Name ______Class ______Date ___/___/______Geography of Taklamakan Inner The world’s second largest shifting Home to more ethnic Mongolians than sand desert, the Taklamakan has a the country of Mongolia itself, this region continental – meaning it can is characterised by vast elevated go from extremes of -15 degrees in grasslands (called ) with a wet and the winter, to over 30 degrees in the a dry . This region’s specialty food summer with barely a drop of is lamb and milk tea. throughout the entire year. Staple foods include spicy beef and .

Chinese Central This massive flatland has been the centre of Chinese civilisation for thousands of years, where emperors would rule and where the megacities of and stand. The staple food here is noodles and chicken.

Tibetan Southern and Valleys Sometimes called ‘the roof of the world’, the Different to it’s neighbour to the north, Plateau is part of the Himalayan , this region has warm summers and mild containing tens of thousands of and winters, lots of rainfall, and is bursting acting as the starting point to most major in with , mountains and rivers. The China and South-East . This region is famous staple food down here is rice and pork. for cheese and yak meat. Which location are these photographs from? Use the information on your map for clues (Some will be easier than others!) You can use locations more than once.

Taklamakan Desert China Central Plain Southern Hills and River Valleys Climate zones in China China has great physical d______. China is normally Match the location in China to the type of climate (write this in your books using the split into Northern China and Southern China along the subheading Climate zones in China). Y______River – Northern Chinese people are usually considered to be hard-working and professional, and Humid Continental: Large differences between the , Southern Chinese people are typically laid-back and friendly. Tibetan Plateau with a very hot and humid summer and often a very cold and dry winter (the seasons are roughly equal in length). The capital city of China is B______, but the largest city is S______with over t______-four million i______. Its official language is Ma______which is spoken Inner Mongolia Cold Desert: Almost no throughout the year, throughout the country, but regional languages include extremely cold winters due to cold air masses from Siberia. C______in the South and Mo______in the North- West. The Chinese people have an enormous di______(meaning ‘scattered around the world’), especially in South- Alpine / Highland: Due to the high elevation, temperatures Southern River E_____ Asia (around and ) and in range from cold to cool throughout the year. The air is mostly Valleys Ch______throughout the world. dry, but typically remains on the ground for 6-9 months each year. Modern day China is a republic, which means that a p______is the leader of the country, but in the past an e______would rule the country. He (sometimes a she) had Humid Subtropical: Long, warm and humid summers with China Central Plain heavy precipitation, and short, mild winters with less absolute power over the country – but he/she was not precipitation. always Chinese! China was conquered by the Mongols (the Yuan) and the Manchurians (the Qing) at different times, so modern China has a mixture of these cultures.

Taklamakan Desert Semi-arid / Grasslands: Short, hot summers and long, cold winters. Distinct wet (winter) and dry (summer) seasons. Key words for gap fill: Diversity / Twenty / East / Cantonese / / Inhabitants / Beijing / Mandarin / Emperor / Shanghai / Mongolian / Diaspora / Chinatowns / President Major rivers of China Task: In your books, describe the location of each major river in China, using geographical directions and any nearby major cities. (You must use a subheading: Major Rivers of China.)

Yangtze River

Pearl River Match the climate graph to the location. (use the map descriptions for clues)

Maximum temperature: ______Maximum temperature: ______Minimum temperature: ______Minimum temperature: ______Describe the precipitation pattern: ______Describe the precipitation pattern: ______I think this is ______I think this is ______

Hong Kong, Southern China Inner Mongolia Lhasa, Taklamakan Desert Extension: Chinese character pattern matching Chinese writing is made up of characters Task: Match the English word to the Chinese characters (match the (symbols with meanings) instead of an meanings with the characters in the on the left – think of it like alphabet like in English. Below are some matching patterns). examples of common characters. China (“Middle”+”Country”) 英文 國 – “Country” UK (“Hero”+”Country”) 中國人 中 – “Middle” School (“Study”+”Building”) 中國 英 – “Hero” Chinese (“Middle”+”Language”) 英國 文 – “Language”/”Culture” Literature (“Person”+”Culture”) 中文 英國人 學 – “Study” English (“Hero”+”Language”) (These ones are a little harder…) 校 – “Building” Chinese person (China+”Person”) 學校 人 – “Person” British person (Britain+”Person”) 文人

To make Chinese words, we have to combine To make Chinese words, we have to combine characters together for characters together for special meanings. special meanings.

“Hello” in Mandarin is 你好 (“You”+”Good”), and we say it like ‘Ni Hao!’ It’s like how we say “Are you alright?” in English.