1.
Chinese language
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Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases mutually unintelligible, language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many ethnic groups in China. Nearly 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language, the varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family. The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin, followed by Wu, Min, and Yue. Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and certain Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms, all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. Standard Chinese is a form of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It is the language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six languages of the United Nations. The written form of the language, based on the logograms known as Chinese characters, is shared by literate speakers of otherwise unintelligible dialects. Of the other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese is the spoken language and official in Hong Kong and Macau. It is also influential in Guangdong province and much of Guangxi, dialects of Southern Min, part of the Min group, are widely spoken in southern Fujian, with notable variants also spoken in neighboring Taiwan and in Southeast Asia. Hakka also has a diaspora in Taiwan and southeast Asia. Shanghainese and other Wu varieties are prominent in the lower Yangtze region of eastern China, Chinese can be traced back to a hypothetical Sino-Tibetan proto-language. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty, as the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have sought to promulgate a unified standard. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, in addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach, and are often also sensitive border zones. Without a secure reconstruction of proto-Sino-Tibetan, the structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, the earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BCE in the late Shang dynasty
2.
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
3.
Yellow River
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The Yellow River or Huang He is the second-longest river in Asia, following the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of 5,464 km. Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai province of western China, it flows through nine provinces, the Yellow River basin has an east–west extent of about 1,900 kilometers and a north–south extent of about 1,100 km. Its total basin area is about 742,443 square kilometers and its basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization, and it was the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. Early Chinese literature including the Yu Gong or Tribute of Yu dating to the Warring States period refers to the Yellow River as simply 河, the first appearance of the name 黃河 is in the Book of Han written during the Eastern Han dynasty about the Western Han dynasty. The adjective yellow describes the color of the muddy water in the lower course of the river. One of its older Mongolian names was the Black River, because the river runs clear before it enters the Loess Plateau, in Mongolia itself, it is simply called the Šar Mörön. In Qinghai, the rivers Tibetan name is River of the Peacock above sea level they are the two largest plateau freshwater lakes nationwide, flowing east at the eastern edge of the Amne Machin Mountains, the Yellow River enters Maqu County in Gansu. Here, the river skirts through the peat bog known as the Zoigê Wetlands. Flowing now along the edge of Amne Machin, the river reenters Qinghai. The valley section stretches from Longyang Gorge in Qinghai to Qingtong Gorge in Gansu, steep cliffs line both sides of the river. The water bed is narrow and the drop is large, so the flow in this section is extremely turbulent. There are 20 gorges in this section, the most famous of these being the Longyang, Jishi, Liujia, Bapan, the flow conditions in this section makes it the best location for hydroelectric plants. The Yellow River exits Qinghai for the second and final time in these gorges, downstream from the Yanguo Gorge, the provincial capital of Lanzhou is built upon the Yellow Rivers banks. The Yellow River flows northeasterly out of Gansu and into Ningxia before the Qingtong Gorge, after emerging from the Qingtong Gorge, the river comes into a section of vast alluvial plains, the Yinchuan Plain and Hetao Plain. In this section, the regions along the river are mostly deserts and grasslands, the Hetao Plain has a length of 900 km and width of 30 to 50 km. It is historically the most important irrigation plain along the Yellow River, the Ordos Loop formed by an enormous twist of the Yellow River, beginning at Zhongning County in Ningxia and ending with a drastic eastward turn at its confluence with the Wei at Tongguan in Shaanxi. However, the division for the middle reaches of the river run from Hekou in Togtoh County, Inner Mongolia, to Zhengzhou. The middle reaches are 1,206 km long, with an area of 344,000 square kilometers,45. 7% of the total, with a total elevation drop of 890 m
4.
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
5.
Taihang Mountains
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The Taihang Mountains are a Chinese mountain range running down the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau in Shanxi, Henan and Hebei provinces. The range extends over 400 kilometres from north to south and has an elevation of 1,500 to 2,000 metres. The principal peak is Xiao Wutaishan, cangyan Shan in Hebei forms the eastern tip of the Taihang range. The name of Shanxi Province, meaning west of the mountains, derives from its location west of the Taihang Mountains, the Red Flag Canal is located on the south edge of the Taihang Mountains. The Shitai Passenger Railway crosses under the Taihang Mountains via the Taihang Tunnel, a Walk in the Taihang Mountains
6.
Dabie Mountains
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The Dabie Mountains are a major mountain range located in central China. Running northwest-to-southeast, they form the watershed between the Huai and Yangtze rivers. The range also marks the boundary between Hubei Province and its neighbors of Henan and Anhui, the western part of Dabie Mountains has a low elevation of only 1, 000–1,300 feet, though there are a few peaks rising to 3,000 feet. The eastern part is higher, averaging more than 3,300 feet, the highest peak is Mount Tianzhu at 5,820 feet, with several others topping 5,000 feet including the 1,729.13 metres high Tiantangzhai. The range is forested and yields valuable bamboo as well as oak, particularly cork oak. The region is poor, and subsistence agriculture is the heart of its economy with rice. The main transportation route across the range is from Macheng in Hubei to Huangchuan in Hunan. The main rail and road crossings go north from Wuhan, through the lower elevations, in 2009, the high-speed Hewu Passenger Railway opened, connecting Hefei with Wuhan along a short direct route. It uses a number of tunnels when crossing the Dabie range, geologically, the range is a complex, stressed structure, making it and the surrounding area subject to earthquakes. It caused tremors in Qichun County in Hubei province and beyond and this scenic park centered on Tiantangzhai is a key tourist attraction in the highest part of the Dabie mountain range. Total area of the park is 300 square kilometers, dabeishan International Forest Park website, in Chinese. Huanggang Government website page on Dabie Mountains
7.
Yellow Sea
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The Yellow Sea is the name given to the northern part of the East China Sea, which is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It is located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula and its name comes from the sand particles from Gobi Desert sand storms that turn the surface of the water golden yellow. The innermost bay of the Yellow Sea is called the Bohai Sea, into it flow both the Yellow River and Hai He. Deposits of sand and silt from those rivers contribute to the sea colour, the northern extension of the Yellow Sea is called the Korea Bay. The Yellow Sea is one of four seas named after common colour terms — the others being the Black Sea, the Red Sea, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Yellow Sea as follows, On the South. The parallel of 33°17 North from Saisyu To to the mainland. The Yellow Sea, excluding the Bohai, extends by about 960 km from north to south and about 700 km from east to west, it has an area of about 380,000 km2 and the volume of about 17,000 km3. Its depth is only 44 m on average, with a maximum of 152 m, the sea is a flooded section of continental shelf that formed after the last ice age as sea levels rose 120 m to their current levels. The sea bottom is slowly rising toward China and more rapidly at the Korean Peninsula, the depth gradually increases from north to south. The sea bottom and shores are dominated by sand and silt brought by the rivers through the Bohai Sea and those deposits, together with sand storms are responsible for the yellow water color and the sea name. The area has cold, dry winters with strong northerly monsoons blowing from late November to March, average January temperatures are −10 °C in the north and 3 °C in the south. Summers are wet and warm with frequent typhoons between June and October, air temperatures range between 10 and 28 °C. The average annual precipitation increases from about 500 mm in the north to 1,000 mm in the south, fog is frequent along the coasts, especially in the upwelling cold-water areas. The sea has a warm cyclone current and it is a part of the Kuroshio Current, which diverges near the western part of Japan and flows northward into the Yellow Sea at the speed of below 0.8 km/h. Southward currents prevail near the sea coast, especially in the monsoon period. The water temperature is close to freezing in the part in winter, so drift ice patches and continuous ice fields form. The water temperature and salinity are homogeneous across the depth, the southern waters are warmer at 6–8 °C. In spring and summer, the layer is warmed up by the sun and diluted by the fresh water from rivers, while the deeper water remains cold
8.
