Essay on China: A Regional Survey

“China is so vast and diverse a country, that it may be more meaningful to understand the infinite variety that characterizes its lands by identifying its various regions that contain broad aspects of internal unity and coherence. This article is devoted to China’s regions, identified in terms of their overall physical and cultural charac­teristics”.

Northeastern China:

The western name for northeastern China is Manchu­ria, the historic home of the Manchus. The Manchus invaded the area south of the Great Wall in 1644 and established the Manchu dynasty which ruled it until 1911.

During the last fifty years huge numbers of Chinese settled in the Manchu-land, and Manchuria ceased to be a land of the Manchus. It is now overwhelmingly Chi­nese in race and culture. Although a part of greater China, during most of the past 2,000 years, Manchuria has been a zone of conflict between the USSR, Japan, Britain and China. Japan occupied it in 1931 and set up a government headed by a Manchurian ruler. Japan’s primary inter­ests were commercial and strategic.

The area has been the meeting ground of many cultures: Manchus, Mongols, Koreans, and Chinese have, at earlier times, struggled for dominance in the area. In more recent times the region has been exposed to the Russian and Japanese cultural influences.

In the middle portion of the region are the Manchurian Plains consisting of the river plains of the Sung-hua and the Liao, measuring some 600 miles (965 km) from north to south, and 400 miles from east to west. The plain is surrounded by moun­tains on the east and west, and the valley of the Liao in the south fronts the Gulf of Liaodong. A narrow strip of coastal low­land leads to the Huanghe where the Great Wall reaches the coast.

In the north and northeast, the Sung hua enters the Amur River. To the west the low mountains af­ford easier access to Inner Mongolia, the Gobi Desert and the People’s Republic of Mongolia. Although the Manchurian Plain has long, cold, continental winters, similar to those of North Dakota in the United States.

Manchuria is China’s prairie land and an important agricultural area. The grow­ing season is long enough for one crop and rainfall though not abundant (15 inches in the south to 28 inches annual in the north) is sufficient for dry-farming.

In the south­ern part of the plains crops such as kaoliang, millet, soybeans, corn and wheat are grown, and considerable surplus is ex­ported to other regions of China; in the north farming is mostly restricted to wheat and soybeans. The large expanses of the plain are well adapted to mechanized farming and China’s larger “state farms” and “collectives” are located here.

Manchuria contains China’s larger in­dustrial complexes, based in part on its considerable mineral reserves. Over one- half of the country’s iron-ore and magnesite deposits are located in Eastern Manchuria, as well as aluminum ores, and a good amount of coal. Thus, the basis for both heavy-and-metals industries exists. Proximity to other fuel and raw materials has added to Manchuria’s industrial poten­tials. An excellent network of railroads with connecting links to Russia, Korea, as well as to China south of the Great Wall serves the industries.

Manchuria experienced dramatic in­dustrial and urban development since the 1930s, first under the Japanese, and later on during the Communist regime, primar­ily due to the substantial mineral wealth, and agricultural potential of the region. There are six “millionaire” urban centers: Shenyang (3.6 million) is close to the min­eral belt in the uplands east of the Manchurian Plains adjoining the North Korean border.

Together with Fushun and Anshan (both containing a little over a million people each) it is a major indus­trial center of China specializing in iron and steel products, and heavy metallurgical items. Iron-ore and coalfields are close to both Fushun and Anshan. Harbin (popu­lation 2.4 million) lies in the basin of the Sunghua, and is well connected by railroad links with Russia and North Korea, and by a north-south to Dalian (population 1.2 million).

The latter is the main naval port and an exit station for the products of the region. Changchun (1.7 million) is also a major industrial and commercial center. It lies on the north-south railroad from Har­bin to Dahan as well as is linked eastward with North Korea.

Manchuria has been a crossroads to northeast Asia. A railroad from Harbin connecting the region with Vladivostok, Russia’s major port on the Sea of Japan is 300 miles shorter than the all-Russian route beyond the Amur River. Russia’s in­terest in this line, therefore, has always been extremely keen.

During the mid- 1930s Japan’s interest, apart from Manchurian food and industrial resources, was to counterbalance any threat that Rus­sia might apply against Japan. West and South of the Manchurian Plains, and the Greater Hinggaling Moun­tains are the Mongolian Desert Fringe lands of Inner Mongolia.

Inner Mongolia:

Inner Mongolia covers nearly one- third of a million sq miles territory between the Great Wall and the Gobi De­sert. Much of it is semi-arid grassland having a fairly good grazing potential. In 1949 the Communist administration rear­ranged the territory administratively by creating the Inner Mongolian Autono­mous Region as one of the provinces of the nation. The southern section of Inner Mongolia consists of desert territory which is a part of the Gobi Desert to the west that primarily spans the southern part of the nation of Mongolia (the Mon­golian People’s Republic). The southern boundary of the Gobi Desert is defined by the Great Wall of China. Inner Mongolia is also conveniently characterized as “Chi­nese Mongolia.”

Inner Mongolia is a cultural and envi­ronmental transition zone, a grassland where dry farming is possible. Culturally, it contains several tribal groupings, each occupying traditional pasturelands and speaking their distinctive dialects. In the east where rainfall rises to 12 inches or more Chinese farmers have been settled in the region who eke out a precarious living by cultivating land.

Westward of the great northern bend of the Huanghe rainfall is scanty, and the grassland gives way to the desert. Along the river are some irrigated oases. The Mongolian fringe lands are the “dust bowl” of China. Most of the region, particularly the western desert section, re­ceives less than 5 inches of annual rainfall. Only 3 percent of Inner Mongolia is given to cultivation. In addition to millet, kaoliang, and wheat, the Chinese have in­troduced new crops such as soybeans, and linseed in the few farming tracts.

