China really has a magnificent physical aspect to the whole country. When looking at the Eastern coast which has a high percentage of the population there and is glowing with new industry and international retailers compared to areas such as the challenging conditions of the South West or better known as the ‘Himalayas’ where ‘Mount Everest’ is located.
China is very often visualized and seen to be split up into 4 large reasons, the first being the ‘South-West’ which is also known as the region of ‘Tibet’. This is a very mountainous where the Himalayas exist and also the ‘High Plateau of Tibet’ which has a height of 400m. There is obviously the very famous highest point in the world known as ‘Mount Everest’ with a height of 8850m. This section of China is very challenging in its physical aspect being very cold in the winter with high amounts of snow and wind chill. Whereas it is very warm and wet in the summer in land, but there is limited vegetation cover due to the significant change climate, there is also very little civilization for obvious reasons.
The ‘North-West’ is the area north of the ‘Tibet’ region where the other large region is located named ‘Xinjiang’. This again is a section of China that has a magnificent physical aspect that is very significant and challenging. Similar to the South-West it is very mountainous with mainly high mountains and also inland drainage basins and also dessert and semi-dessert because of part of the Gobi Dessert which mainly exists in Mongolia which borders Northern China. In the winter conditions are similar to the Southern areas, which are highly cold with very strong winds but also with very light rain but is consistent for large periods of the year. In the summer again are warm due to the large land masses and high pressures. I mentioned that there are inland drainage basins and this is because of the precipitation that falls, because there is a consistent light rainfall and in the winter snowfall which can lie for up to 100 days. But there is a large annual temperature range being very low in winter and very high in summer, so in the summer evaporation is high which adds to the hazards for factors such as civilization which again is fairly limited because of danger of drought in summer and also very cold winters and lets not forget large amounts of the area is mountainous and also dessert.
The ‘South-East’ is a very different type of area compared to the Western areas in terms of physical factors. The area is fairly flat with low mountainous regions. When talking about climate, the winters are warm and dry and the summers are very hot but wet, hence the reasons for the rainforests located in regions such as the ‘Guangxi’. The temperature range is relatively low as the temperatures remain high and humid throughout the year. There are many hazards physically, typhoons which cause a lot of damage due to the area lying on plate margins, and also there is high humidity in the summer that can cause illness.
Another factor about this area is that Hong Kong and Shanghai are located directly on the coast and are regarded as very powerful cities in China and the whole World; these areas are also helping the developments of the surrounding regions. Taiwan is also a popular region located as an island off the coast by Hong Kong. The area is less isolated with better communications and coastal ports in order to produce overseas trade. There are also more resources and energy supplies that consist of government aid.
The final area is the ‘North-East’ where the North China Plain is located, and in terms of physicality is very similar to the South of the area. The difference is that the annual temperature range is very large with the winters being very cold and summers being very warm. On the South-East coast there are magnificent beaches whereas in the North-East the coast is covered in a lot of forest, and grassland inland so the climate is fairly temperate. In winters snow may lie for 150 days and rivers may freeze for up to 6 months because of the low temperatures. Rivers such as the famous ‘Huang He’ river or also known as the ‘Yellow River’, which flows in parts over a deep, yellow, fertile, and easily eroded soil known as loess which causes the problem of ‘soil erosion’ which is a bad hazard as it can cause damage to buildings.
There are many known hazards in the area alike the South-East such as high humidity and drought in the rivers in the summer. But in winters are very cold and sometimes cold harsh conditions such as flooding due to high precipitation.
China has many inequalities and I will now discuss these factors. One problem that China has had is education. Because it is such a large nation with a large population then there are high amounts of uneducated people, especially with the strict communism that has occurred. I have studied the ‘illiteracy rate’ in china in order to explore the nation’s inequalities. Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read and write while illiteracy refers to the number of people unable to read and write. I studied each region and by its classification of provinces by the illiteracy ratio. Many of central, Southern and Western China with regions such as mountainous Tibet and also more central Sichuan and Gansu having a high illiteracy ration of approximately 10-55 because of the high amounts of rural civilization and poor services, supplies, resources and also quality of life. These areas are a classic example of ‘undeveloped’ China. The unusual pattern is though, that some provinces to the South-East have a high illiteracy ratio such as Taiwan, Fujian and Jiangsu apart from Shanghai. These provinces are nearly surrounded by provinces with promising illiteracy ratios, simply because these high illiteracy ratio provinces are not developed and are highly populated and not well governed.
The North-East and surprisingly Xinjiang which is the large province to very North-West of China and also Guangdong in the South-East have a Low illiteracy ratio. The reason why Xinjiang has a Low illiteracy ratio is unusual because I have mentioned that it is very mountainous, rural and physically challenging but with the growth of China so astonishing there is high amounts of industry growth in the area because of the international links with bordering countries such as undeveloped Pakistan, and also in these areas China has tones of Cole that needs mining, and this is now one of China’s vital resources. This industry then results in a low illiteracy ration because of the more educated residents going to find work there. Obviously then you have the provinces such as Shanxi, Beijing, Tianjin and Heilongjiang right to the North-East apart from Inner Mongolia the illiteracy ratio is low with 3-8 because of the highly developed cities and education change, meaning more education is occurring. Finally you have Guangdong and Shanghai which are coastal areas more to the South-East that have a relatively low illiteracy ratio due to the quickly developed urban areas and also the improved communications and coastal ports for international trade.
You then also have the provinces that have a solid illiteracy ratio of 8-10 such as Hunan, Hainan, Henan and Jiangxi; this is because they are ‘developing’ provinces that are improving economically meaning they can improve facilities and peoples standard of living by providing factors such as education.