Sanmenxia Dam
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The Sanmenxia Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the middle-reaches of the Yellow River near Sanmenxia Gorge on the border between Shanxi province and Henan Province, China. The dam is multi-purpose and was constructed for flood and ice control along with irrigation, construction began in 1957 and was completed in 1960. It is the first major water project on the Yellow River and was viewed as a major achievement of the new Peoples Republic of China. Subsequently, its image was printed on the bank notes. However, due to sediment accumulation in the reservoir, the dam later had to be re-engineered and renovated, the effects from sediment, which include flooding upstream, have placed the dam at the center of controversy and criticism-related arrests by the Chinese government. In response to centuries of flooding on the Yellow River, engineers proposed the Sanmenxia Dam in early 1935. In 1954, the Yellow River Planning Board was established and oversaw a survey of the river with help from Soviet engineers, the Soviet engineers recommended a dam at the Sanmenxia site. Original plans for the dam called for a reservoir level 360 m above sea level. This would have required the relocation of 870,000 people, the design was revised to a maximum level of 340 m ASL which required the relocation of 400,000 people and flooded much less area. In 1955 the Comprehensive River Basin Planning Report officially proposed the project, the report was submitted to the National Peoples Congress and swiftly approved that same year while preliminary construction began soon after. Under Soviet Union supervision, construction began on 13 April 1957. Construction on the left-bank cofferdam began in June 1957 and excavation was completed a year later along with the pouring of the left-bank foundation, in October 1958, construction on the right-bank cofferdam was initiated and the river was closed by November 1958. In June 1960, the reservoir was at full pool and the dam crest reached its design elevation of 353 m ASL in April 1961, the dams generators were commissioned between 1973 and 1975. The dam was the first major project on the Yellow River. Upon completion, it was hailed as a success for the new republic. Soon after completion, sediment-accumulation threatened the benefits of the dam, the Yellow River carries more sediment than any other in the world. During the 18 months after the river was closed,1.8 billion metric tons of sediment had accumulated in the reservoir, only 7% of the sediment-load was released downstream and the reservoir lost 17% of its capacity below a 335 m ASL elevation. Navigation and farmland were threatened upstream along with the relocation of a one million people
9.
Yangtze
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The Yangtze River, known in China as the Cháng Jiāng or the Yángzǐ Jiāng, is the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world. The river is the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country and it drains one-fifth of the land area of the Peoples Republic of China and its river basin is home to one-third of the countrys population. The Yangtze is the sixth-largest river by volume in the world. The Yangtze River plays a role in the history, culture. The prosperous Yangtze River Delta generates as much as 20% of the PRCs GDP, for thousands of years, the river has been used for water, irrigation, sanitation, transportation, industry, boundary-marking and war. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world, in recent years, the river has suffered from industrial pollution, agricultural run-off, siltation, and loss of wetland and lakes, which exacerbates seasonal flooding. Some sections of the river are now protected as nature reserves, a stretch of the upstream Yangtze flowing through deep gorges in western Yunnan is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In mid-2014 the Chinese government announced it was building a transport network, comprising railways, roads and airports. Because the source of the Yangtze was not ascertained until modern times, Yangtze was actually the name of Chang Jiang for the lower part from Nanjing to the river mouth at Shanghai. In modern Chinese, Yangtze is still used to refer to the part of Chang Jiang from Nanjing to the river mouth. Yangtze never stands for the whole Chang Jiang, Chang Jiang is the modern Chinese name for the lower 2,884 km of the Yangtze from its confluence with the Min River at Yibin in Sichuan Province to the river mouth at Shanghai. Chang Jiang literally means the Long River, in Old Chinese, this stretch of the Yangtze was simply called Jiang/Kiang 江, a character of phono-semantic compound origin, combining the water radical 氵 with the homophone 工. Krong was probably a word in the Austroasiatic language of local peoples such as the Yue, similar to *krong in Proto-Vietnamese and krung in Mon, all meaning river, it is related to modern Vietnamese sông and Khmer kôngkea. By the Han Dynasty, Jiang had come to any river in Chinese. The epithet 長, means long, was first formally applied to the river during the Six Dynasties period, various sections of Chang Jiang have local names. From Yibin to Yichang, the river through Sichuan and Chongqing Municipality is also known as the Chuan Jiang or Sichuan River, in the Hubei Province, the river is also called the Jing Jiang or the Jing River after Jingzhou. In Anhui Province, the takes on the local name Wan Jiang after the shorthand name for Anhui. And Yangzi Jiang t 揚子江s 扬子江, p Yángzǐjiāng) or the Yangzi River, the name likely comes from an ancient ferry crossing called Yangzi or Yangzijin
10.
Winter wheat
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Winter wheat are strains of wheat that are planted in the autumn to germinate and develop into young plants that remain in the vegetative phase during the winter and resume growth in early spring. Classification into spring or winter wheat is common and traditionally refers to the season during which the crop is grown, for winter wheat, the physiological stage of heading is delayed until the plant experiences vernalization, a period of 30 to 60 days of cold winter temperatures. Winter wheat is planted from September to November in the Northern Hemisphere. In some places, winter wheat even celebrates a birthday, meaning it is harvested more than a year after it was planted, winter wheat usually provides higher yields compared to spring wheat. So-called facultative wheat varieties need shorter periods of time and temperatures of 3° to 15 °C. In many areas facultative varieties can be either as winter or as a spring, depending on time of sowing. This spring wheat planted in the autumn and grown over the winter is also incorrectly called winter wheat. Hard winter wheats have a gluten protein content than other wheats. They are used to make flour for yeast breads, or are blended with soft spring wheats to make the flour used in a wide variety of baked products. Pure soft wheat is used for specialty or cake flour, durum, the hardest wheat, is primarily used for making pasta. Almost all durum wheat grown in North America is spring-planted, winter wheat is grown throughout Europe, North America, and in Siberia. Winter wheat was brought to Kansas by German-Russian Mennonites in the 19th century, bernhard Warkentin and Mark A. Carleton played a major part in the spread of winter wheat as a commercial crop. Warkentin organized mills in central Kansas and imported seed from Ukraine to meet growing demand, Carleton worked for the United States Department of Agriculture as a crop explorer. He went to Russia to find other wheat varieties and worked with Kansas State University researchers to develop new ones, winter wheat production quickly spread throughout the Great Plains, and was, as it still is, usually grown using the techniques of dryland farming. Das Handbuch für Profis, DLG-Verlags-GmbH, ISBN 978-3-7690-0719-0 Carver, Brett F, encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
11.
Central Plain (China)
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It forms part of the North China Plain. In its narrowest sense, the Central Plain covers modern-day Henan, the part of Hebei, the southern part of Shanxi. A broader interpretation of the Central Plains extent would add the Guanzhong plain of Shaanxi, the part of Jiangsu. Since the beginning of recorded history, the Central Plain has been an important site for Chinese civilization, inscriptions on some bronze objects from this era contain references to the Central States, Eastern States, or Southern States. This indicates that the Central Plain, which was referred to as the Central States in these inscriptions, was considered to occupy the center of the world. In a broader context, the term Zhongyuan refers to Chinese civilization and China proper, regions directly governed by centralized Chinese governments, however, when used to describe the Chinese civilization, Zhongyuan often connotes Huaxia and Han Chinese cultural dominance. The Dungans, a Chinese-affiliated ethnic group, are referred to using terms linked to Zhongyuan, North China Plain Yellow River Delta and Bohai Sea Yangtze River Delta Pearl River Delta Chungyuan Standard Time
12.
