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English Template Lesson VALIDATION COPY 1.0 JUNE 2007 CHINESE MANDARIN FAMILIARIZATION COURSE Introduction To China 1 GEOGRAPHY Officially called the People’s Republic of China, this massive country is located in eastern Asia, west of the Pacific Ocean. China is bounded on the north by the Mongolian Republic and Russia, and on the northeast by Russia and North Korea. East of China lie the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea; and to the south lie the South China Sea and the countries of Vietnam, Laos, Burma (Myanmar), India, Bhutan, and Nepal. To the west lie Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan; and to the northwest, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. China has an area of about 9,571,300 sq km (about 3,695,000 sq mi), (not including Nationalist China, known officially as the Republic of China), which makes it the world's third largest country by area, a little bit larger than the United States. China’s topography is higher in the west and lower in the east. Most mountains and plateaus are in the west, including the Tibetan plateau, the highest plateau in the world. Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, is situated in the south; while plains lie in the east. More than 3400 islands lie off the southeast coast of China of which Hainan, in the South China Sea, is by far the largest. There are three major rivers: the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Pearl River. The capital of China is Beijing. It is not only the nation's political center, but also its cultural, scientific, and educational heart and a key transportation hub. Beijing has served as a capital for more than 800 years. China is divided into a variety of administrative units that include 23 provinces, five autonomous regions, and four municipalities: Beijing, Shanghai (the biggest city in China), Tianjing and Chongqing are under the direct jurisdiction of the Central Government. In addition to the four municipalities, there are other major cities in China, including Guangzhou, Shenyang, Nanjing, Xi’an, and Chengdu. There are also two special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau. The city of Shanghai China’s capital city, Beijing CLIMATE China is characterized by a continental climate. The greater part of the Chinese territory is situated in the Temperate Zone, its southern region in the tropical and subtropical zones, and its northern part near the Frigid Zone. Temperatures differ therefore rather strikingly across the country whose latitude spans nearly 50 degrees. The northern part of Heilongjiang Province has long winters but no summers while the Hainan Island has long summers but no winters. The Huaihe River valley is marked by distinctive seasonal changes, but it is spring all year round in the south of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. In the northwest hinterland, the temperature changes dramatically. China’s high tundra zone is situated in the Qinghai-Tibet, where the temperature is low in all four seasons. Some desert areas are dry all year round. 2 Rice Terraces POPULATION China, as the world's most populous country, has a population exceeding 1.3 billion, which makes up 22 percent of the world total. In the1960’s when China counted “only” 600 million inhabitants, President Mao Zedong had a birth restriction policy. To bring population growth under control, the country has followed a family planning policy since the 1970’s. China is a multiracial country with 56 ethnic groups, including Achang, Bai, Bonan, Blang, Bouyei, Korean, Daur, Dai, De'ang, Dongxiang, Derung, Oroqen, Russian, Ewenki, Gaoshan, Gelao, Hani, Kazak, Han, Hezhen, Hui, Jino, Gin, Jingpo, Kirgiz, Lahu, Li, Lisu, Lhoba, Manchu, Maonan, Mongolian, Monba, Miao, Mulam, Naxi, Nu, Primi, Qiang, Salar, She, Sui, Tajik, Tatar, Tu, Tujia, Va, Uygur, Uzbek, Xibe, Yi, Yuigur, Yao, Tibetan, and Zhuang. The Han people account for 92 percent of the population. The Forbidden City May Day celebration 3 HISTORY Five thousand years have passed since the first Chinese writing, and China has lived under 24 dynasties and about 400 emperor-kings. The People's Republic of China was founded on October 1,1949. During World War I, the Chinese Government sided with the Allies. In return, they were promised that the German concessions in Shangdong province would be handed back over to the Chinese Government at the end of the war. They were not, and to add insult to injury, the Treaty of Versailles handed them over to Japan. In the early 1920s, Dr. Sun Yatsen, as the leader of the (up-to-then unsuccessful) Nationalist Party (KMT), accepted Soviet aid. With the Communist help, Sun Yatsen was able to forge an alliance with the fledgling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and started the