Something about China (I): The Geographic China
Written: Sep 08 '00
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| augustwind's Full Review: China |
This is going to be the first of many reviews I will post here to talk about China. They will come one by one, not necessary on a regular basis, and each of them will focus on something about China that usually not mentioned by travel introduction of China.
Although they will be mainly reflecting a Chinese view of China (my view), the purpose of these reviews are to help whoever is interested in China, or is planning to travel to China, understand the history, culture, and the many wonders of China. Needless to say, I love China deeply. So don't be surprise to see I mention a lot of things about China that I am so proud of. I hope you will at least like China after reading my reviews, that is if you don't like China or don't understand China before.
So here comes the first of this series: The Geographic China
If you click on the DETAIL button in the travelling section here at Epinions under China, you will be able to find (amazingly many) details regarding travelling to China. Actually some of the sections (history, culture) are so long that they contain probably more information than you want to know. To be honest here, I haven't got the patience to read through the whole history section yet myself. So you might ask, what else could you add to this already very detailed information?
Well, there are many things I can still talk about China just on the geographic side.
1. There are 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, and 4 cities that are directly governed by the central government. These 4 cities are: Beijing, Tianjing, Shanghai, and Chongqing. Shanghai is the most populated city in China, with Chongqing comes in close second. Beijing is the biggest city in area.
Beijing is considered to be the political center of China, while Shanghai is more considered being the economic center of China. Shanghai is also called as "The Eastern Paris" or "The Eastern Pearl" at different occasions.
2. Other famous big cities in China include:
Nanjing, the capital city of China before 1949, the capital city of Jiangsu province now, and the
capitals of many dynasties in old China;
Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong province, close to several of the economic special zones;
Xian, the capital city of Shannxi province, also the capital of the first dynasty Qing, where the famous Warriors of Terricodo locates.
3. Some of the smaller but great tourist cities along the coast line (from north to south):
Qinghuangdao, a famous summer vacation city by the most northern sea along the coast line (Bo
Hai), many government officials go there in summer and actually hold important meetings there (at a suburb of the city called Bei Dai He), also locating just outside the city is the eastern end of the Great Wall (Shan Hai Guan), another famous tourist attraction;
Tianjing, almost considered a little sister city of Beijing, only two hours away on train ride, a busy industrial harbor, and is most famous for its variety collection of Northern China food;
Qingdao, locating in the province of Shangdong, near the hometown of the famous ancient philosopher Ku Fu Zi (his hometown is Taian), and the famous Tai Mountain (see section 7) and Lao Mountain (a famous mountain full of Taoism temples), with the most gentle weather all year around, this is a perfect vacation place all year around;
Xiamen, locating in the province of Fujian, just opposing the island of Taiwan along the Taiwan Strait, this is a perfect vacation place all year around too, with many nice beach places, Fujian province has a long history of people going aboard, so there is a good chance that the Chinese you see all over the world is coming from this city and the vicinity area;
Zhuhai, locating in the province of Guangdong, one of the newest economic developed area, one of the first four special zone cities, nice weather and beautifully designed modernized city;
Shengzheng, locating in the province of Guangdong, one of the most famous new economic special zone in China, arrow away from Hong Kong, and in the past you need special pass to go to this city to find a job;
Last, Haina province, the newly formed province on an island south of Guangdong province, a beautiful tropic weather island, somewhat like Hawaii of the China, just with much more oriental flavor all around.
4. Weatherwize, there is a term called "three ovens", meaning the three hottest cities in the summer in China. They are all along the Yangzi River, the longest river in China. From upstream to downstream, they are: Chongqing, Wuhan (the capital city of Hubei province), and Nanjing. These are the places you want to avoid to go in summer time (especially in July). Although in recent years many people start to call Beijing the fourth oven, and considered it the hottest of all. It was mainly due to the weather pattern change caused by the lost of forest and land desertization in the region nearby Beijing.
5. The southeastern region of China is more economic developed than the northwestern region. The coast provinces are usually more developed than the inland provinces. As a result, some of the richest provinces are all located around Shanghai (Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces). Coordinately, these provinces and Shanghai have the best tourist services and best hotels and transportation.
6. There is a term in Chinese called "up above there is heaven, and down on the earth there are Su and Hang". This refers to the two famous tourist attraction cities Suzhou and Hangzhou, located in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Both cities have beautiful river and lakes, and are famous for their traditional architectures and gardens.
7. There are a total of 6 most famous mountain areas for tourist. Five of them are called together as "Five
Yue", meaning five big mountains. They are:
Tai Mountain, the east Yue, most famous for its sunrise and in close distance to Kongfuzi's hometown in Shandong province;
Hua Mountain, the west Yue, most famous for the height and difficult trails to climb, every year there are reports of tourists lost their lives because of the crowdness and the bad trail condition, still, many more want to go;
Hen Mountain, the north Yue, most famous for bare stones and ancient Buddhism and Taoism temples, the least visited mountain among the "Wu Yue";
Heng Mountain, the south Yue, most famous for the forest and the nice plant and animal habitats, also not heavily visited;
Song Mountain, the middle Yue, most famous for the Buddhism temple and the traditional martial arts.
All five Yue are named according to their relative locations. For example, Tai Mountain is the easternmost one of the five. There is a phrase in Chinese saying " you don't want to see any mountain if you just come back from five Yue". This tells you how great the views at these mountains, and how these mountains perfectly represent the different mountain view in different geographic regions of China.
But there is also a second part of the phrase I just mentioned above saying " you don't want to see five Yue when you just come back from Yellow Mountain". Yes, the Yellow Mountain is considered to be the most beautiful mountain in China. I have written a detail review on just that mountain. If you only want to climb one mountain in China, Yellow Mountain is the one.
8. Now the river.
There are four major rivers in China. From the north to south, they are:
The Heilong River, meaning black dragon river. This is the most northern one, part of it locating
Boarder between China and Russia. It is usually frozen in winter, but by the time it thaws in spring, the roaring water with the crushed pieces of ice make it look like a giant black dragon flying. That is how the name comes from.
The Yellow River, named either by the color of the earth in the region, or because this river is considered the mother river of Chinese nation. Many ancient Chinese lived by this river as revealed by archeological researcher, and many ancient dynasties had their capitals along this river. It was both the political and economic center of ancient China.
The Yangzi River, also named as Long River. This is the longest river in China, the third longest in the world, and the regions along the river now are the most populated regions in China. The delta of Yangzi river is the richest region in China, with Jiansu province, Zhejiang province and the city of Shanghai. The famous "Three Gorge" is at the upstream of this river.
The Zhu River, meaning Pearl River. The Zhu River Delta supplies more than half of the rice for entire China, and the regions surrounding this short but large water amount river are the ones that first open to western world and develop free economic styles.
Well, I think I have talked enough about the geographic China in this already long review. As I said at the beginning, there is actually still more I can talk about China just in the geographic side. But, I will save those for the later reviews. Please comment on whether you like my way of introducing China to you. As your comments on this one will greatly encourage me to keep posting more and sooner. Thanks for reading.
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