Historically, the region has been a zone of conflict between the nomad Mon­gols and the sedentary Chinese. To protect themselves from the nomads who occa­sionally descended on China for plunder, the ancient Chinese constructed the Great Wall that “marks the desert from the sown”. During the last century, however, the sedentary farmer gradually pushed back the nomads to put under plough the dry sodded territory to more than a hun­dred miles beyond the Great Wall in the Mongolian fringe lands.

Surrounding the Manchurian Plains to the north and west, and in part to the south are mountains—the Hinggaling Mountains, the Greater Hinggaling are in the north, and the lesser to its west and southwest. The Lesser Hinggaling Range parallels the Amur in the north, and the Greater Hinggaling comes close to the Mongolian border.

The Lower Huanghe Region:

The Lower Huanghe Region is the largest, unbroken level land in the coun­try-, covering some quarter of a million sq. miles and contains at least 180 million peo­ple (nearly one-sixth of China’s total). The region epitomizes the Chinese political and cultural heritage. No other part of China has played such an important role in Chinese history. With a density of over 1,000 persons per sq. mile, and twice that figure for the cultivated area, the region is one of the world’s most crowded regions. More popularly known as the “North China Plain” and the Yellow Plain, the re­gion stretches southward from the Great Wall in the north to the hills north of the Chang Jiang basin in the south, and east of the hills of the Loess Region.

The largest section of the plain consists of the lower basin and the delta of the Huanghe or the Yellow River, and the southern part of the lower Huai River. The term “Yellow Plain” loosely equates with the area of the north China plain be­cause of the color of its soil. The plain is an extensive alluvial stretch of land built by the deposition of the excess sediment of the rivers as they enter the plain.

The deposition of the excess silt has raised the bed of the stream and has resulted in peri­odic flooding of the adjoining fertile farmland. Since at least the 1st century, the Chinese have constructed confining dikes. Periodic flooding during periods of heavy rains covers more than 10,000 sq. miles and affects millions of people. The construc­tion of Sanmen Dam has now reduced the periodic danger of floods that have occa­sionally caused great devastation to the farmland.

The climate of the region is as unpre­dictable as the flow of the rivers. The cold winds from Mongolia grip the area. Sum­mers can be very hot. Rainfall is on the average increasing from 20 inches annually in the north to 30 inches in the south, and occurring mostly in summer. When they arrive a few weeks later, spring planting may be delayed and the early fall frost may precede the harvest.

Occasionally, there is famine through drought, just as heavier rainfall may cause flooding. The term “land of famine” has been applied to the region. The chief causes of famine are at­tributed to the climate vagaries associated with the region.

Wheat, kaoliang, millets, and corn are the major grain crops, and a large variety of other crops are grown such as soybeans, cotton, tobacco, peanuts and a large num­ber of garden vegetables. In the last half century, commercial crops (tobacco, cot­ton, and peanuts) have been increasingly produced. Nearly two-thirds of the land is in cultivation, and at least a third of the cultivated area produces two crops a year.

The Lower Huanghe basin is seething with humanity, and covered by an intri­cate mosaic of small fields. Although the countryside is dotted with rural villages, urbanization is higher than for the coun­try. Two of China’s “millionaire” cities— Beijing and Tianjin (populations: nearly 6 and 4.5 million respectively) are located at the northern end of the plain.

Beijing is an interior metropolis and pre-eminent among the cities of the region, and after Shanghai the second largest city in China. It is the political, cultural, educational and transportation center of the country, and its development traces back nearly 1,000 years of long and venerable history.

Time and again it has served as the political capi­tal of the nation, and its glorious past has accorded it a cultural and sentimental sig­nificance far exceeding its size. Its regional situation in the northwestern corner of the plain at point where the mountain barrier between agricultural China and nomadic Mongolia is narrowest, gives Beijing an ex­cellent strategic military and political advantage.

Historically, Beijing occupied a logical position for the capital of an invad­ing Mongol or Manchu armies, and was equally well situated for the Han Chinese rulers who were concerned with relations to the north. The present Communist rul­ers kept it as a capital for its traditional and cultural qualifications.

Thus, in recent years it has succeeded in retaining much of its historic and political importance. The city has now acquired modest industrial development based upon the availability of coal from nearby uplands to the west. Its commercial significance derives from its status as the transportation hub.

Tianjin is China’s second important port after Shanghai. Although it has a poor harbor because its site is nearly 40 miles inland on a river, it possesses geographical advantages of situation that make it the port of entry and exit for a good part of the plain. It is the commercial center for north China, and second to Shanghai in cotton and wool textiles manufacturing. As a gateway to the land route to the northeastern provinces and to Beijing, it has enormous military significance.

The Shandong Region:

The adminis­trative province of Shandong is equally divided between lowland and upland; its peninsula projects northeastward into the Yellow Sea to stand opposite the hilly Liaodong peninsula of Manchuria, form­ing pillars of the marine gate leading to the Bo Hai Bay. Southwest of the peninsula, an upland rises to 5,600 feet altitude which is separated from the peninsula by a low, alluvial corridor that provides a route be­tween the lower Huanghe to the port of Qindao on the Yellow Sea.

A large percentage of the area is under such crops as wheat, barley, corn, millets, kaoliang, peanuts, cotton, and sweet pota­toes. Shandong is well known for its silk. Population densities are generally high, but less than those of the Huanghe area due to unfavorable topography of a part of the region.

