted in the formation of the Baltic Sea. The region continues to rise, still causing weak earthquakes across Northern Europe, the equivalent event in North America was the rebound of Hudson Bay, as it shrank from its larger, immediate post-glacial Tyrrell Sea phase, to near its present boundaries. Climate has been stable over the Holocene. It appears that this was influenced by the glacial ice remaining in the Northern Hemisphere until the later date
26.
Zhanjiang
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Zhanjiang, is a prefecture-level city at the southwestern end of Guangdong province, Peoples Republic of China, facing Hainan to the south. Its population was 6,994,832 inhabitants at the 2010 census,1,611,868 live in the built-up area made of four urban districts, Chikan, Xiashan, Potou and Mazhang. In 2007, the city is named Chinas top ten cities by Chinese Cities Brand Value Report. During the Qin Dynasty, the area belonged to Xiang Shire, the central government of the Han Dynasty set Xuwen County administering the whole Leizhou Peninsula. It was one of the earliest departure points on the Marine Silk Road, the population spiked during the Tang and Song dynasties. The region was still a fishing port when it was occupied by the French in 1898. The next year, the French forced the Chinese to lease a small enclave of Zhanjiang to them for 99 years as the territory of Kouang-Tchéou-Wan. The French wanted to develop the port, which they called Fort-Bayard, to serve southern China, in parts where France had exclusive rights to railway and their efforts, however, were hindered by the poverty of the surrounding land. The French retained control of the region until 1943, when the Japanese occupied the area during World War II. At the end of the war, the region returned briefly under French rule before being returned to China in 1946 by General Charles de Gaulle. Upon receiving the territory from the French, the Republic of China government decided to rename Kouang-Tchéou-Wan, the area was historically under the jurisdiction of Zhanchuan county, with a Zhanchuan customs post on the eastern island of the territory. As Zhanjiang was a variant of Zhanjiang, it was decided to name the city Zhanjiang. Following the establishment of the Peoples Republic in 1949, Zhanjiang developed new importance, in 1955 a rail link was built to Litang in Guangxi province, where it joined the Hunan-Guangxi Railway. Since then, Zhanjiang has developed into a modern port serving southern China. In 1984 Zhanjiang was designated one of the cities of China, where the central government invited foreign investment. It has shipyards and engineering works, automobile, electrical-appliance, and textile plants, and sugar refineries, flour and rice mills, in the early 1990s a new rail line was completed, linking Zhanjiang with Guangzhou, the provincial capital. The line was extended to Haian, at the southernmost tip of Leizhou Peninsula. Until the introduction of Pinyin spelling, it was known in the west as Tsamkiang, Chankiang or Tsamkong
27.
Lithosphere
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A lithosphere is the rigid, outermost shell of a terrestrial-type planet or natural satellite that is defined by its rigid mechanical properties. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the portion of the mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of thousands of years or greater. The outermost shell of a planet, the crust, is defined on the basis of its chemistry. Earths lithosphere includes the crust and the uppermost mantle, which constitute the hard, the lithosphere is subdivided into tectonic plates. The uppermost part of the lithosphere that chemically reacts to the atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere through the forming process is called the pedosphere. The lithosphere is underlain by the asthenosphere which is the weaker, hotter, the study of past and current formations of landscapes is called geomorphology. The concept of the lithosphere as Earth’s strong outer layer was described by A. E. H, love in his 1911 monograph Some problems of Geodynamics and further developed by Joseph Barrell, who wrote a series of papers about the concept and introduced the term lithosphere. The concept was based on the presence of significant gravity anomalies over continental crust and these ideas were expanded by Reginald Aldworth Daly in 1940 with his seminal work Strength and Structure of the Earth and have been broadly accepted by geologists and geophysicists. The temperature at which olivine begins to deform viscously is often used to set this isotherm because olivine is generally the weakest mineral in the upper mantle, the mantle part of the lithosphere consists largely of peridotite. The crust is distinguished from the mantle by the change in chemical composition that takes place at the Moho discontinuity. Oceanic lithosphere consists mainly of mafic crust and ultramafic mantle and is denser than continental lithosphere, oceanic lithosphere thickens as it ages and moves away from the mid-ocean ridge. This thickening occurs by conductive cooling, which converts hot asthenosphere into lithospheric mantle and causes the oceanic lithosphere to become increasingly thick, the thickness of the mantle part of the oceanic lithosphere can be approximated as a thermal boundary layer that thickens as the square root of time. H ∼2 κ t Here, h is the thickness of the mantle lithosphere, κ is the thermal diffusivity for silicate rocks. The age is equal to L/V, where L is the distance from the spreading centre of mid-oceanic ridge. Oceanic lithosphere is less dense than asthenosphere for a few tens of millions of years and this is because the chemically differentiated oceanic crust is lighter than asthenosphere, but thermal contraction of the mantle lithosphere makes it more dense than the asthenosphere. New oceanic lithosphere is constantly being produced at mid-ocean ridges and is recycled back to the mantle at subduction zones, geoscientists can directly study the nature of the subcontinental mantle by examining mantle xenoliths brought up in kimberlite, lamproite, and other volcanic pipes. The histories of these xenoliths have been investigated by many methods, such studies have confirmed that mantle lithospheres below some cratons have persisted for periods in excess of 3 billion years, despite the mantle flow that accompanies plate tectonics. Cryosphere Geosphere Kola Superdeep Borehole Plate tectonics Solid Earth Chernicoff, Stanley, Whitney, earths Crust, Lithosphere and Asthenosphere Crust and Lithosphere
28.