task of re-unifying a China beset with warlords. Unfortunately, Sun died of cancer in 1925. The leadership of the KMT was then taken over by Chiang Kaishek. After Chiang took over the KMT, he launched his famous "Northern Expedition" all the way from Guangzhou to Shanghai. This unified Southern China and, more importantly, let the Nationalists control the Lower Yangzi. Once they got to Shanghai, Chiang, who had never liked the Communists anyway, launched a massacre of CCP members. Among those who managed to escape the carnage was a young communist named Mao Zedong. The Communists were forced to abandon their urban bases and fled to the countryside. There, the Nationalist forces, aided and abetted by German advisors, tried to hunt them down, and in the words (more or less) of Chiang, "eliminate the cancer of Communism." In 1934, the Nationalists were closing in on the Communist positions, when, under the cover of night, the Communists broke out and started running. They did not stop for a year. This was the Long March. When the Communists started, they had 100,000 people. A year later, when they finally stopped, they had traveled 6,000 miles, and between four to eight thousand people survived. In 1937, the Japanese invaded China proper from their bases in Manchuria, using the notorious "Marco Polo" incident as an excuse. Once whole-scale war had been launched, it did not take the Japanese long to occupy the major coastal cities and commit atrocities. By the time the war had ended in 1945, 20 million Chinese had died at the hands of the Japanese. The Nationalist Government fled up the Yangzi River to Chongqing from Nanjing. In 1939, World War II started. This initially had little effect on the situation in China, as the Japanese were not involved with war in Europe. However, after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the main thrust of the Japanese war effort turned away from fighting the Chinese and towards fighting the Americans. By early 1949, the Nationalists were hamstrung by intractable corruption and huge debts; they paid off their debts by printing more money, which only lead to hyperinflation. By that October, the Nationalists had fled to Taiwan and Mao Zedong had proclaimed the creation of the People's Republic of China. The Great Wall of China Terra Cotta Cavalry Figures in Xi'an 4 A Table of Chinese History 夏 Xia Dynasty c. 21-16 century B. C. 商 Shang Dynasty c. 16-11 century B. C. 西周 c. 11 cent B. C. – 771 B. C. Western Zhou 东周 770 B. C.–256 B. C. 周 Zhou Dynasty Eastern Zhou 770 B. C.–476 B. C. 春秋 Spring &Autumn Period 475 B. C.–221 B. C 战国 Warring States Period 秦 Qin Dynasty 221 B. C. – 207 B. C. 汉 Han Dynasty 西汉 Western Han 206 B. C – A. D. 24 东汉 Eastern Han 25 - 220 三国 Three Kingdoms (Wei, Shu, Wu) 220 - 280 西晋 Western Jin Dynasty 265 - 316 东晋 Eastern Jin Dynasty 317 - 420 南北朝 Northern & Southern Dynasties 420 - 589 隋 Sui Dynasty 581 - 618 唐 Tang Dynasty 618 - 907 五代 Five Dynasty 907 - 960 宋 Song Dynasty 960 - 1279 辽 Liao Dynasty 916 - 1125 金 Jin Dynasty 1115 -1234 元 Yuan Dynasty 1271 -1368 明 Ming Dynasty 1368 - 1644 清 Qing Dynasty 1644 - 1911 中华民国 Republic of China 1912 - 1949 中华人民共和国 People’s Republic of China Founded in 1949 5 RELIGION China is a multi-religious country. Buddhism, Taoism, lslam, Protestantism and Catholicism have all developed quite a following in this country. Traditionally there are ten schools of Buddhism in China and eight of them belong to Mahayana Buddhism. Four of them are practical in the sense that they possess special practices that are actually practiced by many followers. These are the Pureland School, the Tantra School, the Chan School and the Sila School. The Pureland School with its emphasis on the chanting practice has been most popular. Nowadays the meditation practices of Tibetan Tantra and those of the Southern Tradition are embraced by a growing number of Chinese Buddhists. Many Chinese Buddhists considered followers of the Buddhist religion practice a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. This is evident not only from the deities they worship on the altar, and the religious or health practices they adopt, but also from their outlook and way of life, a prominent feature of Chinese Buddhist culture over the ages. Chinese Buddhist temple CUSTOMS Chinese observe many customs relating to marriage, birthday, and death. Traditionally marriages are arranged and spouses selected through negotiation between the family members and the matchmaker. Customarily, negotiations preceding the betrothal ceremonies are initiated when the boy's father writes a formal marriage proposal letter to the girl's father. The matchmaker delivers the letter together with cakes and gifts to the girl's family and the girl's father writes back a letter in acceptance of the proposal.
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