The region is rich in minerals includ­ing excellent bituminous coals. The coastline is mostly rocky, and contains ex­cellent harbors, and is important for fishing. Mineral resources, good communi­cations with the lower Huanghe hinterland, and the presence of strategi­cally located harbors such as Qindao on the southern coast form the back of indus­trial activities.

Qingdao (population 1.5 million) is the major port and ranks third in the nation among the largest cotton-textile industrial centers. It is also a major naval station for China, and is the rail ter­minus for a large hinterland of the middle and lower Huanghe plain.

The Loess Plateau:

One of the distinc­tive regions of hills in North China, it lies to the west of the lower Huanghe basin and its dominant characteristic is the wide­spread occurrence of yellow wind-lain silt, known as loess. The thickness of this fine windblown ranges from very little to a maximum of 300 feet (91 meters). The source of loess is the Ordos Desert within the Great Loop of the Huanghe, outside the Great Wall, where the supply of lake and river sediments is wind-blown and de­posited over primarily in this region (some of which is also carried eastward to the lower Huanghe, and Sandong regions).

Cultivated land amounts to about one- sixth of the region, as contrasted to a much larger percentage in the lower Huanghe basin. Millets, wheat, kaoliang, occupy three-fourths of cultivated land; other crops include potatoes, cotton, tobacco, and opium. A major resource of the region is its high-grade coal.

Industrial develop­ment in the region has, however, lagged because of poor communications. China’s 80 percent coal deposits and modest amount of iron-ore are potentially valu­able for future expansion in industrial development. Iron and steel, cotton mills, machine plants, and chemical industries are located at Taiyuan, and Lanzhou; the latter also has an oil refinery.

The Wei River plain was the cradle of Chinese civilization. Some of the earliest traces of which are found around the city of Xian. For the first millennium of re­corded Chinese history the Wei plain was the heartland of China, from where Chi­nese culture and the state spread eastward and southward. Xian (population close to 2 million) is the gateway to the region con­trolling the communications northwest­ward and southwestward.

The passage of the railroad through it has given it added importance. Taiyuan in Shaanxi (popula­tion: 1.6 million) is a major industrial center. From Xian to Lanzhou extends the famous ancient highway which connected ancient Beijing to Europe over which moved silk and porcelain in early times.

Central Mountain Region:

Central Mountain Region extends from the Tibetan Highlands almost to the Pacific into the heart of the densely settled agricultural China. From east to west the region extends some 850 miles (1,360 km); from north to south the distance is quarter of that figure. The west-east 11,000-foot Qinling, and its southeastward extension, Daba Shan, along the Chang Jiang and the Han rivers, separate north from south China.

The Qinling often formed the boundary zone of independent rival states in the past. The southern section of the mountain block also locked in the Sichuan region from eastern China. After the Sino- Japanese War in 1938, the strategic protection afforded by the mountains, both in the north and in the east makes Sichuan an ideal base for the Chinese gov­ernment’s resistance to Japan.

The Qinling Mountains make a formi­dable barrier between the north and south China not only as a topographic obstacle to communication and as a cultural divide, but its greater significance lies in its more enduring role as a climatic divide. It shields the northern section from the southeast maritime air of most of its moisture, leav­ing northern China dry, while blocking the northwest, cold, continental airmasses from entering southern China.

North of the Qinling system, therefore, the climate is characterized by low precipitation and cold, long winters. North of the Qinling only 10 to 15 percent of farmland is irri­gated, and yields dry crops. South of it, climate is warm, precipitation is ample, the growing season is long and nearly 40 per­cent of the cropland is under irrigation.

The southern section of the region is remarkable for its rocky, steep gorges, can­yons, and rapids on the Chang Jiang River which courses its way through gorges of 1,000 to 2,000 feet deep (608 meters). The rough topography makes the Chang Jiang the sole gateway to the secluded Sichuan basin.

An important attribute of the gorges is their hydroelectric potential. An ambi­tious multipurpose dam near Yichang is being constructed to supply a large amount of hydroelectric power, besides providing irrigation and communication facilities. This is a region of difficult communi­cations. A few automobile roads and two railroad from Sichuan basin m the west to Shaanxi and to Beijing in the north cross the western section of the mountains.

Sichuan Basin is the most distinctive and isolated of all regions of China, en­closed as it is on all sides by rugged mountains, and is among the most produc­tive agriculturally. Within it’s nearly 80,000 sq miles territory virtually all types of to­pography, climates, vegetation, crops and human activities are found and over 110 million people. Rich in resources, large in size and isolated enough, the region can constitute an independent state. In fact, it was the core of one of the political dynas­ties ruling China for nearly half a century after the breakup of the Han Empire in A.D.220.

The basin is a land of hills, and low mountains, cut by rivers flowing through steep-sided valleys only 5 percent of the land is level, and the only plain is the allu­vial Chengdu basin. Sichuan literally means four streams and refers to the chief four streams of the province. Within it most of the lower parts of the basin are navigable for most of the length of the Chang Jiang River. Until recently, there were few motorable highways, and until 1952 there was no railroad within the re­gion. Despite the construction of few railroads, and highways within the region, the Chang Jiang remains the primary link with eastern China.

Although Sichuan is located far in the interior and surrounded by high moun­tains, precipitation is about 40 inches. The region is sheltered by the Qinling Moun­tain in the north from the cold winds in winter, and rarely experiences snowfall or frost except on higher altitudes. Humid, warm climate almost throughout the year is characteristic; the growing season may last up to 350 days. Precipitation occurs in winter as well as in summer, although heavy summer rains, and melting of snows in the high western mountains may cause flooding downstream in the Central Lake Region.