Another inequality is the ‘Gross Domestic Product’ or ‘GDP’ which is a measure of regions overall economic output. It is the market value of all final goods and services made within the borders of a region in a year. Per capita means it is divided by the number of people in that region, so I am looking at this as ‘Provinces by Per Capita GDP’.
The areas with a high GDP of approximately 9,000 – 47,000 are the whole Eastern Coast from Heilongjiang in the furthest North-East right down to Guangdong in the furthest South-East covering provinces such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and also Hubei which is slightly of the coast by approximately 500km. the reason for this is because of the coastal qualities where China has developed greatly and has improved communications and coastal ports which allows partnership internationally and the outward movement of good to improve the economics, hence why you see every product you buy ‘made in China’. You also have Xinjiang in the furthest and opposite North-West which is unusual and similar to the illiteracy ratio outcome, because of the industry present and outward movement raw materials internationally, this is the reason China’s ‘Communist’ presence is being questioned.
Areas such as Inner Mongolia, Qinghai and Shanxi have a medium GDP of approx 7,000 – 9,000 because these are developing regions in terms of transport and production because of the difficulty with the physical characteristics. There is also still a number of provinces in central China such as Sichuan and Shaanxi, Northern China such as Yunnan and Guangxi, large Tibet in the South-West and surprisingly Anhui and Jiangxi to the East in-between Hubei and Shanghai which have a very low GDP of 3,500 – 7,000 because of the physical characteristics preventing transportation and also the lack of literacy and education preventing the jobs to be done, not to mention the lack of materials and competition with the Eastern Coast provinces.
The final inequality I am going to discuss is the ‘Human Development Index’ (HDI) which is a composite statistic used to rank regions in China by level of ‘Human Development’ and separate development (high development), developing (middle development) and underdevelopment (low development) regions. The statistic is composed from data on ‘Life Expectancy’, ‘Education’ and ‘Per-Capita’ as an indicator of ‘Standard of Living’ collected at regional level using a formula.
The areas with a high HDI of approx 0.75 – 1 are highly developed such as that of the East coast from Heilongjiang in the furthest North-East right down to Guangdong in the furthest South-East covering provinces such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and also some regions of the coast slightly West of the coastal regions such as Hubei, Hunan, Shanxi and Hebei. These provinces are now highly developed and continuing because of the economic factors such importing and the outward movement of goods but also because of Life Expectancy which is as I mentioned 73 and also education because the illiteracy ratio is low. And again Xinjiang in the North west has a High HDI because of the industry and economic strengths which has brought positive civilization and literacy.
There are though a lot of provinces which are ‘developing’ (middle developing) with 0.70 – 0.75, and this is the case in central China now as the Eastern coast is highly developed. These provinces consist of Inner Mongolia to the North, Sichuan, Chongqing and Shaanxi in Central China, Guangxi to the South-East and again Jiangxi and Anhui 500km of the South-East Coast. These provinces are now improving their economic factors and education systems. Then you have the ‘underdeveloped’ provinces such as Tibet and Yunnan to the South and Qinghai and Gansu in Central China. These are provinces that are challenging physically and are uninhabited.
Just to conclude, China is a country of Inequalities and Differences with the population so large with approx 1.3 billion which is staggering still the country in terms of mass is uninhabited which clearly indicates the unknown and difference to people around the world, this is the magnificent thing about China.
China is different to most countries around the world as it is a Communist nation that has in the past been strictly independent, but today this is being questioned because of the large amount of relationships with other countries and the trade that occurs between them. China is also the only country in the world to have introduced a ‘1 child policy’ in order to decrease the population the long term and also the growth rate. The reason this is being done is to take the pressure off services such as medical care and also resources such as food and water.
There is a lot of migration occurring around the world now, yet not a lot occurs concerning China except for national migration which occurs within the provinces in China so the net migration is 0, which is positive for China when concerning about the large population. So again this is a difference when concerning other nations around the world and this is one of the factors that China have that show Communism.
The reason why you see China on your televisions on magazines, newspapers and everywhere else is because of its speed and rate of development. It is the fastest growing nation in the world and has been for a long time, yes you have nations such as India which is now developing rapidly and has a larger population growth than China now, but China remains a very powerful nation that control a lot of outward movement to supply for the whole world, they now have cheap labor hence why a number of factories and industry such as ‘Corus Steelworks’ are closing down in the UK because there is cheaper labor in China and they are supplying to the world. Products from raw materials to your everyday items that always have ‘made in china’ are all over the world. You also have 174 major cities with the likes of Tianjin, Beijin, Hong Kong and Shangahai which are also major cities in the world, they are all coastal and controlling a lot of trade. You can see briefly now why China is publicized so much and how powerful it is coming by looking at both positive and negative differences to the world.
China has many qualities but also inequalities that you do not hear about. You hear about the large populations, large and magnificent cities and also the products that are produced. But you do not hear about the inequalities they have to face as a nation such as significantly high illiteracy ratio in 16 of the 32 provinces, which is half, and consist of mostly Central, Western and some on the East coast. It suggests the poor education system in place and why China is a nation of mostly low paid and low skilled jobs. Also some evidence of the strict communism that supposedly occurs is that the high amounts of GDP along the East coast because of the international retail and also in Xinjiang with high industry yet provinces in the Central and to the South struggle with poverty because of the poor resources yet China do not have equality, hence a large inequality. And finally they may be dealing with this because the HDI is high along the East coast and developing across the central and Western China hence the constant hearing of high development in the nation.
China is developing rapidly, and not just on the East coast but also throughout because of the rise in industry due to their rich resources. China develops millionaires daily, and is growing more a more powerful everyday.