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
29.
Stratovolcano
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A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers of hardened lava, tephra, pumice, and volcanic ash. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a profile and periodic explosive eruptions and effusive eruptions. The lava flowing from stratovolcanoes typically cools and hardens before spreading far due to high viscosity, the magma forming this lava is often felsic, having high-to-intermediate levels of silica, with lesser amounts of less-viscous mafic magma. Extensive felsic lava flows are uncommon, but have travelled as far as 15 km, stratovolcanoes are sometimes called composite volcanoes because of their composite layered structure built up from sequential outpourings of eruptive materials. They are among the most common types of volcanoes, in contrast to the less common shield volcanoes, two famous stratovolcanoes are Krakatoa, best known for its catastrophic eruption in 1883 and Vesuvius, famous for its destruction of the towns Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 CE. Both eruptions claimed thousands of lives, in modern times, Mount Saint Helens and Mount Pinatubo have erupted catastrophically. Existence of stratovolcanoes has not been proved on other bodies of the solar system with one exception. Their existence was suggested for some isolated massifs on Mars, e. g. Zephyria Tholus, stratovolcanoes are common at subduction zones, forming chains along plate tectonic boundaries where oceanic crust is drawn under continental crust or another oceanic plate. The release of water from hydrated minerals is termed dewatering, and occurs at pressures and temperatures for each mineral. The magma then rises through the crust, incorporating silica-rich crustal rock, when the magma nears the top surface, it pools in a magma chamber under or within the volcano. There, the low pressure allows water and other volatiles dissolved in the magma to escape from solution, as occurs when a bottle of carbonated water is opened. Once a critical volume of magma and gas accumulates, the obstacle of the cone is overcome. In recorded history, explosive eruptions at subduction zone volcanoes have posed the greatest hazard to civilizations. Subduction-zone stratovolcanoes, such as Mount St. Helens, Mount Etna and Mount Pinatubo, typically erupt with explosive force, as a consequence, the tremendous internal pressures of the trapped volcanic gases remain in the pasty magma. Following the breaching of the chamber, the magma degasses explosively. The gases and water out with speed and force. Since 1600 CE, nearly 300,000 people have killed by volcanic eruptions. Most deaths were caused by flows and mudflows, deadly hazards that often accompany explosive eruptions of subduction-zone stratovolcanoes
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Chinese white dolphin
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The Chinese white dolphin is a variety of Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphin. This variety inhabits the eastern portion of the range, in Southeast Asia and Australia. An adult Chinese white dolphin is white or pink and may appear as a dolphin to some. Uniquely, the population along the Chinese coast has pink skin, and the pink colour originates not from a pigment, the body length is 2 to 3.5 m for adults 1 m for infants. An adult weighs 150 to 230 kg, Chinese white dolphins live up to 40 years, as determined by the analysis of their teeth. At birth, the dolphins are black and they change to grey, then pinkish with spots when young. Chinese white dolphins rise to the surface to breathe for 20 to 30 seconds and after that. A calf dolphin surfaces from the water twice as much as an adult, adult dolphins can stay underwater for about two to eight minutes, but a calf can only stay underwater for one to three minutes. Adult dolphins rarely stay under water for more than four minutes and they sometimes leap completely out of the water. They may also rise up vertically from the water, exposing the dorsal half of their bodies, a pair of protruding eyes allows them to see clearly in both air and water. Chinese white dolphins are sociable creatures and live in groups of three to four, female white dolphins become mature at 10 years old, while the males become mature at 13 years old. They usually mate from the end of summer to autumn, infant dolphins are usually born 11 months after the mating. Mature females can give birth every three years, and the parental care will last until their offspring can find food themselves, the white dolphin has been threatened, mostly by Chinas pollution. It is up to the government and every Hong Kong citizen to stand up for dolphins and we risk losing them unless we all take action, said society chairman Samuel Hung. A tour guide from Hong Kong Dolphinwatch spotted a group of pink dolphins helping a grieving mother support the body of her dead calf above the water in an attempt to revive it. The scene, captured on video and widely shared on Facebook, has raised concerns about the dwindling population in a city where dolphin watching is a tourist attraction. Fewer than 2,500 of the mammals survive in the Pearl River Delta, Hong Kong Dolphinwatch has been running boat trips to visit the Chinese white dolphins for the past 12 years. The dolphins mainly live in the waters of Lantau North, Southeast Lantau, ten percent of the profits of the organization goes into research for Friends of the Earth s Water Action Group, which is a charity aimed to raise public awareness of Hong Kongs coastal environment
31.