Cradle of civilisation
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The cradle of civilization is a term referring to locations where, according to current archaeological data, civilization is understood to have emerged. Current thinking is that there was no single cradle, but several civilizations that developed independently, other civilizations arose in Asia among cultures situated along large river valleys, notably the Indus River in the Indian Subcontinent and the Yellow River in China. The extent to which there was significant influence between the early civilizations of the Near East and those of East Asia is disputed, scholars accept that the civilizations of Mesoamerica, mainly in modern Mexico, and Norte Chico in present-day Peru emerged independently from those in Eurasia. The concept cradle of civilization is the subject of much debate, the figurative use of cradle to mean the place or region in which anything is nurtured or sheltered in its earlier stage is traced by the OED to Spenser. Charles Rollins Ancient History has Egypt that served at first as the cradle of the holy nation, the phrase cradle of civilization plays a certain role in national mysticism. It has been used in Eastern as well as Western cultures, for instance, in Hindu nationalism, the terms also appear in esoteric pseudohistory, such as the Urantia Book, claiming the title for the second Eden, or the pseudoarchaeology related to Megalithic Britain. The earliest proto-urban settlements with several thousand inhabitants emerged in the Neolithic, the first cities to house several tens of thousands were Memphis and Uruk, by the 31st century BCE. Historic times are marked apart from times when records of the past begin to be kept for the benefit of future generations. A civilized way of life is linked to conditions coming almost exclusively from intensive agriculture. A traditional theory of the spread of civilization is that it began in the Fertile Crescent, scholars more generally now believe that civilizations arose independently at several locations in both hemispheres. They have observed that sociocultural developments occurred along different timeframes, sedentary and nomadic communities continued to interact considerably, they were not strictly divided among widely different cultural groups. Current scholarship generally identifies six sites where civilization emerged independently, Mesopotamia, the Nile River, the Indus River, the Yellow River, the Central Andes, one of the most notable PPNA settlements is Jericho in the Levant region, thought to be the worlds first town. In Mesopotamia, the convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers produced rich fertile soil, the civilizations that emerged around these rivers are among the earliest known non-nomadic agrarian societies. It is because of this that the fertile crescent region, the period known as the Ubaid period is the earliest known period on the alluvial plain although it is likely earlier periods exist obscured under the alluvium. It was during the Ubaid period that the movement towards urbanization began, eridu is the oldest Sumerian site settled during this period, around 5300 BCE, and the city of Ur also first dates to the end of this period. In the south, the Ubaid period had a long duration from around 6500 to 3800 BCE. Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia and, during its later phase. Proto-writing in the dates to around 3500 BCE, with the earliest texts dating to 3300 BCE
13.
Sorghum
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Sorghum is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family Poaceae. Seventeen of the species are native to Australia, with the range of some extending to Africa, Asia, Mesoamerica. One species is grown for grain, while others are used as fodder plants, either intentionally cultivated or allowed to grow naturally. The plants are cultivated in warm climates worldwide and naturalized in many places, Sorghum is in the subfamily Panicoideae and the tribe Andropogoneae. One species, Sorghum bicolor, native to Africa with many cultivated forms now, is an important crop worldwide, used for food, animal fodder, the production of alcoholic beverages, and biofuels. Most varieties are drought- and heat-tolerant, and are important in arid regions. These varieties form important components of pastures in many tropical regions, S. bicolor is an important food crop in Africa, Central America, and South Asia, and is the fifth-most important cereal crop grown in the world. Some species of sorghum can contain levels of cyanide, hordenine. When stressed by drought or heat, plants can contain toxic levels of cyanide and/or nitrates at later stages in growth. Another Sorghum species, Johnson grass, is classified as a species in the US by the Department of Agriculture. Sorghum is efficient in converting solar energy to chemical energy, biofuel, using sweet sorghum as a high sugar content from its stalk for ethanol production, is being developed with biomass which can be turned into charcoal, syngas, and bio-oil. In a 100 gram amount, raw sorghum provides 329 calories, 72% carbohydrates, 4% fat and 11% protein. Sorghum supplies numerous essential nutrients in rich content, including protein, fiber, the B vitamins, niacin, thiamin and vitamin B6, Sorghum nutrient contents generally are similar to those of raw oats. Among other similarities to oats, sorghum contains no gluten, making it useful for gluten-free diets, Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World, The Diffusion of Crops and Farming Techniques, 700–1100. Species Profile- Johnsongrass, National Invasive Species Information Center, United States National Agricultural Library, lists general information and resources for Johnsongrass
14.
Millet
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Millets are a group of highly variable small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Millets are important crops in the tropics of Asia and Africa. The crop is favored due to its productivity and short growing season under dry, millets are indigenous to many parts of the world. The most widely grown millet is pearl millet, which is an important crop in India, Finger millet, proso millet, and foxtail millet are also important crop species. Millets have been important food staples in human history, particularly in Asia and they have been in cultivation in East Asia for the last 10,000 years. Consumption of the minor millets has been practiced since the beginning of the ancient civilizations of the world, generally, the millets are small-grained, annual, warm-weather cereals belonging to grass family. They are highly tolerant of extreme conditions such as drought and are nutritious compared to the major cereals such as rice. They contain low phytic acid and are rich in fiber, iron, calcium. Moreover, these millets release sugar slowly in the blood and also diminish the glucose absorption, major millets are the most widely cultivated species. Eragrostideae tribe, Eleusine coracana, Finger millet - the fourth-most cultivated millet, paniceae tribe, Panicum miliaceum, Proso millet - the third-most cultivated millet. Pennisetum glaucum, Pearl millet - the most cultivated millet, setaria italica, Foxtail millet - the second-most cultivated millet. Jobs tears - of minor importance as a crop, eragrostideae tribe, Eragrostis tef, Teff - often not considered to be a millet. White fonio, Black fonio, Raishan, Polish millet - of minor importance as a crop, Japanese barnyard millet, Indian barnyard millet, Burgu millet, Common barnyard grass. Collectively, the members of this genus are called barnyard grasses or barnyard millets, other common names to identify these seeds include Jhangora, Samo seeds or Morio / Mario / Moraiaya seeds. Panicum sumatrense, Little millet Paspalum scrobiculatum, Kodo millet Urochloa ramosa, guinea millet Foxtail Millet is known to have been the first domesticated millet. Chinese legends attribute the domestication of millet to Shennong, the legendary Emperor of China, millets also formed important parts of the prehistoric diet in Indian, Chinese Neolithic and Korean Mumun societies. Broomcorn and foxtail millet were important crops beginning in the Early Neolithic of China, for example, some of the earliest evidence of millet cultivation in China was found at Cishan. Evidence at Cishan for foxtail millet dates back to around 6500 BC, a 4, 000-year-old well-preserved bowl containing well-preserved noodles made from foxtail millet and broomcorn millet was found at the Lajia archaeological site in China
15.
Maize
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Maize, also known as corn, is a large grain plant first domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The six major types of corn are dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, popcorn, flour corn, the leafy stalk of the plant produces separate pollen and ovuliferous inflorescences or ears, which are fruits, yielding kernels or seeds. Maize kernels are used in cooking as a starch. Most historians believe maize was domesticated in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico, recent research modified this view somewhat, scholars now indicate the adjacent Balsas River Valley of south-central Mexico as the center of domestication. The Olmec and Mayans cultivated maize in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica, cooked and its believed that beginning about 2500 BC, the crop spread through much of the Americas. The region developed a network based on surplus and varieties of maize crops. Nevertheless, recent data indicates that the spread of maize took place even earlier, according to Piperno, A large corpus of data indicates that it was dispersed into lower Central America by 7600 BP and had moved into the inter-Andean valleys of Colombia between 7000 and 6000 BP. Since then, even earlier dates have been published, the study also demonstrated that the oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands. Later, maize spread from this region over the Americas along two major paths and this is consistent with a model based on the archaeological record suggesting that maize diversified in the highlands of Mexico before spreading to the lowlands. Before they were domesticated, maize plants only grew small,25 millimetres long corn cobs, Maize is the most widely grown grain crop throughout the Americas, with 361 million metric tons grown in the United States in 2014. Approximately 40% of the crop—130 million tons—is used for corn ethanol, genetically modified maize made up 85% of the maize planted in the United States in 2009. After the arrival of Europeans in 1492, Spanish settlers consumed maize and explorers and traders carried it back to Europe, Spanish settlers far preferred wheat bread to maize, cassava, or potatoes. Maize flour could not be substituted for wheat for bread, since in Christian belief only wheat could undergo transubstantiation. At another level, Spaniards worried that by eating indigenous foods, which they did not consider nutritious, that not only would they weaken, despite these worries, Spaniards did consume maize and archeological evidence from Florida sites indicate they cultivated it as well. Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates and it was cultivated in Spain just a few decades after Columbuss voyages and then spread to Italy, West Africa and elsewhere. The word maize derives from the Spanish form of the indigenous Taíno word for the plant and it is known by other names around the world. The word corn outside North America, Australia, and New Zealand refers to any cereal crop, in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, corn primarily means maize, this usage started as a shortening of Indian corn. Indian corn primarily means maize, but can more specifically to multicolored flint corn used for decoration
16.