Despite hilly terrain, nearly 40 percent of the region is cultivated. A greater vari­ety of crops than any other region of China is grown here. Both the wheat, mil­let, and corn of northern China, and the rice, and sugarcane of the south are grown. Rice is the usual summer crop occupying 60 to 80 percent of the cultivated land. Sweet potatoes are important on hilltops. Silk and tea are also widely produced to­gether with some cotton, and tobacco.

Tung or wood oil is a major cash crop. Cit­rus fruits are grown south of the Chang Jiang. The Chengdu plain in the western part of the region is particularly important for agriculture; a large part of it is occupied by cultivated fields. China’s model irri­gated system, developed nearly 2,200 years ago and operating with little change since, is located in the Chengdu plain.

Historically, Sichuan has been famous for two products—sugar and salt. The area to the west of Neijiang, the third largest city of the region, is well known for sugar­cane and for manufacture of salt from the nearby salt wells. Mineral resources of the region are modest. Besides salt, some coal, iron ore, natural gas, petroleum, copper and gold are known to exist, but exploita­tion is slow, for Sichuan region remains primarily an agricultural region, a “rice bowl” of the nation.

Urbanization and in­dustrialization are at lower than the national level. The two leading cities, Chongqing (population: about 2.5 million), and Chengdu (population: 1.8 million) have traditionally acted as rivals for the po­litical supremacy of the region. In modern times the former has asserted its domi­nance on the basis of its commercial and industrial leadership, and latter has derived its importance from its position as a seat of administration and learning.

Central Lakes Basins:

East of Yichang the Chang Jiang widens and flows east­ward through the basins of China’s two great lakes, the Dongting and the Poyang. The latter is much smaller of the two but the hills that separate them do not form se­rious obstacles to land communications, and the two are linked by highways and a railroad; thus the floodplain of the Chang Jiang forms a connecting link between them. The southern and northern parts of the basis, however, exhibit some marked topographic and climatic differences.

Climatically, the difference lies in the length of growing season. Although the southern portions are hot and humid like the northern parts, the growing period is much longer. This difference is reflected in the agriculture of the two sections, the wheat-rice transition zone of the north gives place to the predominantly paddy fields of the south.

The intensity of cultiva­tion also increases southwards. The cities of Changsha and Nanshang are among the leading rice markets of China. North of Dongting Lake is one of the major cot­ton regions of China, supplying raw material to the textile industries of Hankou.

The southern hill lands of the region are important for their mineral wealth. Nearly 90 percent of China’s tungsten and antimony, and substantial amounts of coal, iron ore, gypsum, sulfur, lead, zinc and sil­ver are obtained in this section. Iron ore and coal from the mines close by provide raw material and fuel for an important center of heavy iron-and-steel manufactur­ing at Hanyang.

Dominating the commercial, economic, and political life of the region is the Wuhan metropolitan dis­trict, which has a population of nearly 3.5 million, and includes the triplet-cities of Wuchang, Hanyang and Hankau. The largest manufacturing complex of heavy iron and steel metallurgical industries is lo­cated in this metropolitan district, which is served by an extensive network of water- transport, strategic highways and railroads.

Lower Chang Jiang Plains:

Several thousand miles of waterways and canals crisscross the area between Wuhu and Shanghai so that within a 100-mile radius of Shanghai it is possible to travel by small boats from one settlement to another. The river, along with a network of canals, and lakes may well form one of the busiest transport webs in the world.

The most fa­mous of the canals is the Grand Canal, constructed between the 7th and the 13th centuries, to link Beijing with Hangzhou a distance of nearly 1,000 miles (1609 km) long. It was used to carry trib­ute rice to the imperial capital at Beijing during the medieval times.

Historically, the Chiang Jiang has been a cultural divide between the northern and southern parts of China, separating the “Mandarin” speaking north from the Wu- speaking peoples of the south. But the plains of Chiang Jiang constitute a transi­tion zone. Like the North China Plains it has predominantly level topography but its plains have isolated small hills and ridges, reminiscent of the south.

It enjoys relatively abundant rainfall that charac­terizes the south, but experiences, occasional drought conditions like the “dry” lands of the north in contrast to the tropical, rainy south. Winters are rela­tively mild, and of brief duration. The growing season is sufficiently long to per­mit two successive harvests, including a rice harvest in summer, and wheat in the comparatively dry and cooler winters.

Hence, the dominant crops of both north (wheat, soybeans, and barley, and south (rice) achieve equal status in this intermedi­ate area of diversified agriculture. Agriculturally, the north-bank lands form a rice-wheat transition zone, with lo­cal cotton specialization near the mouth of the river.

To the south of the river, rice, silk and tea gain prominence. Near lakes, streams and coastal waters thousands of household depend on fishing for their live­lihoods. Pond-fish culture and duck raising in the wet-paddy fields are universally em­ployed on the farms.

Cotton is important in the delta and processed in the large mills in Shanghai. A third of China’s cotton is grown in the region. Some of the world’s finest silk is produced in the immediate hinterland of Shanghai. Every acre of land has been intensively cultivated. Tiny fields still dot the landscape, despite efforts by the Communist administration to com­bine holdings into larger cooperative farms. Crop yields are among the highest in China reflecting the meticulous care (hand cultivation, fertilization and multi­ple cropping) given to farming.

This region is one of the most “hu­manized” portions of the earth, the density of population rises to between 2,500 to 3,500 persons per sq mile. The density is reflective of the productiveness of the well-watered plain, although it’s nearly level topography leads to frequent flooding.

About 60 million people live in an area of about 20,000 sq miles. The high population densities are partly a result of the degree of urbanization of the region which is nearly twice that of China, and higher than any other part of China of comparable size. This is one of China’s prominent industrial regions and contains several large cities.