Dugong
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The dugong is a medium-sized marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia and it is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae, its closest modern relative, Stellers sea cow, was hunted to extinction in the 18th century. The dugong is the strictly marine herbivorous mammal. The dugong is the only sirenian in its range, which spans the waters of some 40 countries and territories throughout the Indo-West Pacific, the northern waters of Australia between Shark Bay and Moreton Bay are believed to be the dugongs contemporary stronghold. Like all modern sirenians, the dugong has a body with no dorsal fin or hind limbs. The forelimbs or flippers are paddle-like, the dugong is easily distinguished from the manatees by its fluked, dolphin-like tail, but also possesses a unique skull and teeth. Its snout is sharply downturned, an adaptation for feeding in benthic seagrass communities, the molar teeth are simple and peg-like unlike the more elaborate molar dentition of manatees. The dugong has been hunted for thousands of years for its meat, traditional hunting still has great cultural significance in several countries in its modern range, particularly northern Australia and the Pacific Islands. The dugongs current distribution is fragmented, and many populations are believed to be close to extinction, the IUCN lists the dugong as a species vulnerable to extinction, while the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species limits or bans the trade of derived products. Despite being legally protected in many countries, the causes of population decline remain anthropogenic and include fishing-related fatalities, habitat degradation. With its long lifespan of 70 years or more, and slow rate of reproduction, the word dugong derives from the Tagalog term dugong which was in turn adopted from the Malay duyung, both meaning lady of the sea. Other common local names include sea cow, sea pig and sea camel, Dugong dugon is the only extant species of the family Dugongidae, and one of only four extant species of the Sirenia order, the others forming the manatee family. It was first classified by Müller in 1776 as Trichechus dugon and it was later assigned as the type species of Dugong by Lacépède and further classified within its own family by Gray and subfamily by Simpson. Dugongs and other sirenians are not closely related to marine mammals. Dugongs and elephants share a group with hyraxes and the aardvark. The fossil record shows sirenians appearing in the Eocene, where they most likely lived in the Tethys Ocean, the Stellers sea cow became extinct in the 18th century. No fossils exist of other members of the Dugongidae, molecular studies have been made on dugong populations using mitochondrial DNA. The results have suggested that the population of Southeast Asia is distinct from the others, Australia has two distinct maternal lineages, one of which also contains the dugongs from Africa and Arabia
32.
Bryde's whale
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Brydes whale or the Brydes whale complex putatively comprises two species of rorqual and maybe three. The complex means the number and classification remains unclear because of a lack of definitive information and research. The common Brydes whale is a form that occurs worldwide in warm temperate and tropical waters. The recently described Omuras whale, was considered a pygmy form of Brydes. Sittang whale refers to the locality of the species. In Thailand, locals distinguished Sittang whales different from B. edeni, in Japan, early whalers called it anchovy or skipjack whale. It preys on the anchovy and it was associated with the skipjack. As modern whaling shifted to the Sanriku area, whalemen confused it for the sei whale, incidentally, anchovies are dominant prey for both species off Japan. They are now called nitari-kujira, for their resemblance to the sei whale, for both putative species, the scientific name B. edeni is commonly used or they are simply referred to B. cf brydei/edeni. Despite terrible weather, he was able to secure almost the entire skull and nearly all its vertebrae and these were sent to Anderson, who described the specimen, which was physically mature, as a new species. In 1950, the Dutch scientist G. C. A, members of the Brydes whale complex are moderately sized rorquals, falling behind sei whales, but being larger than Omuras whale and the relatively small minke whales. At physical maturity, the coastal form off South Africa averages 13.1 m for males and 13.7 m for females, the coastal form near Japan is slightly smaller, with adult males averaging 12.9 m and adult females 13.3 m. At sexual maturity, males average 11.9 m and females 12 m near Japan, sexual maturity is reached at 8–11 years for both sexes in the offshore form off South Africa. At birth, they are 3. 95–4.15 m, the body mass of Brydes whales can range 12–25 metric tons. Brydes whale is a whale, more specifically a rorqual belonging to the same group as blue whales. It has twin blowholes with a low splashguard to the front, like other rorquals, it has no teeth, but has two rows of baleen plates. Brydes whales closely resemble their close relative the sei whale and they are remarkably elongated, with the greatest height of the body being one-seventh their total length – compared to 1/6.5 to 1/6.75 in fin whales and only 1/5.5 in sei whales. Brydes have a rostrum with three longitudinal ridges that extend from the blowholes, where the auxiliary ridges begin as depressions
33.