Wheat
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Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region but now cultivated worldwide. In 2016, world production of wheat was 749 million tonnes, making it the second most-produced cereal after maize, since 1960, world production of wheat and other grain crops has tripled and is expected to grow further through the middle of the 21st Century. This grain is grown on land area than any other commercial food. World trade in wheat is greater than for all other crops combined, globally, wheat is the leading source of vegetal protein in human food, having a protein content of about 13%, which is relatively high compared to other major cereals and staple foods. The archaeological record suggests that wheat was first cultivated in the regions of the Fertile Crescent around 9600 BCE. In a small part of the population, gluten – the major part of wheat protein – can trigger coeliac disease, non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, gluten ataxia. Cultivation and repeated harvesting and sowing of the grains of wild grasses led to the creation of domestic strains, in domesticated wheat, grains are larger, and the seeds remain attached to the ear by a toughened rachis during harvesting. In wild strains, a more fragile rachis allows the ear to easily shatter, as the traits that improve wheat as a food source also involve the loss of the plants natural seed dispersal mechanisms, highly domesticated strains of wheat cannot survive in the wild. Cultivation of wheat began to spread beyond the Fertile Crescent after about 8000 BCE, jared Diamond traces the spread of cultivated emmer wheat starting in the Fertile Crescent sometime before 8800 BCE. Archaeological analysis of wild emmer indicates that it was first cultivated in the southern Levant with finds dating back as far as 9600 BCE, Genetic analysis of wild einkorn wheat suggests that it was first grown in the Karacadag Mountains in southeastern Turkey. Dated archeological remains of wheat in settlement sites near this region, including those at Abu Hureyra in Syria. With the anomalous exception of two grains from Iraq ed-Dubb, the earliest carbon-14 date for einkorn wheat remains at Abu Hureyra is 7800 to 7500 years BCE. Remains of harvested emmer from several sites near the Karacadag Range have been dated to between 8600 and 8400 BCE, that is, in the Neolithic period and these remains were dated by Willem van Zeist and his assistant Johanna Bakker-Heeres to 8800 BCE. They also concluded that the settlers of Tell Aswad did not develop this form of emmer themselves, the cultivation of emmer reached Greece, Cyprus and India by 6500 BCE, Egypt shortly after 6000 BCE, and Germany and Spain by 5000 BCE. The early Egyptians were developers of bread and the use of the oven, by 3000 BCE, wheat had reached the British Isles and Scandinavia. A millennium later it reached China, the oldest evidence for hexaploid wheat has been confirmed through DNA analysis of wheat seeds, dating to around 6400-6200 BCE, recovered from Çatalhöyük. The first identifiable bread wheat with sufficient gluten for yeasted breads has been identified using DNA analysis in samples from a dating to approximately 1350 BCE at Assiros in Macedonia. From Asia, wheat continued to spread throughout Europe, in the British Isles, wheat straw was used for roofing in the Bronze Age, and was in common use until the late 19th century
17.
Sesame seed
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Sesame is a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum, also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a number in India. It is widely naturalized in regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds. The world harvested 4.2 million metric tonnes of seeds in 2013, with India. Sesame seed is one of the oldest oilseed crops known, domesticated well over 3000 years ago, Sesame has many species, most being wild and native to sub-Saharan Africa. Sesame indicum, the type, originated in India and is tolerant to drought-like conditions. Sesame has one of the highest oil contents of any seed, with a rich, nutty flavor, it is a common ingredient in cuisines across the world. Like other nuts and foods, it can trigger allergic reactions in some people, sometimes sold with its seed coat removed, this variety is often present on top of baked goods in many countries. The word sesame is from Latin sesamum or Greek sēsamon, it also has derivation from Arabic semsem, from these roots, words with the generalized meaning “oil, liquid fat” were derived. Sesame names vary among numerous languages, Sesame seed is considered to be the oldest oilseed crop known to humanity. The genus has many species, and most are wild, most wild species of the genus Sesamum are native to sub-Saharan Africa. Sesame indicum, the type, originated in India. Some reports claim sesame was cultivated in Egypt during the Ptolemiac period, records from Babylon and Assyria, dating about 4000 years ago, mention sesame. Egyptians called it sesemt, and it is included in the list of drugs in the scrolls of the Ebers Papyrus dated to be over 3600 years old. Archeological reports from Turkey indicate that sesame was grown and pressed to extract oil at least 2750 years ago in the empire of Urartu, the historic origin of sesame was favored by its ability to grow in areas that do not support the growth of other crops. It was a crop that could be grown by farmers at the edge of deserts. Sesame has been called a survivor crop, the flowers are yellow, tubular,3 to 5 cm long, with a four-lobed mouth. The flowers may vary in colour, with some being white, blue, Sesame seeds occur in many colours depending on the cultivar
18.
Peanut
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The peanut, also known as the groundnut and the goober and taxonomically classified as Arachis hypogaea, is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, being important to small and large commercial producers. It is classified as both a grain legume and, because of its oil content, an oil crop. World annual production of shelled peanuts was 42 million tonnes in 2014, atypically among crop plants, peanut pods develop underground rather than aboveground. It is this characteristic that the botanist Linnaeus used to assign the specific name hypogaea, as a legume, the peanut belongs to the botanical family Fabaceae, this is also known as Leguminosae, and commonly known as the bean, or pea, family. Like most other legumes, peanuts harbor symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria in root nodules and this capacity to fix nitrogen means peanuts require less nitrogen-containing fertilizer and improve soil fertility, making them valuable in crop rotations. Peanuts are similar in taste and nutritional profile to tree nuts such as walnuts and almonds, the botanical definition of a nut is a fruit whose ovary wall becomes very hard at maturity. Using this criterion, the peanut is not a true nut, however, for culinary purposes and in common English language usage, peanuts are usually referred to as nuts. Cultivated peanut arose from a hybrid between two species of peanut, thought to be A. duranensis and A. ipaensis. The initial hybrid would have been sterile, but spontaneous chromosome doubling restored its fertility, the process of domestication through artificial selection made A. hypogaea dramatically different from its wild relatives. The domesticated plants are bushier and more compact, and have a different pod structure, the initial domestication may have taken place in northwestern Argentina, or in southeastern Bolivia, where the peanut landraces with the most wild-like features are grown today. From this primary center of origin, cultivation spread and formed secondary and tertiary centers of diversity in Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, over time, thousands of peanut landraces evolved, these are classified into six botanical varieties and two subspecies. Subspecies A. h. fastigiata types are more upright in their habit and have shorter crop cycles. Subspecies A. h. hypogaea types spread more on the ground and have longer crop cycles, the oldest known archeological remains of pods have been dated at about 7,600 years old. These may be pods from a species that was in cultivation. They were found in Peru, where dry conditions are favorable to the preservation of organic material. Almost certainly, peanut cultivation antedated this at the center of origin where the climate is moister, many pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Moche, depicted peanuts in their art. Cultivation was well established in Mesoamerica before the Spanish arrived, there, the conquistadors found the tlalcacahuatl being offered for sale in the marketplace of Tenochtitlan
19.