The three “millionaire” cities of Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Nanjing all were imperial capitals in the past, the last one was also a national capital before World War II, and the former two are fa­mous for silk-reeling and weaving. The largest metropolis in China, Shanghai, with a population close to 7.5 million, is among the great cities of the world, and endows extraordinary commercial signifi­cance to the region. The city and most of its port facilities are not on the Chang Jiang, but on a small tributary 14 miles from the mouth of the Chang Jiang. Al­though the site of the port is a poor one, and silting is a major concern, the situ­ational advantages are unrivaled in China.

It serves a vast hinterland of three-quarters a million sq miles in the productive market of nearly 300 million people that extends far beyond the lower Chang Jiang basin. The port handles more than a half of China’s international and inland trade. Ap­proximately one-half of China’s manufacturing labor is concentrated within its metro region.

Textiles are the leading industries, followed by food proc­essing, and light industries, printing, and manufacture of ships, steel and machinery plants. The industry can draw upon fuel and raw materials of a large tributary area at reasonable cost, because of cheap water transport and plentiful cheap labor.

The Xi River Delta and the Guang­zhou Hinterland:

The Xi River Delta and the Guang­zhou Hinterland lies between the coastal southeast and the Southwestern Highland region (Guizhou-Yungui region). Physi­cally it includes two different sections, one, the coastal delta section backed by a comparatively small river plain, and the other, the primarily hill country which contains narrow river valleys and farm­lands.

The Xi and two other rivers carry a large volume of sediment and have built a compound delta in the vicinity of Guang­zhou (formerly Canton). Though the delta plain is relatively small, it is the largest plain south of the Central Lakes region. The port city of Guangzhou, however, is the political and cultural focus of the re­gion.

Climatically, it is tropical China, for most of the Guangzhou hinterland lies within 25 degrees of the equator. There is no winter. The coastlands bear the main brunt of the summer typhoons from the tropical Pacific. Rainfall averages the high­est in the country averaging over 65 inches spread evenly throughout the year with a pronounced summer maxima.

The growing season is year-round; yielding two or more crops (primarily of rice) generally on the same land. Even a third crop of rice can be raised or a third one may consist of a dry crop, such as wheat, sweet potatoes, or maize. Culti­vated land in the entire region amounts to one-seventh of the total area, and a large portion of it is irrigated. But in the plain, more than half of the land is given to agri­culture.

The Xi delta is one of the most densely populated agricultural lands in China, averaging over 4,000 persons of cul­tivated land. Abundant tropical fruits are also produced. Many farmers raise fish, de­voting a good part of their farm to ponds. China’s most productive fisheries are lo­cated along the coast. Silk is important in the delta around Guangzhou.

Guangzhou:

Guangzhou (population: 3 million) dominates all of China south of the Chang Jiang, and is commercially second only to Shanghai. Commanding a hinterland larger than that of Shanghai, which can be easily reached by navigable streams? Near­ness to Hong Kong has been both an advantage as well as fraught with competi­tion, especially since the recent takeover of Hong Kong by the Communist admini­stration.

Hong Kong:

Hong Kong (population 6.6 million) is a special case. It is unique in historical development, economic structure and political orientation. It occupies a strategic position some 115 km (70 miles) south-east of Guangzhou. The island of Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain in 1842, and ad­ditional territory was leased on the mainland for 99 years which officially re­verted to Chinese sovereignty in July 1997.

In an unprecedented decision China agreed to respect Hong Kong’s political and eco­nomic autonomy for a period of 50 years under the rubric “One Country—Two Systems”. Hong Kong experienced phenomenal growth between1960-80. Its deep water harbour, Freeport status, and nodal loca­tion along the major shipping lanes to Europe and America favored its develop­ment as a major commercial center, and made it one of the busiest ports in the world.

Excellent warehousing and banking facilities together with a large pool of skilled Chinese labor helped the city to grow into a chief entrepot between Shang­hai and Singapore. Trade with China, that accounts for nearly one-half of the total (a good deal of which was illegal before 1997) helped enormously in the city’s commer­cial importance. A variety of light industries, such as electrical and electronic equipment, and more recently ship build­ing contributes to its solid economic base.

The closing days of the 2nd millen­nium witnessed the closure of another foreign colony, when Macau (population: 300,000) a Portuguese by China in 1998. Macau remained in the shadow of Hong Kong, and suffered as a trading post after the British acquisition of Hong Kong. Some light industry exists here. Scarcity of land, however, made both the cities among the most densely populated areas in the world—both contain over 16,000 persons per sq. km.

The region is characterized by ethnic diversity. Nearly a third of the ethnic groups are non-Chinese of Thai back­ground, most of them are highly sinicized, and intermarry freely with the Chinese. Of the remaining ethnic groups, almost half are the Yao mountaineers. Four or five mutually unintelligible Chinese dia­lects are spoken by the people of the region. In the northern part Mandarin dia­lect predominates; whereas, Cantonese prevails in the eastern and southern sec­tions; Hakka is mostly used in the northeast part of the region. Around Shantou, another local dialect is preferred.

Southeast Coastal Hill Lands:

Located along the southern coast, it is one of the least developed, and isolated region of China. The embayed, irregular coastline sheltering numerous harbors reflects the rugged topography of the area. Interior isolation, external contacts and interest in marine activities mark the geography of this region. The mostly hilly terrain leaves out a small coastal plain and a few short rivers reach inland from an irregular coast­line. No other region of China is so oriented to the sea or so detached from the interior. Isolation from other regions and the difficulty of internal communication has produced a variety of linguistic differ­ences within the region.

For example, people living in the coastal cities of Ningbo, Fuzhou, Xuamen, that lie at com­paratively short distances from one another use mutually unintelligible, spo­ken dialects; in the interior there are other linguistic groups. In the province of Fujian alone over 100 dialects are spoken.

