Ancient China's Geography

Geography of China

• The Plateau of Tibet lies southeast of the Himalayan Mountains and extends north to the Kunlun Mountains.
• Hainan Province is the southernmost province and the smallest in China, with a tropical rainforest, rich in diverse plant and animal life.
• Yunnan Province, located on the southwest tip of China, is home to the Xishuangbanna tropical rainforest, also rich in diverse plant and animal life.

Seas in China

• The East China Sea, South China Sea, and Yellow Sea border the east coast of China and extend into the Pacific Ocean.
• The East Sea is north of Taiwan and on the very east coast of China.
• The South Sea is south of Taiwan along the southeast coast of China.
• The Yellow Sea lies along the eastern coast of China between China and the Korean Peninsula.

Desert and Tundra

• The Gobi Desert is the largest desert in east Asia, spanning roughly 1,000 miles across central Asia.
• The Gobi Desert can be divided into five sub-regions: the Eastern Gobi Desert steppe, the Alashan plateau, the Gobi Lakes Valley desert steppe, Dzungarian Basin semi-desert, and the Tian Shan range.
• The Tibetan Tundra is located in the Tibetan plateau and has the coldest temperatures, limiting the use of its land severely.

Ancient China

• Ancient China was isolated due to China's physical geography, with surrounding desert, mountains, and seas creating natural barriers that protected the Ancient Chinese civilization from outside invaders.
• The natural barriers allowed Ancient China to develop independently without any outside influences.
• Ancient China developed along The Yellow River and Yangtze River, which are still protected today by natural barriers.

Impact of Geography on Development

• China's natural barriers had both advantages (protection from outsiders) and disadvantages (difficulty in trade with other early civilizations).
• The natural barriers created four distinct regions in Ancient China: mountains, jungles, deserts, and tundra.