Minke whale
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Minke whale /ˈmɪnki/, or lesser rorqual, is a name given to two species of marine mammal belonging to a clade within the suborder of baleen whales. The minke whale was given its designation by Lacepède in 1804. The name is a translation of Norwegian minkehval, possibly after a Norwegian whaler named Meincke. Most modern classifications split the minke whale into two species, Common minke whale or northern minke whale and Antarctic minke whale or southern minke whale. Taxonomists further categorize the common minke whale into two or three subspecies, the North Atlantic minke whale, the North Pacific minke whale and dwarf minke whale. All minke whales are part of the rorquals, a family that includes the whale, the fin whale, the Brydes whale, the sei whale. The junior synonyms for B. acutorostrata are B. davidsoni, B. minimia, there is one synonym for B. bonaerensis - B. huttoni. On at least one occasion, an Antarctic minke whale has been confirmed migrating to the Arctic, in addition, at least two wild hybrids between a common minke whale and an Antarctic minke whale have been confirmed. The minke whales are the second smallest baleen whale, only the right whale is smaller. Upon reaching sexual maturity, males measure an average of 6.9 m and females 8 m in length, reported maximum lengths vary from 9.1 to 10.7 m for females and 8.8 to 9.8 m for males. Both sexes typically weigh 4–5 t at sexual maturity, and the weight may be as much as 10 t. The minke whale is a black/gray/purple color, Common minke whales are distinguished from other whales by a white band on each flipper. The body is black or dark-gray above and white underneath. Minke whales have between 240 and 360 baleen plates on each side of their mouths, most of the length of the back, including dorsal fin and blowholes, appears at once when the whale surfaces to breathe. Minke whales typically live for 30–50 years, in some cases they may live for up to 60 years, the brains of minke whales have around 12.8 billion neocortical neurons and 98.2 billion neocortical glia. The whale breathes three to five times at intervals before deep-diving for two to 20 minutes. Deep dives are preceded by a pronounced arching of the back, the maximum swimming speed of minkes has been estimated at 38 km/h. The gestation period for minke whales is 10 months, and calves measure 2.4 to 2.8 m at birth, the newborns nurse for five to 10 months
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Whale shark
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The whale shark is a slow-moving filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of 12.65 m, unconfirmed claims of considerably larger individuals, over 14 m long and weighing at least 30 t, are not uncommon. The whale shark holds many records for size in the animal kingdom. It is the member of the genus Rhincodon and the only extant member of the family Rhincodontidae. The species originated about 60 million years ago, the whale shark is found in open waters of the tropical oceans and is rarely found in water below 22 °C. Modeling suggests a lifespan of about 70 years, but measurements have proven difficult, Whale sharks have very large mouths and are filter feeders, which is a feeding mode that occurs in only two other sharks, the megamouth shark and the basking shark. They feed almost exclusively on plankton and are not known to pose a threat to humans, the species was distinguished in April 1828 after the harpooning of a 4.6 m specimen in Table Bay, South Africa. Andrew Smith, a military doctor associated with British troops stationed in Cape Town, the name whale shark directly refers to the fishs size, being as large as some species of whales and also that it is a filter feeder like baleen whales. The whale shark inhabits all tropical and warm-temperate seas, the fish is primarily pelagic, living in the open sea but not in the greater depths of the ocean, although it is known to occasionally dive to depths of as much as 1,800 metres. Although typically seen offshore, it has been closer to land, entering lagoons or coral atolls. Its range is restricted to about 30° latitude. It is capable of diving to depths of at least 1,286 m, on 7 February 2012, a large whale shark was found floating 150 kilometres off the coast of Karachi, Pakistan. The length of the specimen was said to be between 11 and 12 m, with a weight of around 15,000 kg, in 2011, more than 400 whale sharks gathered off the Yucatan Coast. It was one of the largest gatherings of whale sharks recorded, aggregations in that area are among the most reliable seasonal gatherings known for whale sharks, with large numbers occurring in most years between May and September. Associated ecotourism has grown rapidly to unsustainable levels, Whale sharks have a mouth that can be 1.5 m wide, containing 300 to 350 rows of tiny teeth and 10 filter pads which it uses to filter feed. Whale sharks have five pairs of gills. The head is wide and flat with two eyes at the front. Whale sharks are grey with a white belly and their skin is marked with pale yellow spots and stripes which are unique to each individual
35.
Weizhou Island
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Weizhou Island is a Chinese island in the Gulf of Tonkin. The largest island of Guangxi province, Weizhou is west of Leizhou Peninsula, south of Beihai, administratively, it is part of Weizhou Town, Haicheng District of Beihai City. Area,24.74 square kilometres Annual average temperature,22.6 °C Precipitation,1,380 mm Its north-south length is 6.5 kilometres, the coast is 15.6 kilometres, with 6 to 10 kilometres of sandy beach. Weizhou rises in the south, where Nanwan Port is located, coral reefs have been established around the island. Weizhou Dao is Chinas youngest volcanic island and its origin is probably from a mantle plume that rose 50–32 million years ago, as a result from the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plate. When the plume reached the asthenosphere, it helped to create the South China Sea by the lateral flow. The mantle below the Weizhou island has a temperature of 1,661 °C. There have been four periods of activity on the site, the first one occurred in the early Pleistocene. The second time, between 9–225 million years ago, started with basaltic magma eruptions, and ended with pyroclastic eruptions and this was the time with the heaviest eruptions on Weizhou and Xieyang. The third time began with large amounts of volcanic bombs and ended with basaltic magma, the fourth time, from 10,000 to 7,100 years ago, a few intermittent eruptions happened, first mainly with volcanic bombs, and in the end volcanic ash. Hepu Dugong National Nature Reserve established in 1992 covers nearby areas, from 1869 to 1879, the French built a Gothic-style 15 metre Catholic church in Shengtang Village, Weizhou. Weizhou Chengzai Church was built in 1880, also by French Catholics
36.