This region has very hot subtropical climate with 50 inches of rainfall on the lower coastal areas and over 80 inches on the interior mountains. Typhoons, most common during the late summer, bring heavy rains, when their destructive force brings havoc to a good part of the region. Winters are frost-free near the coast.

A great variety of semitropical fruits are grown and exported. Wet-rice is the predominant crop, and two crops a year may be raised on the same land. Sweet po­tato is an important staple crop, because tea is commercially significant. The areas of arable land are restricted, and the soils are, in general, poor. Population of the re­gion is relatively sparse. As a direct consequence of limitations on agricultural activities, home industries are important, particularly in village settlements, al­though nationally known handicrafts are produced mainly in the large cities.

Several minerals are obtained in the re­gion although exploitation still remains limited. Fujian area is the important for iron-ore reserves. Flourspar and alurite are also produced. Salt evaporation from sea is an important activity along the shores of Hangzhou bay. Communication is lim­ited, except for the few railroads that have opened up parts of the interior sand con­tact with other parts of China as well as within the region has primarily been by sea.

Hundreds of islands along the coast contain rich fishing grounds. Harbors such as Fuzhou, Ningbo, Xiamen are the im­portant fishing markets. Each port has large number of boat people. In 1979 the Chinese government initiated a new “open-door policy” in order to attract technology transfer and foreign invest­ment by developing Special Economic Zones (SEZ) as manufacturing and export centers.

Many of these centers are to be lo­cated on the southeastern coast. Of these only Shenzhen, which adjoins Hong Kong has elicited healthy response, pri­marily because of its location. With a large inflow of foreign money it has become a burgeoning metropolis of over 1 million people.

Southwestern Highland Region:

Southwestern Highland Region lies to the southwest of the Central Lakes Re­gion and includes the two remote provinces of China: Guizhou and Yungui (Yunnan). Southwest of the Central Lake basin, the hills begin to rise to merge into an eroded plateau area of Guizhou at alti­tudes averaging 4,000 feet (1,206 meters). Further west at a higher level averaging 7,000 feet is the Yungui plateau, sloping land comprising nearly three-fourths of the land surface. In Yungui the topogra­phy is more rugged, containing deep narrow chasms and jagged ranges that break the overall plateau character of to­pography.

Virtually no alluvial plains have been built by the upper Salween and Mek­ong River, and they are not navigable and serve mainly as barriers to communica­tions between China and Myanmar. Yungui plateau contains several lakes. A variety of subtropical fruits are grown and exported. Wet-rice is the uni­versal summer crop cultivated mostly by the Chinese farmers. Sweet potato is an­other important crop which is also a staple food. Arable land is restricted. The Chi­nese have not assimilated the aborigines who have pushed to the steep, compara­tively less productive steeper hillsides on which they grow less productive cereals such as corn, barley and wheat.

The southwestern highland is a transi­tion zone, containing a strange mixture of the topography of eastern Tibet, and the demography of Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. The region has retained its frontier character because of its rough topography, poor communication, isolation from the heartland of Chinese civilization, as well as because of the hostility of the non-Chinese tribesmen.

The region, as a whole, forms a great ethnic frontier. In 1990 the total population of the two provinces, Guizhou and Yungui was close to 70 million, of which the non-Chinese amounted to about 30 million. In Guizhou, the most numer­ous group is that of the Miao mountaineers. In Yungui, the Chinese form the largest single ethnic group, but are in a minority in a total population di­vided into 60 different ethnic groups.

Foremost among the tribal groups are the Thai groups, followed by Lolo, Miao, and Muslims. Although the Guizou tribesmen have been suppressed ruthlessly during the last two centuries, Chinese control in the Yungui-Myanmar frontier has been less than complete. The Communist regime has recognized the status of these minority ethnic groups by organizing their territo­ries into so-called “autonomous areas.”

The region contains a variety of miner­als. Yungui is the chief tin-producing area. In addition modest amounts of copper, sil­ver, and coal are produced. Guizhou produces small amounts of coal and mer­cury. Kunming (with a population of a million and a half), is the major commer­cial center, and a railroad junction linking China with Hanoi in Vietnam. Another avenue to the outside world is provided by the WWII Burma Road through the diffi­cult country in the gorges of the Mekong and the Salween rivers.

The Far West or Outer China:

South of the People’s Republic of Mongolia and west of the Great Wall are vast stretches of territory covering some 630,000 sq miles (1.6 million sq km) and home to nearly 18 million people which, can be appropriately described as “Outer China” or China’s “Far West.” It includes the two provinces: Xinjiang in the north and Xizang (Tibet) in the south. Xinjing, means the “New Territory,” and often referred to as “The New Frontier,” although historically it is far from being new.

Xinjiang has been a frontier region of China for over 2,000 years and the Chinese garrisons have been in the chief cities for a long time. Tradi­tionally, it has been popularly known as Chinese Turkestan, a term that provides a better ethnic characterization for the re­gion. Except for Tibet, Xinjiang is the only minority province that contains non-Chi­nese population.

Nearly 70 percent of an estimated 18 million that inhabit the re­gion are the Uygurs, who are Turkic in origin and language, and Islamic in relig­ion. Their chief occupation is cultivation, and most are sedentary. Since the late 1950s there has been a large-scale in-migration of the Han Chinese into the area that has occasionally caused bitter economic and cultural animosity between the Mus­lim natives and the Chinese settlers.