Beijing
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Beijing is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China and the worlds third most populous city proper. It is also one of the worlds most populous capital cities, the city, located in northern China, is governed as a direct-controlled municipality under the national government with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts. Beijing is the second largest Chinese city by population after Shanghai and is the nations political, cultural. It is home to the headquarters of most of Chinas largest state-owned companies, and is a hub for the national highway, expressway, railway. The citys history dates back three millennia, as the last of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, Beijing has been the political centre of the country for much of the past eight centuries. Beijing was the largest city in the world by population for much of the second millennium A. D, the city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs, walls and gates. Its art treasures and universities have made it centre of culture, encyclopædia Britannica notes that few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural centre of an area as immense as China. Siheyuans, the traditional housing style, and hutongs, the narrow alleys between siheyuans, are major tourist attractions and are common in urban Beijing. The city hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics and was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, many of Beijings 91 universities consistently rank among the best in China, of which Peking University and Tsinghua University are ranked in the top 60 universities in the world. Beijings Zhongguancun area is known as Chinas Silicon Valley and Chinas center of innovation. According to the 2016 InterNations Expat Insider Survey, Beijing ranked first in Asia in the subcategory Personal Finance Index, expats live primarily in urban districts such as Dongcheng and Chaoyang in the east, or in suburban districts such as Shunyi. Over the past 3,000 years, the city of Beijing has had other names. The name Beijing, which means Northern Capital, was applied to the city in 1403 during the Ming Dynasty to distinguish the city from Nanjing, the English spelling is based on the pinyin romanisation of the two characters as they are pronounced in Standard Mandarin. Those dialects preserve the Middle Chinese pronunciation of 京 as kjaeng, the single Chinese character abbreviation for Beijing is 京, which appears on automobile license plates in the city. The official Latin alphabet abbreviation for Beijing is BJ, the earliest traces of human habitation in the Beijing municipality were found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District, where Peking Man lived. Homo erectus fossils from the date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic Homo sapiens also lived more recently, about 27,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found neolithic settlements throughout the municipality, including in Wangfujing, the first walled city in Beijing was Ji, a city from the 11th to 7th century BC
20.
Tianjin
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Tianjin, formerly known in English as Tientsin, is a metropolis in northern coastal Mainland China and one of the five national central cities of the country, with a total population of 15,469,500. It is governed as one of the four direct-controlled municipalities of the PRC and is thus under direct administration of the central government, Tianjin borders Hebei Province and Beijing Municipality, bounded to the east by the Bohai Gulf portion of the Yellow Sea. Part of the Bohai Economic Rim, it is the largest coastal city in northern China, in terms of urban population, Tianjin is the fourth largest in China, after Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou. In terms of area population, Tianjin ranks fifth in Mainland China. The walled city of Tianjin was built in 1404, as a treaty port since 1860, Tianjin has been a major seaport and gateway to Beijing. During the Boxer Rebellion the city was the seat of the Tianjin Provisional Government, under the Ta-tsing Empire, and the Republic of China, Tianjin became one of the largest cities in the region. At that time, numerous European-style buildings and mansions were constructed in concessions, after the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, Tianjin suffered a depression due to the policy of the central government and Tangshan earthquake, but recovered from 1990s. As of the end of 2010, around 285 Fortune 500 companies have set up base in Binhai, Tianjin is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese characters 天津, which mean Heavenly Ford or Ford of Heaven. The origin of the name is obscure, one folk etymology is that it was an homage to the patriotic Chu poet Qu Yuan, whose Li Sao includes the verse. departing from the Ford of Heaven at dawn. Another is that it honors a former name of the Girl, a third is that it derives from a place name noted in the River Record of the History of Jin. The most common are that it was bestowed by the Yongle Emperor of the Ming, before this time, it was open sea. The opening of the Grand Canal during the Sui dynasty prompted the development of Tianjin into a trading center, during the Qing dynasty Tianjin was promoted to a prefecture or Zhou in 1725 with Tianjin County established under the prefecture in 1731. Later it was to upgraded to a prefecture or Fu before becoming a relay station under the command of the Viceroy of Zhili. In 1856, Chinese soldiers boarded The Arrow, a Chinese-owned ship registered in Hong Kong flying the British flag and suspected of piracy, smuggling and they captured 12 men and imprisoned them. In response, the British and French sent gunboats under the command of Admiral Sir Michael Seymour to capture the Taku forts near Tianjin in May 1858. At the end of the first part of the Second Opium War in June of the year, the British and French prevailed, and the Treaties of Tianjin were signed. The treaties were ratified by the Emperor of China in 1860, and Tianjin was formally opened to Great Britain and France and these nations left many architectural reminders of their rule, notably churches and thousands of villas. Today those villas provide a flavour to Tianjin
21.
Steppe
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In South Africa they are referred to as Veld. The prairie is an example of a steppe, though it is not usually called such and it may be semi-desert, or covered with grass or shrubs or both, depending on the season and latitude. The term is used to denote the climate encountered in regions too dry to support a forest. The soil is typically of chernozem type, steppes are usually characterized by a semi-arid and continental climate. Extremes can be recorded in the summer of up to 45 °C and in winter, besides this huge difference between summer and winter, the differences between day and night are also very great. In the highlands of Mongolia,30 °C can be reached during the day with sub-zero °C readings at night, the mid-latitude steppes can be summarized by hot summers and cold winters, averaging 250–510 mm of precipitation per year. Precipitation level alone is not what defines a steppe climate, potential evapotranspiration must also be taken into account, the Eurasian Grass-Steppe of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands had a role in the spread of the horse, the wheel, and the Indo-European languages. The Indo-European expansion and diverse invasions of horse archer civilizations of the steppe eventually led to, the Pannonian Plain is another steppe region in eastern Europe, primarily Hungary. Another large steppe area is located in the central United States, western Canada, the shortgrass prairie steppe is the westernmost part of the Great Plains region. The Channeled Scablands in Southern British Columbia and Washington State is an example of a region in North America outside of the Great Plains. In South America, cold steppe can be found in Patagonia, relatively small steppe areas can be found in the interior of the South Island of New Zealand. In Asia, a subtropical steppe can be found in semi-arid lands that fringe the Thar Desert of the Indian subcontinent, in Australia, subtropical steppe can be found in a belt surrounding the most severe deserts of the continent and around the Musgrave Ranges. Ecology and Conservation of Steppe-land Birds by Manuel B. Morales, Santi Mañosa, Jordi Camprodón, international Symposium on Ecology and Conservation of steppe-land birds
22.
Desert
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A desert is a barren area of land where little precipitation occurs and consequently living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to the processes of denudation, about one third of the land surface of the world is arid or semi-arid. This includes much of the regions where little precipitation occurs. Deserts can be classified by the amount of precipitation falls, by the temperature that prevails. Deserts are formed by weathering processes as large variations in temperature between day and night put strains on the rocks which consequently break in pieces, although rain seldom occurs in deserts, there are occasional downpours that can result in flash floods. Rain falling on hot rocks can cause them to shatter and the resulting fragments and this picks up particles of sand and dust and wafts them aloft in sand or dust storms. Wind-blown sand grains striking any solid object in their path can abrade the surface, rocks are smoothed down, and the wind sorts sand into uniform deposits. The grains end up as level sheets of sand or are piled high in billowing sand dunes, other deserts are flat, stony plains where all the fine material has been blown away and the surface consists of a mosaic of smooth stones. These areas are known as desert pavements and little further erosion takes place, other desert features include rock outcrops, exposed bedrock and clays once deposited by flowing water. Temporary lakes may form and salt pans may be left when waters evaporate, there may be underground sources of water in the form of springs and seepages from aquifers. Where these are found, oases can occur, plants and animals living in the desert need special adaptations to survive in the harsh environment. Plants tend to be tough and wiry with small or no leaves, water-resistant cuticles, some annual plants germinate, bloom and die in the course of a few weeks after rainfall while other long-lived plants survive for years and have deep root systems able to tap underground moisture. Animals need to cool and find enough food and water to survive. Many are nocturnal and stay in the shade or underground during the heat of the day and they tend to be efficient at conserving water, extracting most of their needs from their food and concentrating their urine. Some animals remain in a state of dormancy for long periods and they then reproduce rapidly while conditions are favorable before returning to dormancy. People have struggled to live in deserts and the surrounding lands for millennia. Nomads have moved their flocks and herds to wherever grazing is available, the cultivation of semi-arid regions encourages erosion of soil and is one of the causes of increased desertification. Many trade routes have been forged across deserts, especially across the Sahara Desert, large numbers of slaves were also taken northwards across the Sahara
23.