North Pacific right whale
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The North Pacific right whale is a very large, robust baleen whale species that is now extremely rare and endangered. The Northeast Pacific subpopulation, which summers in the southeastern Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, a western subpopulation that summers in the Sea of Okhotsk between the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island appears to number in the low hundreds of animals. Prior to commercial whaling in the North Pacific the populations in the North Pacific probably were over 20,000 animals, the taking of right whales in commercial whaling has been prohibited by one or more international treaties since 1935. Between 1962 and 1968, illegal Soviet whaling killed at least 529 right whales in the Bering Sea, plus an additional 104 North Pacific right whales from unspecified areas. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature categorizes the species as Endangered and it categorizes the Northeast Pacific subpopulation as Critically Endangered. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the North Pacific right whale is the most endangered whale on Earth, since 2000, scientists have considered the right whales in the North Pacific and nearby seas to be a separate species, Eubalaena japonica, the North Pacific Right Whale. Genetic differences between E. japonica and E. australis are much smaller than other baleen whales represent among different ocean basins, all these animals resemble each other in outward appearance very closely. The differences that separate them into separate species are genetic and discussed in the article on Balaenidae, the North Pacific, North Atlantic and Southern right whales are all members of the family Balaenidae. The bowhead whale found in the Arctic is also a balaenid whale, the cladogram is a tool for visualizing and comparing the evolutionary relationships between taxa. The point where a node branches off is analogous to an evolutionary branching – the diagram can be read left-to-right, E. japonica is a very large, robust baleen whale. It very closely resembles the other right whale species—the North Atlantic right whale, indeed, without knowing which ocean an individual came from, the physical similarities are so extensive that individuals can only be identified to species by genetic analysis. Relative to the right whale species, E. japonica may be slightly larger. Like other baleen whales, female North Pacific right whales are larger than males, also, North Pacific brindle-colored individuals are less common than they are among southern right whales. E. japonica is easily distinguished in the wild from other species in the North Pacific. North Pacific right whales are large and can reach from 15 to 18.3 m in length as adults. Typical body mass is from 50, 000–80,000 kg and they are much larger than gray or humpback whales and also being very stout, particularly when compared to the other large baleen whales such as blue and fin whales. For 10 North Pacific right whales taken in the 1960s, their girth in front of the flippers was 0.73 of the length of the whale. Additionally, differences of coloration and shape of baleen plates between pacific and Atlantic have been noted, Right whales are also unique in that they all have callosities — roughened patches of epidermis covered with aggregations in clusters, of hundreds of small cyamids
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Gray whale
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The gray whale, also known as the grey whale, gray back whale, Pacific gray whale, or California gray whale is a baleen whale that migrates between feeding and breeding grounds yearly. It reaches a length of 14.9 meters, a weight of 36 tonnes, the common name of the whale comes from the gray patches and white mottling on its dark skin. Gray whales were once called devil fish because of their behavior when hunted. The gray whale is the living species in the genus Eschrichtius. This mammal descended from filter-feeding whales that appeared at the beginning of the Oligocene, the gray whale is distributed in an eastern North Pacific population and a critically endangered western North Pacific population. North Atlantic populations were extirpated on the European coast before 500 AD, in May and June 2013 a gray whale was sighted off the coast of Namibia – the first confirmed in the Southern Hemisphere. The round-trip journey of one whale has set a new record for the longest mammal migration. Her migration has shown new insight into how endangered species are making changes in their life style. The gray whale is traditionally placed as the living species in its genus. John Edward Gray placed it in its own genus in 1865, naming it in honour of physician, the common name of the whale comes from its coloration. The living Pacific species was described by Cope as Rhachianectes glaucus in 1869, skeletal comparisons showed the Pacific species to be identical to the Atlantic remains in the 1930s, and Grays naming has been generally accepted since. Although identity between the Atlantic and Pacific populations cannot be proven by data, its skeleton is distinctive. Many other names have been ascribed to the whale, including desert whale, devil fish, gray back, mussel digger. The name Eschrichtius gibbosus is sometimes seen, this is dependent on the acceptance of a 1777 description by Erxleben, the gray whale has a dark slate-gray color and is covered by characteristic gray-white patterns, scars left by parasites which drop off in its cold feeding grounds. Individual whales are typically identified using photographs of their surface and matching the scars. They have two blowholes on top of their head, which can create a distinctive heart-shaped blow at the surface in calm wind conditions, Gray whales measure from 4.9 m in length for newborns to 13–15 m for adults. Newborns are a gray to black in color. A mature gray whale can reach 40 t, with a range of 15–33 t
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Humpback whale
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The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger species, adults range in length from 12–16 m. The humpback has a body shape, with long pectoral fins. It is known for breaching and other distinctive surface behaviors, making it popular with whale watchers, males produce a complex song lasting 10 to 20 minutes, which they repeat for hours at a time. Its purpose is not clear, though it may have a role in mating, found in oceans and seas around the world, humpback whales typically migrate up to 25,000 km each year. Humpbacks feed in polar waters, and migrate to tropical or subtropical waters to breed and give birth when they fast and their diet consists mostly of krill and small fish. Humpbacks have a repertoire of feeding methods, including the bubble net technique. Like other large whales, the humpback was a target for the whaling industry, once hunted to the brink of extinction, its population fell by an estimated 90% before a 1966 moratorium. While stocks have partially recovered, entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships, the rorquals are believed to have diverged from the other families of the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Miocene. However, it is not known when the members of these families diverged from each other, though clearly related to the giant whales of the genus Balaenoptera, the humpback is the sole member of its genus. The humpback was first identified as de la Nouvelle Angleterre by Mathurin Jacques Brisson in his Regnum Animale of 1756. In 1781, Georg Heinrich Borowski described the species, converting Brissons name to its Latin equivalent, in 1804, Lacépède shifted the humpback from the family Balaenidae, renaming it B. jubartes. In 1846, John Edward Gray created the genus Megaptera, classifying the humpback as Megaptera longipinna, the common name is derived from the curving of their backs when diving. The generic name Megaptera from the Greek mega-/μεγα- giant and ptera/πτερα wing, the specific name means New Englander and was probably given by Brisson due to regular sightings of humpbacks off the coast of New England. Some biologists believe that these should be regarded as separate subspecies, humpbacks can easily be identified by their stocky body, obvious hump, black dorsal coloring and elongated pectoral fins. The head and lower jaw are covered with knobs called tubercles, the fluked tail, which typically rises above the surface when diving, has wavy trailing edges. Humpbacks have 270 to 400 darkly colored baleen plates on each side of their mouths, the plates measure from 18 in in the front to about 3 ft in the back, behind the hinge. Ventral grooves run from the jaw to the umbilicus, about halfway along the underside of the body
39.
