Xinjiang consists of two dry basins Fig. 9.39. the Tarim Basin, occupied by the Taklimakan Desert, and the smaller Junggar Basin to the northeast. Both are virtually surrounded by 13,000 foot high mountains topped with snow and glaciers. In this distant corner of China, far from the world's oceans, rainfall is exceedingly sparse. Snow and glacial meltwater from the high mountain peaks are important sources of moisture. Much of the meltwater makes its way to underground rivers, where it is protected from the high rates of evaporation on the surface. Long ago, people built tunnels called _____ deep below the surface to carry groundwater dozens of miles to areas where it was needed. These _____ have made productive some of the hottest and driest places on Earth. The Turfan Depression, situated between the Junggar and the Tarim basins, descends 500 feet below sea level, temperatures reach 104 degrees and evaporation rates are extremely high, because these underground tunnels bring irrigation water, this area produces some of China's best foods: melons, grapes, apples, and pears. The produce is sold to urban populations in eastern China.
Peoples native to this subregion of Central Asia--the Uygur minority, most of whom are Muslims, and resettled Han Chinese, together 20 million strong, once made their living as nomadic herders and animal traders, moved with their herds and lived in these Cozy houses--round, heavy felt tents stretched over collapsible willow frames--can be folded and carried on horse-back, in horse-drawn carts, or today, in trucks. Fig. 9.43A.
A defacto city-state; a financial hub along China's southeast coast; China's highest per capita income, similar to that of U.S. at $47,500; a British crown colony until July 1997, when Britain's 99- year lease ran out and became a special administrative region (SAR) of China
Taking their families with them, Chinese settled permanently on the peninsulas and islands of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. Today, they form a prosperous urban commercial class known as the __________, the quintessential state being Singapore, where 77 percent of the population is ethnically Chinese. In the nineteenth century, economic hardship in China and a growing international demand for labor spawned the migration of as many as 10 million Chinese people to countries all over the world. By the middle of the twentieth century, many others fleeing the repression of China's Communist Revolution joined those from earlier migrations despite thorough assimilation into adopted homelands. As a result, "Chinatowns" are found in most major world cities. Somewhat unfairly, the term has been extended to apply to Chinese emigrants and their descendants.
Taiwan is one of its most prosperous countries. A huge trading area that includes all of Asia and the countries around the Pacific Rim, i.e., all the countries that border the Pacific Ocean. It ranks twenty-first globally in the size of its foreign trade, and its GDP per capita in 2012 was US $38,500.
A philosophy of Confucius who lived from 551 to 479 B.C.E. and is closely related to China's bureaucratic ruling tradition; an idealist interested in reforming government and eliminating violence from society. He thought human relationships should involve a set of defined roles and mutual obligations, valuing courtesy, knowledge, integrity, and respect for and loyalty to parents and government officials; values that diffused across the region and are still widely shared throughout East Asia; the best organizational model is based on a hierachy within a patriarchial extended family; hence a Confucian bias toward males. The oldest male held the seat of authority and was responsible for the well-being of everyone in the family; aligned according to age and gender. Beyond the family, the emperor was the grand patriarch of all China, charged with ensuring the welfare of society. Imperial bureaucrats were to do his bidding and commoners were to obey the bureaucrats. Over the centuries penetrating all aspects of East Asian society with more limited roles for women; sons more valuable offspring with public roles and daughters primarily servants with the home.
In 1966, partially in response to the failures of the Great Leap Forward, a political movement was launched to enforce support for Mao and punish dissenters. Everyone was required to study the "Little Red Book" of Mao's sayings (Fig. 9.12E). Educated people and intellectuals were a main target because they were thought to instigate dangerously critical evaluations of Mao and Communist Party central planning. Tens of millions of Chinese scientists, scholars, and students were sent out of the cities to labor in mines and industries or to jail, where as many as 1 million died. Children were encouraged to turn in their parents. Petty traders were punished for being capitalists, as were those who adhered to any type of organized religion. It so disrupted Chinese society that by Mao's death in 1976, the Communists had been seriously discredited.
Often seen in the Sichuan Basin with large population and a lot of industry, when the ground cools down more than the warm, wet air above. This creates conditions where the cool air becomes "trapped" near the land surface; and along with it, industrial and vehicle emissions build up, leading to intolerable pollution levels. This phenomenon also contributes to poor air quality in other places, such as Beijing.
