Name ______________ Class _______________ Date ___/___/______ Geography of China Taklamakan Desert Inner Mongolia 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 climate – meaning it can is characterised by vast elevated go from extremes of -15 degrees in grasslands (called Steppes) with a wet and the winter, to over 30 degrees in the a dry season. This region’s specialty food summer with barely a drop of rain is lamb and milk tea. throughout the entire year. Staple foods include spicy beef and camel. Chinese Central Plain This massive flatland has been the centre of Chinese civilisation for thousands of years, where emperors would rule and where the megacities of Beijing and Shanghai stand. The staple food here is noodles and chicken. Tibetan Plateau Southern Hills and River Valleys Sometimes called ‘the roof of the world’, the Different to it’s neighbour to the north, Plateau is part of the Himalayan mountains, this region has warm summers and mild containing tens of thousands of glaciers and winters, lots of rainfall, and is bursting acting as the starting point to most major rivers in with lakes, mountains and rivers. The China and South-East Asia. 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 Tibetan Plateau China Central Plain Southern Hills and River Valleys Inner Mongolia 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 seasons, 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 precipitation 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 Malaysia and Vietnam) and in range from cold to cool throughout the year. The air is mostly Valleys Ch__________ throughout the world. dry, but snow 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 Steppe / Grasslands: Short, hot summers and long, cold winters. Distinct wet (winter) and dry (summer) seasons. Key words for gap fill: Diversity / Twenty / East / Cantonese / Yangtze / 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, Tibet 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 table 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..