Blue whale
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The blue whale is a marine mammal belonging to the baleen whales. At up to 30 metres in length and with a recorded weight of 173 tonnes and probably reaching over 181 tonnes. Long and slender, the whales body can be various shades of bluish-grey dorsally. B. m. indica, found in the Indian Ocean, as with other baleen whales, its diet consists almost exclusively of small crustaceans known as krill. Blue whales were abundant in all the oceans on Earth until the beginning of the twentieth century. For over a century, they were hunted almost to extinction by whalers until protected by the community in 1966. A2002 report estimated there were 5,000 to 12,000 blue whales worldwide, the IUCN estimates that there are probably between 10,000 and 25,000 blue whales worldwide today. Before whaling, the largest population was in the Antarctic, numbering approximately 239,000, there remain only much smaller concentrations in each of the eastern North Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Ocean groups. There are two groups in the North Atlantic, and at least two in the Southern Hemisphere. As of 2014, the Eastern North Pacific blue whale population had rebounded to nearly its pre-hunting population, Blue whales are rorquals, a family that includes the humpback whale, the fin whale, Brydes whale, the sei whale, and the minke whale. The family Balaenopteridae is believed to have diverged from the families of the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Oligocene. It is not known when the members of those families diverged from each other, the blue whale is usually classified as one of eight species in the genus Balaenoptera, one authority places it in a separate monotypic genus, Sibbaldus, but this is not accepted elsewhere. If further research confirms these relationships, it will be necessary to reclassify the rorquals, there have been at least 11 documented cases of blue whale-fin whale hybrid adults in the wild. Arnason and Gullberg describe the distance between a blue and a fin as about the same as that between a human and a gorilla. Researchers working off Fiji believe they photographed a hybrid humpback-blue whale including the discovery through DNA analysis from a sample found in a Japanese market. The first published description of the whale comes from Robert Sibbalds Phalainologia Nova. In September 1692, Sibbald found a whale that had stranded in the Firth of Forth – a male 24 m long – that had black, horny plates. The specific name musculus is Latin and could mean muscle, carl Linnaeus, who named the species in his seminal Systema Naturae of 1758, would have known this and may have intended the ironic double meaning
40.
Whaling in Japan
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Japanese whaling, in terms of active hunting of these large mammals, is estimated by the Japan Whaling Association to have begun around the 12th century. However, Japanese whaling on an industrial scale began around the 1890s when Japan began to participate in the whaling industry. Japanese whaling activities have historically extended far outside Japanese territorial waters, during the 20th century, Japan was heavily involved in commercial whaling. This continued until the International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial whaling went into effect in 1986, Japan continued to hunt whales using the scientific research provision in the agreement, and Japanese whaling is currently conducted by the Institute of Cetacean Research. This is allowed under IWC rules, although most IWC members oppose it, the whale meat from these scientific whale hunts is sold in shops, restaurants and also on a Japanese food festival where foreigners were introduced to whale meat dishes. The 2014 food festival attracted 13.4 million visitors and these hunts are a source of conflict between pro- and anti-whaling countries and organizations. Nations, scientists and environmental organizations opposed to whaling consider the Japanese research program to be unnecessary, Japan maintains that annual whaling is sustainable and necessary for scientific study and management of whale stocks. Japan also argues they should be able to continue whaling because they have killed whales in the past and they ordered Japan to cease operations. In December 2015, Japan still went ahead with their whaling programme NEWREP-A and their objective is to hunt 3,000 Antarctic minke whales over 10 years, starting with 330 whales during the 2015–16 season. Pending resolution of the uncertainties relating to the apparent decline in population, archeological evidence in the form of whale remains discovered in burial mounds suggests that whales have been consumed in Japan since the Jōmon period. Without the means to engage in whaling, consumption at that time primarily stemmed from stranded whales. Surviving Ainu folklore reveals a history of whaling and a spiritual association with whales. The earliest records of hand thrown harpoons date back to the 12th century, organized open-boat shore whaling began in the 1570s, and continued into the early 20th century. Techniques were developed in the 17th century in Taiji, Wakayama, Wada Chubei Yorimoto established a fishery by organizing the group hunting system in 1606. Whalers would spot whales from stations along the shore and launch boats to catch them with harpoons and his grandson, Wada Kakuemon Yoriharu, later known as Taiji Kakuemon Yoriharu, invented the whaling net technique called Amitori-shiki. Right whales, humpback whales, gray, and fin whales were primarily hunted, blue whales, sei, Brydes and sperm whales were however also taken when possible. Once ashore, the whale was quickly flensed and divided into its parts for various warehouses. Although the primary use for whales was meat, the whale was used in a variety of products including lamp oil, soaps, fertilizer, folding fans
41.