The Uygurs’ anti-Chinese sentiment has arisen by their fear of being displaced m their own land by the Chinese settlers. Adjoin­ing the former Soviet nations in Central Asia and containing several Muslim groups of Uygurs, Kazaks, Uzbeks, and Tajiks
that inhabit both sides of the international border, who dream of a territorial union in Central Asia, is the politically sensitive re­gion of Xinjiang. Isolated cases of rebellion by the Kazaks against the government took place in the early 1960s at a time when the relations between China and the Soviet Union were particularly strained.

Xinjiang commands the historic gate­way to Europe. Highways have crossed its territory since the dawn of history, and provided a link between ancient China and the Roman world. These highways were the lines of communication for the early Europeans, and of the monks that brought Buddhism from India.

The fabled Silk Road that linked China to the Mediterra­nean lands during the medieval times takes a southerly route, south of Tarim Basin, and passes through oases sheltering such medieval cities as Hotien (Khotan) and Shache (Yarkand), and made famous by Marco Polo and by the silk caravans. Paral­lel to the Silk Road now runs a railroad that goes from Xian to Lanzhou, and beyond through the Gansu Corridor westward to Urumqui.

Physically, Xinjiang is divided into two great basins by the mighty Tien Shan: the Junggar Basin in the north, and Tarim Basin in the south. The Tien Shan is among the great mountain chains of Asia, and rises to 23,000 feet in the west and 17,000 feet in its eastern extension. Most of Xinjiang receives less than 5 inches of rain in a year, and only the higher reaches of the Tien Shan may catch as much as 30 inches.

The two divisions present some contrasting physical and economic charac­teristics. The Junggar basin is predomi­nantly pastoral and the Tarim predomi­nantly agricultural. The former is populated largely by Mongols professing Lamaistic Buddhism, although some Mus­lim Kazak pastoralists are also distributed on the Tien Shan. In the Tarim oases the inhabitants are chiefly Uygurs of Turkic origin. The Chinese are concentrated mainly in the oasis-towns as merchants, ad­ministrators, artisans, garrison troops and in recent years as technicians.

Besides the Uygurs, Kazaks and Chinese and a dozen of other ethnic groups inhibit Xinjiang. Prominent among them are: Mongols, Krygyz, Russians, Uzbeks, Tajiks, and Manchus.

Xinjiang occupies the deep interior of the Asian landmass, and is inaccessible to maritime influences. The Arctic Ocean is the nearest ocean nearly 2,000 miles to the north with Barrier Mountains along the Si­berian frontier. The conspicuous climatic characteristics are extreme temperature ranges (daily and annual) and extreme aridity.

Cultivated land, limited to the oases, accounts for less than 15 percent of the land. Although wheat is the leading crop, other grain crops include corn, kaoliang, rice and barley. Excellent fruits, tobacco, and cotton are also important crops in the oases. In recent decades notable improve­ments have taken place in Xinjiang agriculture and animal husbandry. The ad­ministration has also opened up some new areas for cultivation through land reclama­tion programs.

Xinjiang is considered potentially rich in some minerals such as coal, iron-ore, and oil, although the mining activity is limited. The proven reserves of oil are con­sidered to be quite large; but the production is only 3 to 4 million metric tons annually, confined primarily to the oilfield at Hami (the much larger and pro­ductive Yumen field is in the adjacent province of Gansu).

Industrial develop­ment in the region is still in infancy consisting mainly of handicraft items. At Urumqi (population: half a million), the Communist regime had established a large modern cotton mill and a large electric power plant.

At the southern edge of the Tarim basin on the ancient Silk Road lie some of the historic trade centers such as Hotien, Yarkand, and Kashgar, which are major service centers in southern Xinjiang. In the middle of the Tarim Basin lies the nearly rainless desert of Takla Makan. China’s nuclear testing sites and deploy­ment of nuclear arsenal is located in the Tarim basin.

Xizang (Tibet):

In China’s Far West and among its “outer regions” are the high and extensive plateaus of Tibet that are rimmed in by the mighty snowbound mountain chains rising over 20,000 feet (6,096 meters) the Karakoram in the west, the Kunlun in the north, the Amne Ma- chin in the east, and the Himalaya in the south. Covering an area of half a million sq miles this region forms the roof of Asia and is the least accessible parts of the conti­nent of Asia.

Tibet has constituted one of the world’s great barriers and isolating fac­tors in history. For thousands of years, two of the world’s greatest civilizations, the Indian and the Chinese, evolved on op­posite sides of this great highland barrier.

Tibet’s high plateau-like topography, particularly that of its western portion, its Central Asiatic location, its inland drain­age and lack of fresh water and vegetation makes its climate dry and desert-like. Most of it is cut off from the summer Indian monsoons by the Himalayan barrier. In the southeast, moisture bearing winds oc­casionally blow up the valleys of the Brahmaputra, and Mekong, and bring some summer rain to the Zangbo (Tsang po or Brahmaputra).

A large part of Tibet lies at 12,000-15,000 feet altitude. In the vast middle section are hundreds of lakes, both fresh and salt, where salt, potash and borax are found around their margins. For eight months the ground lies frozen; and in summer large areas become swampy.

Ti­bet is too cold and dry for grass, trees or cultivation. Eastern Tibet is a land of great valleys, and high mountain ranges, and canyons, where the mighty rivers of East Asia—Huanghe, the Chang Jiang, Mek­ong, and Salween—flow in their deep gorges. Here there is good deal of precipi­tation, and extensive forests cover the lower slopes of valleys.

Much of Tibet is unattractive and haz­ardous for travel. Vegetation, animal life, and human settlements are confined pri­marily to the lower eastern and southern plateaus and valleys. In the south the main population centers are located in the 12,000 foot high Valley of Zangpo River in which Lhasa, the monastery city and the capital, and the traditional seat of the Dalai Lamas, is situated.