Central Asian ethnic groups, most of whom are Muslims, and recent Han immigrants. Once made their living as nomadic herders and animal traders, but now many have taken jobs in the emerging oil industry and live in apartments provided for laborers. The region consists of two dry basins: the Tarim Basin, occupied by the Taklimakan Desert, and the smaller Junggar Basin to the northeast; both surrounded by 13,000' snow-capped mountains. Far from the oceans, rainfall is exceedingly sparse - hence, depend on snow and glacial meltwater. Traditional and modern, Tajik women weave traditional rugs that are sold to merchants who fly from faraway, developed countries to the ancient trading city of Kashi for the Sunday market. With the breakup of the Soviet Union, these new republics of Central Asia are eager to revive their trading heritage, and have oil and gas to sell. China is welcoming them and attracting outside investors from Europe and Americas by establishing ETDZs in cities such as Kashi and Urumqi; fear Beijing's central government's singular intent is to exploit region's oil and gas and to appropriate land for resettling eastern China's excess population.
In the cases of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, the government designed an economic development strategy that relies heavily on the production of manufactured goods destined for sale abroad, primarily to the large economies of North America and Europe, while limiting imports for local consumers. China also relies heavily on exports of its manufactured goods to North America and Europe. Politically, however, while South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Mongolia have become democracies, the North Korean dictatorship maintains total control over politics and the media. In China, there is some experimentation with democracy at the local level, but the central government generally acts as a force against widespread democratic participation.
A down-turned thumb-like peninsula; the Yalu and Tumen rivers separate it from the Chinese mainland and a small area of Siberian Russia. Low-lying mountains cover much of the North, extending down along the eastern side. To the west, floodplains slope toward the Yellow Sea. So close to the continental mainland that it experiences the "inhale" and "exhale" of hot wet summer monsoons and cold, dry winter monsoons. Divided in 1953 with enduring international tensions today; Two dramatically different countries: One, poor and inward-looking, not participating in the global economy despite better physical resources of forests, coal, iron ore, and many rivers. The other, with flatter land and warmer climate better for agriculture; and electronic, automotive, chemical, and shipbuilding industries that compete with North America, Europe, and Japan. The South is cosmopolitan, populous, newly democratic, and affluent due to state-aided capitalist development. The result has been over 50 years of hostile competition between the two. Global concerns over the North enriching plutonium and testing its nuclear devices since 2006; mismanagement of resources, especially food, and severe human rights abuses.
Samsung and Hyundai. A major reason for South Korea's economic success; huge corporations or comglomerates that are involved in a wide variety of economic sectors. South Korea's government has made credit easily available to them and has helped them purchase foreign patents so that Koreans can focus on product quality and marketing rather than on inventing. Under increasing criticism in recent years because of their close connections with the government that has led to corruption and mismanagement.Despite all of this, the South Korean economic system has enable Koreans who were poor at the end of the Korean War to now be able to afford the products they formerly only exported. The GDP per capita in South Korea is now similar to the European Union average. The use of advanced telecommunication technologies and modern urban landscapes, especially in the capital Seoul, testify to South Korea's success in the global economy. A picture of the outskirts of Seoul showing high-rise apartment buildings is seen on page 498 Fig. 9.17B.
The middle and lower basins of the Chang Jiang River has been filled with river-borne sediment carried down from the Tibetan Plateau and the Sichuan Basin. Other rivers entering the middle basin from the north and south also bring in loads of silt which are added to the main river channel. The Chang Jiang carries a huge amount of sediment--as much as 186 million cubic yards per year--past the industrial city of Wuhan which is particularly pronounced during the rainy summer and fall seasons. Under natural conditions this sediment was deposited on the basin floors during the annual floods, and enriched agricultural production. But because the floods often destroyed people, property, animals, and crops, the Chang Jiang, like the Huang He, now flows between levees. Still, it occasionally breaches the levees and floods both rural and urban areas, as it did most recently in 2010. As the river approaches the East China Sea, it deposits, the last of its sediment load in a giant delta, at the outer limits of which lies the trading city of Shanghai.