Dzungaria
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Dzungaria is a geographical region in northwest China corresponding to the northern half of Xinjiang, also known as Beijiang. Bounded by the Tian Shan mountain range to the south and the Altai Mountains to the north, it covers approximately 777,000 km2, extending into western Mongolia and eastern Kazakhstan. Formerly the term could cover an area, conterminous with the Dzungar Khanate. In comparison to southern Xinjiang, Dzungaria is relatively well-integrated with the rest of China by rail, the name Dzungaria or Zungharia is a corruption of the Mongolian term Zűn Gar or Jüün Gar depending on the dialect of Mongolian used. Zűn/Jüün means left and Gar means hand, the name originates from the notion that the Western Mongols are on the left hand side when the Mongol Empire began its division into East and West Mongols. After this fragmentation, the western Mongolian nation was called Zuun Gar, however, Qing people began to think of both areas as part of one distinct region called Xinjiang. It is bounded by the Tian Shan to the south, the Altai Mountains to the northeast, the three corners are relatively open. The northern corner is the valley of the upper Irtysh River, the eastern corner of the basin leads to Gansu and the rest of China. In the south an easy pass leads from Ürümqi to the Turfan Depression, in the southwest the tall Borohoro Mountains branch of the Tian Shan separates the basin from the upper Ili River. The basin is similar to the larger Tarim Basin on the side of the Tian Shan Range. This is enough to sustain populations of wild camels, jerboas, the Dzungarian Basin is a structural basin with thick sequences of Paleozoic-Pleistocene rocks with large estimated oil reserves. The Gurbantunggut Desert, China’s second largest, is in the center of the basin, the Dzungarian basin does not have a single catchment center. The northernmost section of Dzungaria is part of the basin of the Irtysh River, the rest of the region is split into a number of endorheic basins. In particular, south of the Irtysh, the Ulungur River ends up in the endorheic Lake Ulungur, the Southwestern part of the Dzungarian basin drains into the Aibi Lake. In the west-central part of the region, streams flow into a group of lakes that include Lake Manas. Runoff from the mountains into the basin supplies several lakes. The ecologically rich habitats traditionally included meadows, marshlands, and rivers, however most of the land is now used for agriculture. It is a steppe and semi-desert basin surrounded by high mountains, the Tian Shan in the south
24.
Inner Mongolia
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Its capital is Hohhot, and other major cities include Baotou, Chifeng, and Ordos. It is the third largest subdivision of China, spanning approximately 1,200,000 km2 or 12% of Chinas total land area and it recorded a population of 24,706,321 in the 2010 census, accounting for 1. 84% of Mainland Chinas total population. Inner Mongolia is the countrys 23rd most populous province-level division, the majority of the population in the region is Han Chinese, with a sizeable titular Mongol minority. In Chinese, the region is known as Inner Mongolia, where the terms of Inner/Outer are derived from Manchu dorgi/tulergi. The term Inner 内 referred to the Nei Fan 内番, i. e. those descendants of Genghis Khan who granted the title khan in Ming and Qing Dynasties and lived in part of southern part of Mongolia. In recent years, some Mongols began to call Inner Mongolia Nan Menggu, literally South Mongolia, much of what is known about the history of Greater Mongolia, including Inner Mongolia, is known through Chinese chronicles and historians. Slab Grave cultural monuments are found in northern, central and eastern Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, north-western China, Mongolian scholars prove that this culture related to the Proto-Mongols. During the Zhou Dynasty, central and western Inner Mongolia were inhabited by peoples such as the Loufan, Linhu. During the Warring States period, King Wuling of the state of Zhao based in what is now Hebei, after destroying the Dí state of Zhongshan in what is now Hebei province, he defeated the Linhu and Loufan and created the commandery of Yunzhong near modern Hohhot. King Wuling of Zhao also built a long wall stretching through the Hetao region and he also maintained two commanderies in the region, Jiuyuan and Yunzhong, and moved 30,000 households there to solidify the region. After the Qin Dynasty collapsed in 206 BC, these efforts were abandoned, during the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu sent the general Wei Qing to reconquer the Hetao region from the Xiongnu in 127 BC. After the conquest, Emperor Wu continued the policy of building settlements in Hetao to defend against the Xiong-Nu, in that same year he established the commanderies of Shuofang and Wuyuan in Hetao. At the same time, what is now eastern Inner Mongolia was controlled by the Xianbei, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xiongnu who surrendered to the Han Dynasty began to be settled in Hetao, and intermingled with the Han immigrants in the area. Hetao was then taken over by the Khitan Empire, founded by the Khitans and they were followed by the Western Xia of the Tanguts, who took control of what is now the western part of Inner Mongolia. The Khitans were later replaced by the Jurchens, precursors to the modern Manchus, after Genghis Khan unified the Mongol tribes in 1206 and founded the Mongol Empire, the Tangut Western Xia empire was ultimately conquered in 1227, and the Jurchen Jin dynasty fell in 1234. In 1271, Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan established the Yuan dynasty, Kublai Khans summer capital Shangdu was located near present-day Dolonnor. During that time Ongud and Khunggirad peoples dominated the area of what is now Inner Mongolia, after the Yuan dynasty was overthrown by the Han-led Ming dynasty in 1368, the Ming captured parts of Inner Mongolia including Shangdu and Yingchang. The Ming rebuilt the Great Wall of China at its present location, the Ming established the Three Guards composed of the Mongols there
25.
Northeast China
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Northeast China or Dongbei is a geographical region of China. It also historically corresponds with the term Manchuria in the English language, the heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain. Due to the shrinking of its industrial sector and decline of its economic growth. The region is congruent with some definitions of Manchuria in historical foreign usage. Another term for the area is Guandong, meaning east of the Pass, Northeast China was the homeland of several ethnic groups, including the Manchus, Ulchs, Hezhen. Various ethnic groups and their kingdoms, including the Sushen, Xianbei. Many Korean kingdoms have risen to power in Manchuria, including Gojoseon, Buyeo, Goguryeo. Yan State once occupied the Liaodong Peninsula, Han Chinese dynasties in China loosely controlled the southern parts of the region, during the Song dynasty, the Khitan set up the Liao Dynasty in Northeast China. Later, the Jurchen overthrew the Liao and formed the Jin dynasty, in AD1234, the Jin dynasty fell to the Mongols, whose Yuan Dynasty was later replaced by the Ming Dynasty in 1368. In 1644, the Manchu conquered the entirety of China and established the Qing dynasty, Northeast China came under influence of the Russian Empire with the building of the Chinese Eastern Railway through Harbin to Vladivostok. The Empire of Japan replaced Russian influence in the region as a result of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904–1905, during the Warlord Era in China, Zhang Zuolin established himself in Northeast China, but was murdered by the Japanese for being too independent. The last Qing dynasty emperor, Puyi, was placed on the throne to lead a Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. After the atomic bombing of Japan in 1945, the Soviet Union invaded the region as part of its declaration of war against Japan, from 1945 to 1948, Northeast China was a base area for the Communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. Northeast China has a population of about 107,400,000 people. The overwhelming majority of the population in the Northeast is Han Chinese, people from the Northeast would first identify themselves as Northeasterners before affiliating to individual provinces and cities/towns. The Northeast was one of the earliest regions to industrialize in China during the era of Manchukuo, after the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, Northeast China continued to be a major industrial base of the country. The region is, on the whole, more urbanised than most parts of China. Major cities include Shenyang, Dalian, Harbin, Changchun and Anshan, other cities include the steel making centres of Fushun and Anshan in Liaoning, Jilin City in Jilin, and Qiqihar and Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang
26.
Ethnic groups in Chinese history
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Classical Chinese ethnography was often sketchy, leaving it unclear as to whether Chinese-depicted names referred to a true ethnic group or a possibly multiethnic political entity. Many of the ethnonyms were historically used in such a way as to invite comparison with the word barbarian, in some cases authors prefer to transliterate specific exonyms as proper nouns, and in other cases to translate generic ones as English barbarian. The American sinologist Marc S. Abramson explains why barbarian is the translation for general terms like fan 番 and hu 胡. However, its pejorative connotations make it inappropriate as a general translation, the following table summarizes the various ethnic groups and/or other social groups of known historical significance to the history of China, Abramson, Marc S. Ethnic Identity in Tang China. Empires of the Silk Road, A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present
27.