Lhasa, has estimated population of over 150,000 (up from 69,000 in 1952). Ancient roadways are fo­cused on it connecting it to China, and India. A motorable highway across the high ranges links it with Sichuan and Qinghai provinces of China.

The Tibetans profess Lamaistic Bud­dhism faith. The church and state have functioned together administered by the spiritual and temporal rule of the Dalai Lama before the Communist take-over. Thousands of monasteries that dotted the settlements possessed most of the best agri­cultural land.

Approximately one-third of male population in 1950 consisted of monks. After Tibet’s occupation in 1951, the Communist administration expropri­ated large monastic landholdings, demolished the monastic order, drove the monks from their monasteries, and intro­duced land reform and other changes designed to implement socialism similar to the other parts of China.

Large numbers of Han Chinese (half a million by 1956 and 1.5 million by 1963) were brought into and settled on the con­fiscated Tibet’s monastic lands. Others came as administrators, traders, garrison soldiers, and technical personnel drasti­cally altering the demographic and racial character of the land.

From a virtually nonexistent minority in 1951, the Chinese became a formidable force by the mid- 1990s. In early 1950s, Tibet’s population was close to 1.5 million in which Chinese numbered a few thousand; by the mid- 1990s the estimated population of Tibet had risen to over 4 million of which ap­proximately over 2.5 million were Chinese.

The only extensive agricultural region is the Zangbo valley, where barley, wheat, potatoes, millets and turnips are grown. In it are also located the capital city of Lhasa and nearly all other larger settlements such as Shigatse. The yak is Tibet’s typical draft and packs animal, which provides hides and skin for clothing and shelter; meat and milk for food; dung for fuel, and bones as implements. It is well acclimated to high altitudes.

Sheep, cattle and horses also thrive in some regions. Although much of the population is still engaged in pastoral activities, the Chinese regime has opened up several stockbreeding cooperatives. The recent advances made by irrigation and the growing of forage crops are decreasing the amount of nomadic pastoralism.

In addi­tion to the vast salt reserves, there are deposits of gold, and copper. Tradition­ally, foreign trade was carried by pack animals such as yak, mules and horses and consisted of imports of tea and silk from China and manufactured foods from India in exchange for hides, wool and salt from Tibet.

Hainan:

China possesses several islands, especially along the south and southeast China coast including the two clusters of small islands, and the two larger ones, Hai­nan and Taiwan. Hainan geologically is an extension of the southeast coastal hills, parted by a shallow 20-mile channel. Much of the island is mountainous, rising to over 100 feet in elevation. A coastal plain occu­pies a northern quarter of the island, and extends around the western and eastern shores, that contain several mangrove swamps along the coast.

The island of Hainan is the only siz­able tropical section of China where annual temperatures average about 77°F (25°C) for the most part. The summer monsoon brings heavy rainfall, especially on the southern half of the island. Rice is the leading crop, but coffee, cocoa and rub­ber are also produced, the latter three reflect the tropical location.

High quality iron ore is developed in the southwestern section. Industry is relatively insignificant. About six and a half million people live on about a 13,000 sq mile territory of the is­land. Occupying a commanding situation of the Gulf of Tonkin, there is a fine naval base strategically located at the southern end of the island.

The Chinese administra­tion has selected Hanian as one of the 20 Special Economic Zones (SEZ) to be devel­oped for a free market economy, containing a new city, a high-reach indus­trial complex, a duty-free port, and world class resort facilities to attract foreign in­vestment.

Beyond Hainan China’s territorial claims include a number of small islands scattered through the South China Sea as far as 40°N latitude, including the Spratly and Parcel groups, which are a bone of contention between China and several countries in Southeast Asia (claimed by China, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam).

Prospects China enters the 21st cen­tury in a period of transition. By virtue of its size, and extensive resource base, pro­ductive capacity and military strength, it is potentially a world power. The present ad­ministration has had remarkable success in eradicating poverty, and in providing food, health, services, clothing and housing to its large and burgeoning population.

This transformation of the nation is nothing short of miraculous by comparison with the turbulent years preceding the Commu­nist take-over. But three-fourths of its population is largely rural and remains relatively poor. The per capita income is low (that approximates 860 dollars a year).

Urbanization and industrialization are on the increase, and per capita income is growing but the low-level development of the rural masses leave hundreds of millions still in relative poverty. Millions in the cit­ies, as well, experience shortages of housing whereas many millions keep on moving to the larger cities such as Shang­hai, Beijing, and Guangzhou in search of employment.

Currently China faces three basic problems: population growth, industrial progress and the defense of her borders. Population remains a continuing problem, despite strict measures to check its growth rate and the dramatic drops in birth rates, the addition of 13-14 million peoples annu­ally remains a serious threat. Industrial progress is also limited by infrastructural bottlenecks and deficiency of capital for­mation.

Despite these problems China’s econ­omy has been in a transition since the early 1980s as the country has moved away from a Soviet-type economic system. Agricul­ture has been decollectivized, the small non-agricultural private sector has grown rapidly, and government priorities have shifted toward light, rather than heavy in­dustry. She has decided to increase her interaction with the international econ­omy.

As a result, her foreign trade has since grown faster than her gross national product. It is quite likely that the govern­ment’s decision to permit China to be used by western firms as an export platform may eventually make the country eco­nomically strong enough to be a competitive force to her neighbors such as South Korea and Malaysia, and perhaps Ja­pan.

China has been able to resolve its bor­der disputes with the neighbors, but the existence of Taiwan, long considered as an errant Chinese province, poses a real prob­lem and a serious challenge to the Chinese government.