The Geography of Manchuria By ROBERT BURNETT HALL University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan term &dquo;Manchuria&dquo; is applied of middle latitude grassland still un- THEin a more or less vague way to the developed. Its soils are of great fertil- northeasternmost territories of China, ity and the long, dry, severe winters and embraces all lands lying east of and hot, rainy summers are admirably Mongolia and northeast of the Great suited to spring-sown cereals and Wall. Manchuria, as here used, ap- legumes. plies to the Eastern Three Provinces (Tungsanshin) of Heilungkiang (Amur), THE CLIMATE OF MANCHURIA Kirin (Chilin) and Fengtien (Mukden The climate of Manchuria has often or Liaoning), and the Japanese leased been described as continental in its sea- territory of Kwantung and the special sonal fluctuations of temperature, and Barga (Hulunpeierh) District on the monsoonal in its r6gime of rainfall. northwest frontier. It forms a roughly According to the Kbppen system,2 triangular area of about 380,000 square three types of climate may be rec- miles.’ ognized, i.e., Dwa, Dwb and BSkw. The border lands of Manchuria, ex- The first occupies approximately the cept where the broad valley of the Liao southern two-thirds of Manchuria, and River reaches the sea and in the north- is a cold, dry, winter type, with the west, where the extensive steppe lands summer hot and sufficiently rainy to of the Great Khingan piedmont make permit forest growth. The mean tem- up the Barga District, are composed of perature of the coldest month is below broad mountain masses. These are for 3° C., and of the warmest month, over the most part densely clad in virgin 22° C. The Dwb varies from the forest and contain the bulk of all Chi- preceding only in that the warmest nese timber reserves. Here are found month is below 82° C. It occurs in minerals of several kinds and the Heilungkiang and eastern Kirin. These broader valleys offer excellent agricul- Dw types are found in no other part of tural and grazing lands. Enclosed by the world. The southern part of the these mountain barriers is the great Barga District has the BSkw, or cold Manchurian Plain, originally a grass- steppe-dry winter climate. Here pre- land, where agricultural production cipitation is very low, and the mean and potentialities, coupled with a annual temperature is below 18° C., sparse population, have earned for the but the warmest month is over 18° C. area the titles of the &dquo; Grain basket of Winter is the dry period.3 Asia&dquo; and the &dquo;Land of the Bean.&dquo; In fact, the Manchurian Plain consti- 2 Köppen, W., Die Klimate der Erde, 1923. Part 2, Das geographische System der Klimate. tutes the extensive area practically only 3 de Martonne, Emm., Traité de Géographie 1 The exact area of Manchuria is not known. Physique, 4 ed., pp. 229-261, 1925, recognizes a Between the maximum and minimum estimates Manchurian type (D6) which has a mean annual there is a difference of 119,833 square miles. temperature under 10° C. with the rainy season Chu Hsiao, in Manchuria, pp. 2-4, 1929, makes a during summer. comprehensive consideration and the figure of Sion, Jules, Asie des Moussons, Tome 9, 380,000 square miles is accepted as approxi- Géographie Universelle, Chap. 1, 1928, also rec- mately correct. ognizes a Manchurian type for all of Manchuria 278 279 Manchuria lies between the great ceives in excess of 600 mm. and is continental interior, with its extremes forest clad.6 of pressure, and the sea. In summer, In winter, pressure and wind direc- there is a well-developed low pressure tion are reversed, and exceedingly dry, area over inner Asia, and moisture- cold winds sweep over Manchuria from laden winds flow inland. These are the north and northwest. Precipita- best developed in July and August, and tion is in the form of snow, but the bring precipitation in the form of rain. amount is small. In south Manchuria, all stations indi- The temperature r6gime is typically cate an annual average precipitation of continental, as is to be expected from over 600 mm.,4 with over fifty per the location on the east coast of a cent occurring in July and August, and continent in the northern hemisphere. at least seventy per cent falling during The mean annual temperature does not the growing season. Much the same exceed 10° C. except at the extreme condition is indicated in central Man- southern tip of the Liaotung Peninsula. churia.’ In general, precipitation de- A relatively steady decrease takes place creases northward. The northern edge northward until, for a small section of the plain receives less than 600 mm. bordering the Amur, it is 2° C. High The eastern slopes of the Changpai elevations in the mountain country Range, near Korea, receive over 800 may well show a smaller figure. mm. The steppe land of Barga, due to The coldest month everywhere in its lying in the rain shadow of the Great Manchuria is January. At Dairen, Khingan, and the eastern slopes of the the warmest station recorded, the southern Great Khingan, due to the January mean is -5.1° C. This drops barrier presented by the hill land of steadily to - £7° C. near the middle Jehol, receive under 400 mm. The Amur. In the middle section of the remaining mountain country all re- plain, Changchun shows -17.3° C. and Mukden, -18° C. The warmest month is At Dairen 23’ C. is recorded, east of the Great Khingans. This he describes July. and the middle 20° C. as very cold winter (Jan. mean temp. at Mukden along Amur, -13° C.) but quite warm in summer (July mean In the Barga District, July means are at Mukden—24° .2 C.) with precipitation suf- between 17° and 18° C. ficient to grow wheat. Chu Coching, Climatic The temperature gradient is from Provinces of China, Memoir 1, p. 10, Inst. of south to north at all seasons, but is Meteorology, Nanking, 1929, similarly rec- ognizes a Manchurian type. In this he includes steeper and more regular in winter all of Manchuria except the extreme western than in summer. part. The criteria are as follows: At least five months with a mean temperature below 0° C., SEASONS and mean annual below 10° C. The growing sea- son is limited to five or six months; winter is ex- All of Manchuria has at least five tremely cold. Annual precipitation varies from months with a mean temperature be- 40 to 60 cm. Half of it falls in July and Au- low 0° C.7 In November, frost settles gust. The 40 cm isohyetal marks the western boundary of this region. 6 Generalized data on rainfall conditions may 4 Climatic Tables of the Japanese Empire, be secured from N. Murakoshi’s "Rainfall Map Tokyo: Central Meteorological Station, 1924. of Manchuria and Mongolia," in Chu Coching, Records for 18 years or more, for Dairen, Ryojun, op. cit. Similar data on annual mean averages Yingkow, Mukden, and Changchun. and means of maximum and minimum monthly 5 Statistical Yearbook, Harbin: Chinese Eastern temperatures may be had in Gauthier, H., La Railway, 1929, Appendix. Records for Man- Température en Chine, 3 vols., 1918. chouli, Buhedu, Anta, Harbin, Jaomen, Imienpo, 7 Hann, J., Handbuch der Klimatologie, Vol. 3, Taipingling, and Sansing. pp. 303-313. Contains an excellent description 280 in the ground and remains until March. 20th and the 30the; and millet about the The Liao River in the south is frozen 15th. over for four months, the Sungari in October is a month of nearly perfect the central plain is frozen for five weather-warm, dry, and sunny. To- months, and the Amur in the far north ward the end of the month the winds is ice-bound for at least six months. have completely shifted, and by No- During this winter period, cold, dry vember the first frosts tell the coming of winds blow strongly from the north- another winter. west. The skies are extremely clear. Vigorous radiation takes place at night SURFACE DIVISIONS and strong insolation by day. What Morphologically, Manchuria may be precipitation occurs falls as snow, and divided into: (1) the mountainous an accumulation of as much as one foot lands of ancient rocks that surround the is exceedingly rare. The country plain; (2) the plain lands of alluvial, roads are frozen hard and favor traffic. low-lying flats and higher gravelly The severe, snow-free winter prohibits terraces which are drained by the fall-sown crops, but limits rodent and Sungari and Liao rivers and their insect pests. tributary streams; and (3) the con- In March the cold northwesters tinuation of the high Mongolian pla- cease and warm, humid winds from the teau which makes up the Barga Dis- southwest set in. Wheat is planted in trict in the northwest. early April, although the subsoil is still EASTERN MOUNTAIN LAND OF frozen. Later in the same month, In- CHANGPAI dian corn and tobacco are planted. April is the only spring month, for in Stretching from the northeastern May summer begins. Beans, kaoliang corner of Manchuria, where the River and millet are planted the last days of Ussuri joins with the Amur, southeast- April or in early May-the exact date ward to the tip of the Liaotung Penin- varying from south to north. Until sula is a continuous mountain land the end of June, only occasional light known as the Changpai Range.