Daya Bay
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Daya Bay, also formally known as Bias Bay, is a bay of the South China Sea on the south coast of Guangdong Province in the Peoples Republic of China. It is bordered by Shenzhens Dapeng Peninsula to the west and Huizhou to the north, the Bay was a hideout of pirates in the 1920s when the Republic of China government was occupied conducting the Northern Expedition. The bay is now an important contributor in the sector for Guangdong province. Daya Bay is home to six nuclear reactors, two at the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant and four at the Ling Ao Nuclear Power Plant, two additional reactors are planned farther east at the Lufeng Nuclear Power Plant. Daya Bay is located at approximately 22. 5953°N114. 5431°E /22.5953,114.5431, the bay also host the Huizhou Daya Bay Economic and Technological Development Zone. Historically, Daya Bay had whales and turtles, the bay was one of the breeding grounds along the southern coast of China for Asian population of Gray Whales which are now one of the most endangered whale population in the world. They migrated here to calve in the winter-spring seasons, other species such as Humpback Whales also migrated here historically. All of these were wiped out by Japanese whalers established whaling stations on various sites on Chinese coasts including at nearby Daya Bay, critically endangered Chinese white dolphin and occasional whales such as humpbacks have been confirmed in the bay recent years. Location of Daya Bay Guangdong Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant Daya Bay Neutrino Experiment
42.
Monsoon
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Usually, the term monsoon is used to refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally changing pattern, although technically there is also a dry phase. The term is sometimes used for locally heavy but short-term rains. The major monsoon systems of the world consist of the West African and Asia-Australian monsoons, the inclusion of the North and South American monsoons with incomplete wind reversal has been debated. The south-west monsoon winds are called Nairutya Maarut in India, the English monsoon came from Portuguese monção, ultimately from Arabic mawsim and/or Hindi mausam, perhaps partly via early modern Dutch monsun. Strengthening of the Asian monsoon has been linked to the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau after the collision of the Indian sub-continent and Asia around 50 million years ago. Because of studies of records from the Arabian Sea and that of the wind-blown dust in the Loess Plateau of China, testing of this hypothesis awaits deep ocean sampling by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. The monsoon has varied significantly in strength since this time, largely linked to climate change. A study of marine plankton suggested that the Indian Monsoon strengthened around 5 million years ago, then, during ice periods, the sea level fell and the Indonesian Seaway closed. When this happened, cold waters in the Pacific were impeded from flowing into the Indian Ocean and it is believed that the resulting increase in sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean increased the intensity of monsoons. Five episodes during the Quaternary at 2.22 Ma,1.83 Ma,0.68 Ma,0.45 Ma and 0.04 Ma were identified which showed a weakening of Leeuwin Current. The weakening of the LC would have an effect on the sea surface temperature field in the Indian Ocean, thus these five intervals could probably be those of considerable lowering of SST in the Indian Ocean and would have influenced Indian monsoon intensity. The impact of monsoon on the weather is different from place to place. In some places there is just a likelihood of having a more or less rain. In other places, quasi semi-deserts are turned into green grasslands where all sorts of plants. The Indian Monsoon turns large parts of India from a kind of semi-desert into green lands, see photos only taken 3 months apart in the Western Ghats. In places like this it is crucial for farmers to have the right timing for putting the seeds on the fields, Monsoons are large-scale sea breezes which occur when the temperature on land is significantly warmer or cooler than the temperature of the ocean. These temperature imbalances happen because oceans and land absorb heat in different ways, in contrast, dirt, sand, and rocks have lower heat capacities, and they can only transmit heat into the earth by conduction and not by convection. Therefore, bodies of water stay at an even temperature
43.