Great Wall of China
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Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century BC, these, later joined together and made bigger and stronger, are now collectively referred to as the Great Wall. Especially famous is the wall built 220–206 BC by Qin Shi Huang, since then, the Great Wall has been rebuilt, maintained, and enhanced, the majority of the existing wall is from the Ming Dynasty. The Great Wall stretches from Dandong in the east to Lop Lake in the west, a comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has concluded that the Ming walls measure 8,850 km. This is made up of 6,259 km sections of wall,359 km of trenches and 2,232 km of natural defensive barriers such as hills. Another archaeological survey found that the wall with all of its branches measure out to be 21,196 km. The collection of fortifications now known as The Great Wall of China has historically had a number of different names in both Chinese and English. The Chinese character 城 is a compound of the place or earth radical 土 and 成. The longer Chinese name Ten-Thousand-Mile Long Wall came from Sima Qians description of it in the Records, though he did not name the walls as such. The AD493 Book of Song quotes the frontier general Tan Daoji referring to the wall of 10,000 miles, closer to the modern name. Since Chinas metrication in 1930, it has been equivalent to 500 metres or 1,600 feet. However, this use of ten-thousand is figurative in a manner to the Greek and English myriad. Because of the association with the First Emperors supposed tyranny. Instead, various terms were used in records, including frontier, rampart, barrier, the outer fortresses. Poetic and informal names for the wall included the Purple Frontier, only during the Qing period did Long Wall become the catch-all term to refer to the many border walls regardless of their location or dynastic origin, equivalent to the English Great Wall. The current English name evolved from accounts of the Chinese wall from early modern European travelers, by the 19th century, The Great Wall of China had become standard in English, French, and German, although other European languages continued to refer to it as the Chinese wall. The Chinese were already familiar with the techniques of wall-building by the time of the Spring, during this time and the subsequent Warring States period, the states of Qin, Wei, Zhao, Qi, Yan, and Zhongshan all constructed extensive fortifications to defend their own borders. Built to withstand the attack of small arms such as swords and spears, king Zheng of Qin conquered the last of his opponents and unified China as the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Intending to impose centralized rule and prevent the resurgence of feudal lords, to position the empire against the Xiongnu people from the north, however, he ordered the building of new walls to connect the remaining fortifications along the empires northern frontier
28.
Granary
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A granary is a storehouse or room in a barn for threshed grain or animal feed. Ancient or primitive granaries are most often out of pottery. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the food away from mice. From ancient times grain has been stored in bulk, the oldest granaries yet found date back to 9500 BC and are located in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A settlements in the Jordan Valley. The first were located in places between other buildings, however beginning around 8500 BC, they were moved inside houses, and by 7500 BC storage occurred in special rooms. The first granaries measured 3 x 3 m on the outside and had suspended floors that protected the grain from rodents and insects and these granaries are followed by those in Mehrgarh in the Indus Valley from 6000 BC. The ancient Egyptians made a practice of preserving grain in years of plenty against years of scarcity, the climate of Egypt being very dry, grain could be stored in pits for a long time without discernible loss of quality. The silo pit, as it has termed, has been a favorite way of storing grain from time immemorial in all oriental lands. In Turkey and Persia, usurers used to buy up wheat or barley when comparatively cheap, in Malta a relatively large stock of wheat was preserved in some hundreds of pits cut in the rock. A single silo stored from 60 to 80 tons of wheat, in the archaeological vernacular of Northeast Asia, these features are lumped with those that may have also functioned as residences and together are called raised floor buildings. In vernacular architecture of Indonesian archipelago granaries are made of wood and bamboo materials, examples of Indonesian granary is Sundanese leuit and Minang rangkiang. In Great Britain small granaries were built on mushroom shaped stumps called staddle stones and they were built of timber frame construction and often had slate roofs. Larger ones were similar to linhays, but with the upper floor enclosed, access to the first floor was usually via stone staircase on the outside wall. Towards the close of the 19th century, warehouses specially intended for holding grain began to multiply in Great Britain, there are climatic difficulties in the way of storing grain in Great Britain on a large scale, but these difficulties have been largely overcome. Modern grain farming operations often use manufactured steel granaries to store grain on-site until it can be trucked to major storage facilities in anticipation of shipping, the large mechanized facilities, particularly seen in Russia and North America are known as grain elevators. Grain must be away from moisture for as long as possible to preserve it in good condition. Newly harvested grain brought into a granary tends to contain excess moisture, fermentation generally spoils grain and may cause chemical changes that create poisonous mycotoxins. One traditional remedy is to spread the grain in thin layers on a floor, once the grain is sufficiently dry it can be transferred to a granary for storage
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Irrigation
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Irrigation is the method in which a controlled amount of water is supplied to plants at regular intervals for agriculture. It is used to assist in the growing of crops, maintenance of landscapes. Additionally, irrigation also has a few uses in crop production. In contrast, agriculture that only on direct rainfall is referred to as rain-fed or dry land farming. Irrigation systems are used for dust suppression, disposal of sewage. Irrigation is often studied together with drainage, which is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from a given area, Irrigation has been a central feature of agriculture for over 5,000 years and is the product of many cultures. Historically, it was the basis for economies and societies across the globe, archaeological investigation has found evidence of irrigation where the natural rainfall was insufficient to support crops for rainfed agriculture. Ancient Egyptians practiced Basin irrigation using the flooding of the Nile to inundate land plots which had surrounded by dykes. The flood water was held until the sediment had settled before the surplus was returned to the watercourse. The Ancient Nubians developed a form of irrigation by using a device called a sakia. Irrigation began in Nubia some time between the third and second millennium BCE and it largely depended upon the flood waters that would flow through the Nile River and other rivers in what is now the Sudan. In sub-Saharan Africa irrigation reached the Niger River region cultures and civilizations by the first or second millennium BCE and was based on wet season flooding, terrace irrigation is evidenced in pre-Columbian America, early Syria, India, and China. These canals are the earliest record of irrigation in the New World, traces of a canal possibly dating from the 5th millennium BCE were found under the 4th millennium canal. Large scale agriculture was practiced and a network of canals was used for the purpose of irrigation. Ancient Persia as far back as the 6th millennium BCE, where barley was grown in areas where the rainfall was insufficient to support such a crop. The Qanats, developed in ancient Persia in about 800 BCE, are among the oldest known irrigation methods still in use today and they are now found in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. The system comprises a network of wells and gently sloping tunnels driven into the sides of cliffs. The noria, a wheel with clay pots around the rim powered by the flow of the stream, was first brought into use at about this time
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Fortification
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Fortifications are military constructions or buildings designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and also used to solidify rule in a region during peace time. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs, the term is derived from the Latin fortis and facere. From very early history to modern times, walls have been a necessity for cities to survive in a changing world of invasion. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were the first small cities to be fortified, in ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae. A Greek Phrourion was a collection of buildings used as a military garrison. These construction mainly served the purpose of a tower, to guard certain roads, passes. Though smaller than a fortress, they acted as a border guard rather than a real strongpoint to watch. The art of setting out a camp or constructing a fortification traditionally has been called castramentation since the time of the Roman legions. Fortification is usually divided into two branches, permanent fortification and field fortification, there is also an intermediate branch known as semi-permanent fortification. Castles are fortifications which are regarded as being distinct from the fort or fortress in that they are a residence of a monarch or noble. Roman forts and hill forts were the antecedents of castles in Europe. The Early Middle Ages saw the creation of towns built around castles. Medieval-style fortifications were made obsolete by the arrival of cannons in the 14th century. Fortifications in the age of black powder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb, Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes. The arrival of explosive shells in the 19th century led to yet another stage in the evolution of fortification, steel-and-concrete fortifications were common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However the advances in warfare since World War I have made large-scale fortifications obsolete in most situations. Demilitarized zones along borders are arguably another type of fortification, although a passive kind, many military installations are known as forts, although they are not always fortified. Larger forts may be called fortresses, smaller ones were known as fortalices