Typhoon
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A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops in the western part of the North Pacific Ocean between 180° and 100°E. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, for organizational purposes, the northern Pacific Ocean is divided into three regions, the eastern, central, and western. While the RSMC names each system, the name list itself is coordinated among 18 countries that have territories threatened by typhoons each year. Only the Philippines use their own naming list for systems approaching the country, a typhoon differs from a cyclone or hurricane only on the basis of location. A hurricane is a storm that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Pacific Ocean, a typhoon occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, within the northwestern Pacific there are no official typhoon seasons as tropical cyclones form throughout the year. While the majority of storms form between June and November, a few storms do occur between December and May, on average, the northwestern Pacific features the most numerous and intense tropical cyclones globally. Like other basins, they are steered by the ridge towards the west or northwest, with some systems recurving near. The Philippines receive the brunt of the landfalls, with China, some of the deadliest typhoons in history have struck China. Southern China has the longest record of typhoon impacts for the region, Taiwan has received the wettest known typhoon on record for the northwest Pacific tropical cyclone basins. The term typhoon is the name in the northwest Pacific for a severe tropical cyclone, whereas hurricane is the regional term in the northeast Pacific. Elsewhere this is called a cyclone, severe tropical cyclone. The Oxford English Dictionary cites Urdu ṭūfān and Chinese tai fung giving rise to early forms in English. The earliest forms -- touffon, later tufan, tuffon, and others -- derive from Urdu ṭūfān, from 1699 appears tuffoon, later tiffoon, derived from Chinese with spelling influenced by the older Urdu-derived forms. The modern spelling dates to 1820, preceded by tay-fun in 1771 and ty-foong. The Urdu source word توفان ṭūfān comes via Persian from Arabic طوفان, the Chinese source is the word tai fung, cited as a common dialect form of Mandarin dà big and fēng wind. In Mandarin the word for the windstorm is 大风 and in Cantonese 大風, the modern Japanese word is also derived from Chinese, 台風. The first character in Japanese has a modern meaning of pedestal or stand. So the Japanese characters originally had a meaning of typhoon wind, the Ancient Greek Τυφῶν is not unrelated and has secondarily contaminated the word
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Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
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Precipitation
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In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, graupel, Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor, so that the water condenses and precipitates. Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation but suspensions, because the vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated, Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called showers, moisture that is lifted or otherwise forced to rise over a layer of sub-freezing air at the surface may be condensed into clouds and rain. This process is active when freezing rain is occurring. A stationary front is often present near the area of freezing rain, provided necessary and sufficient atmospheric moisture content, the moisture within the rising air will condense into clouds, namely stratus and cumulonimbus. Eventually, the droplets will grow large enough to form raindrops. Lake-effect snowfall can be locally heavy, thundersnow is possible within a cyclones comma head and within lake effect precipitation bands. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation, on the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by compressional heating. The movement of the trough, or intertropical convergence zone. Precipitation is a component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 cubic kilometres of water falls as precipitation each year,398,000 cubic kilometres of it over the oceans and 107,000 cubic kilometres over land. Given the Earths surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres, Climate classification systems such as the Köppen climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. Precipitation may occur on celestial bodies, e. g. when it gets cold, Mars has precipitation which most likely takes the form of frost. Precipitation is a component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 km3 of water falls as precipitation each year,398,000 km3 of it over the oceans, given the Earths surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres. Mechanisms of producing precipitation include convective, stratiform, and orographic rainfall, Precipitation can be divided into three categories, based on whether it falls as liquid water, liquid water that freezes on contact with the surface, or ice
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Guangzhouwan
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Guangzhouwan was a small enclave on the southern coast of China ceded by Qing China to France as a leased territory and administered as an outlier of French Indochina. The territory did not experience the growth in population that other parts of coastal China experienced. Industries included shipping and coal mining, japan occupied the territory in February 1943. The French briefly took it back in 1945 before returning it to China in 1946, at which point it was given the name Zhanjiang, the capital of the territory was Fort-Bayard. The old spellings Tsankiang, Chankiang and Tsamkong were replaced by the pinyin romanisation Zhanjiang by the Chinese government in 1958. The leased territory was situated in Guangdong Province on the east side of the Leizhou Peninsula, north of Hainan, around a bay then called Kwangchowan, the bay forms the estuary of the Maxie River. The Maxie is navigable as far as 19 kilometres inland even by large warships, the territory ceded to France included the islands lying in the bay, which enclosed an area 29 km long by 10 km wide and a minimum water depth of 10 metres. The islands were recognized at the time as a natural defense. The total land area of the territory was 1,300 square kilometres. The city of Fort-Bayard was developed as a port, Kwangchow Wan was effectively placed under the authority of the French Resident Superior in Tonkin, the French Resident was represented locally by Administrators. As a result, France demanded and obtained mining rights in the three adjoining prefectures. The population in 1911 was recorded as 189,000, the return of the leased territory to China was promised by France at the Washington Naval Conference of 1921–1922 but this plan was in fact never realised. Industries included shipping and coal mining, as an adjunct of French Indochina, Kwangchow Wan generally endured the same fate as Indochina proper during World War II. From then on, Kwanchow Wan was de facto under full military Japanese occupation, the Administrator resigned in disgust and Adrien Roques, a local pro-Vichy militant, was appointed to replace him. In May of the year, Roques signed a convention with the local Japanese military authorities in which the French authorities promised to cooperate fully with the Japanese. However, the route was closed when the Japanese occupied the area in February 1943. A French-language school, École Franco-Chinoise de Kouang-Tchéou-Wan, as well as a branch of the Banque de lIndochine, were set up in Fort-Bayard, in addition, a Roman Catholic church constructed during the colonial period is still preserved today. China-France relations French colonial empire List of French possessions and colonies Zhanjiang Sino-Vietnamese Railway Anslinger, H. J. Tompkins, annales de Géographie, Volume 34, Nr