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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Yangtze River Delta
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The area lies at the heart of the region traditionally called Jiangnan. The Yangtze River drains into the East China Sea, the urban build-up in the area has given rise to what may be the largest concentration of adjacent metropolitan areas in the world. It covers an area of 99,600 square kilometres and is home to over 115 million people as of 2013, if based on the greater Yangtze River Delta zone, it has over 140 million people in this region. Having a fertile soil, the Yangtze River Delta abundantly produces grain, cotton, hemp, Hangzhou served as the Chinese capital during the Southern Song dynasty, and Nanjing was the early capital of the Ming dynasty before the Yongle Emperor moved the capital to Beijing in 1421. Other key cities of the region in pre-modern times include Suzhou, the ancient Suzhou was the capital of the Wu state, and the ancient Shaoxing was the capital of the Yue state. Nanjing first served as a capital in the Three Kingdoms period as the capital of Eastern Wu, in these periods, there were several concomitant states or empires in China and each one had its own capital. The delta is one of the most densely populated regions on earth, most of the people in this region speak Wu Chinese as their mother tongue, in addition to Mandarin. Wu is mutually unintelligible with other varieties of Chinese, including Mandarin, the area of the Yangtze River Delta incorporates more than twenty relatively developed cities in three provinces. The term can be used to refer to the entire region extending as far north as Lianyungang, Jiangsu and as far south as Wenzhou. The region includes some of the economies in China in recent years. Since the ninth century, the Yangtze Delta has been the most populous area in China, East Asia, Ningbo became one of the two biggest seaports in East Asia along with Quanzhou. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the became a large economic centre for the country. During the Qianlong era of the Qing dynasty, Shanghai began developing rapidly, from late 19th century to early 20th century, Shanghai was the biggest commercial centre in the Far East. The Yangtze River Delta became the first industrialized area in China and it is the centre of Chinese economic development, and surpasses other concentrations of metropolitan areas in China in terms of economic growth, productivity and per capita income. In 1982, the Chinese government set up the Shanghai Economic Area, besides Shanghai, four cities in Jiangsu and five cities in Zhejiang were included. In 1992, a 14-city cooperative joint meeting was launched, besides the previous 10 cities, the members included Nanjing, Zhenjiang and Yangzhou in Jiangsu, and Zhoushan in Zhejiang. In 1997, the joint meeting resulted in the establishment of the Yangtze River Delta Economic Coordination Association. In 2003, Taizhou in Zhejiang also joined the association, in 2010, the association accepted six new members after a six-year observation and review, including Yancheng and Huaian in Jiangsu, Jinhua and Quzhou in Zhejiang, and Maanshan and Hefei in Anhui
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Pearl River Delta
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The Pearl River Delta, also known as Zhujiang Delta or Zhusanjiao, is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. It is one of the most densely urbanized regions in the world and is a hub of China. This region is considered an emerging megacity. The nine largest cities of PRD had a population of 57.15 million at the end of 2013. According to the World Bank Group, the PRD has become the largest urban area in the world in size and population. The river delta, also known as the Golden Delta of Guangdong, is formed by three rivers, the Xi Jiang, Bei Jiang, and Dong Jiang. The flat lands of the delta are criss-crossed by a network of tributaries and distributaries of the Pearl River, the Pearl River Delta is actually two alluvial deltas, separated by the core branch of the Pearl River. The Bei Jiang and Xi Jiang converge to flow into the South China Sea and Pearl River in the west, the Xi Jiang begins exhibiting delta-like characteristics as far west as Zhaoqing, although this city is not usually considered a part of the PRD region. After passing through the Lingyang Gorge and converging with the Bei Jiang, major distributaries of the Xi include Donghui Shuidao, Jiya Shuidao, Hutiaomen Shuidao, Yinzhou Hu, and the main branch of the Xi Jiang. Jiangmen and Zhongshan are the major found in the western section of the delta. The Bei Jiang enters the plains at Qingyuan but doesnt begin to split until near Sanshui. From here the two main distributaries are Tanzhou Shuidao and Shunde Shuidao which form multiple mouths along the west side of the Pearl Rivers estuary. Two other distributaries, Lubao Yong and Xinan Yong, split from the Bei further north, the other major city in the north section of the delta is Foshan. The Dong Jiang flows through Huizhou into the delta and it begins diverging northeast of Dongguan into many distributaries, including the Dongguan Shuidao. Distributuares enter the Pearl River as far north as Luogang and as far south as Hu Men, saltwater crocodiles were present within the Pearl River estuary during antiquity. The eastern side of the PRD, dominated by foreign capital, is the most developed economically, the western areas, dominated by local private capital, are open for development. New transport links between Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai in the PRD are expected to open up new areas for development, further integrate the cities, and facilitate trade within the region. 1985, the PRD had been dominated by farms and small rural villages, but after the economy was reformed and opened
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Guanzhong
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Guanzhong, or Guanzhong Plain, is a historical region of China corresponding to the lower valley of the Wei River. It is called Guanzhong or within the passes, as opposed to Guandong or east of the pass, the North China Plain is bordered on the west by mountains. The Yellow River cuts through the mountains at the Hangu Pass separating Guanzhong from Guandong, Guanzhong includes the central part of Shaanxi and the extreme west of modern Henan. The average altitude of the Guanzhong Plain is around 500 metres, xian, the capital of Shaanxi, is the largest city in the Guanzhong plain, which also contains the cities of Tongchuan, Baoji, Xianyang and Weinan. Guanzhong was the homebase of Zhou who conquered the Shang dynasty to establish the Zhou dynasty in 1045/46 BC, after the Quanrong nomads overran the Guanzhong region to end the Western Zhou in 771 BC, the Zhou court fled east of the Hangu Pass to Luoyang. The Qin state on the edge of the Chinese civilization later defeated the nomads. During the Warring States period, Qin became more militaristic and its enemies claimed that it had adopted barbarian customs to help it win battles and it was said that Guanzhong produces generals and Guandong produces ministers. Having fertile soil and good irrigation systems, Qin rose from this region to gain preeminence among the Warring States, since the Western Zhou, the area was the capital region of China for a total of 12 dynasties including the Qin, Western Han, Sui, and Tang. By the Tang dynasty the economic center of China had shifted south to the Yangtze basin, after the destruction of Changan in the last years of the Tang, Guanzhong became less significant politically as well as economically in later dynasties
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Ili River Valley
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The Ili River is a river in northwestern China and southeastern Kazakhstan. It flows from the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region to the Almaty Province in Kazakhstan and it is 1,439 kilometres long,815 kilometres of which is in Kazakhstan. It takes its beginning in eastern Tian Shan from the Tekes and Kunges rivers, the Ili River drains the basin between the Tian Shan and the Borohoro Mountains to the north. Flowing into Lake Balkhash, the Ili forms a delta with vast wetland regions of lakes, marshes. Earlier mentions of Ili river is in Mahmud al-Kashgaris dictionary of Turkic languages, in the book, author defines, Ili, name of a river. Turkic tribes of Yaghma, Tokhsi and Chiglig live on its banks, turkish countries regard the river as their Jayhoun. The name is originated from Uyghur word Il, means hook in English. The upper Ili Valley is separated from the Dzungarian Basin in the north by the Borohoro Mountains, presently, the region forms part of Xinjiangs Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. The main city of the region, Yining, is located on the side of the river some 100 kilometres upstream from the international border. Until the early 1900s, the city was known under the same name as the river. There are at least two dams on the Ilis right tributary, the Kash River in Nilka County, at 43°51′40″N 82°50′52″E, the region of Kazakhstan partially drained by the Ili and its tributaries is known in Kazakh as Zhetysu and in Russian as Semirechye. Tamgaly-Tas, some 20 kilometres downstream along Ili River is the site of rock drawings, the name Tamgaly in Kazakh means painted or marked place, Tas means stone. The Ili River discharges into the edge of Lake Balkhash. The delta is situated between the Saryesik-Atyrau Desert and the Taukum Desert, until 1948 the delta was a refuge of the extinct Turan tiger. A reintroduction project of the Siberian tiger to the delta has been proposed, since the Siberian tiger has turned out to be the closest relative, it has been proposed to introduce this subspecies instead. Large populations of wild boar, which were a main base of the Turan tiger. There are also some roe deer and in the steppes to the south of Lake Balkhash live saiga antelopes. A reintroduction of the Buchara deer, which was once an important prey item is under consideration, Buchara deer live in the forests at the Kapchagay Reservoir
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