Geography of Ancient China

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  hello, seventh grade.

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  This week, we're going to be focusing on a new

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  part of the world.

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  So far this year, we have focused on a few

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  different parts of the world, including sub Saharan Africa, North

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  Africa, in Southwest Asia.

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  Our studies this week are going to bring us to

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  East Asia.

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  Specifically, we're going to be looking at China even though

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  East Asia is full of different countries and cultures that

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  are interesting to study.

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  Let's start talking about China and I want you thinking

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  about this guiding question.

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  This is what we're going to be thinking about as

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  we go through our study this week.

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  Record this question in your notebooks as well as that

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  answer or I guess is toe.

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  What do you think this is going to be?

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  How did the land of China influence the early people

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  in the region?

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  Pause this slide now and record this question and you're

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  beginning answer in your notebooks.

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  I wanted to show you guys this map of the

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  world. The world is a huge place with many, many

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  countries and regions.

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  We're specifically looking at the region of East Asia.

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  East Asia is a very, very large continent.

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  China is the largest content country on that continent.

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  You will see China if you look towards the right

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  of your map.

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  It is the large, light green country that you see

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  before diving in specifically to talking about China.

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  I wanted to give you guys a basic overview of

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  East Asia.

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  Asia is the largest continent of the seven continents on

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  Earth. There are many different nations found in East Asia.

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  Some of them include China, Mongolia, Japan, North and South

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  Korea, Taiwan and several others.

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  Much of Asia is covered with high plateaus and mountains,

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  including the Himalayas.

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  The Himalayas air a large mountain range that is found

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  in both southwest Asia and East Asia.

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  The Gobi Desert is also found in East Asia and

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  spans in both China and the country of Mongolia.

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  Let's talk a little bit about the climate of China,

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  So China is the most populated country in the world,

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  meaning that there are the most people in the world

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  living in China.

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  1.3 billion people live there.

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  The climate of China varies because of how large the

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  country is Remember.

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  Climate is common weather patterns that we see in the

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  north. The climate of China is mild and summer temperatures

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  are around 77 degrees, but they see very, very cold

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  winters in the south.

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  It is sub tropical, with very hot summers and mild

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  winters. In the summer, monsoons blow huge rain showers in

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  from the east monsoons, or something that are very significant

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  to China.

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  Monsoons air seasonal winds that tend to bring rain with

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  them. These rains air going to be very, very important

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  as we talk about some of the rivers in China

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  and how those rivers help bring farmland to the Chinese

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  people. Let's talk about major rivers in China, as we

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  have talked about a few times this year.

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  Rivers are so so important for civilisations coming out of

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  a specific country or region.

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  We talked about this specifically when we looked at the

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  Tigris and the Euphrates a couple units ago.

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  It's very true that this fact is very true.

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  Also in China.

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  China has two major rivers there the Chang Jiang or

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  the Yangtze River, and the Huang he or the Yellow

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  River. These river valleys bring fertile plains that provide agricultural

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  land to grow wheat and rice.

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  Thes two crops are major crops.

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  For the Chinese people, this is important not only to

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  feed the Chinese people, but also when we think about

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  trade. Thes rivers help support major cities, including Beijing and

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  Shanghai, which are very, very populated cities.

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  As we talked a bit about the Tigris and the

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  Euphrates, we learned about how people began to control rivers

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  through irrigation.

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  It was also important for the people of China toe

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  learn how to control the rivers is well flooding of

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  the rivers usually do.

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  Two monsoons is important to help deposit mineral rich soil.

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  However, what would happen in these floods is millions of

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  people had died over centuries because these rivers would flood.

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  So the people of China had to figure out new

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  ways to make sure that the water was brought to

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  those rivers, but that it also didn't harm the people

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  living near those rivers.

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  They have done this by building dams, levees and canals,

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  including the Grand Canal.

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  By doing these things, it has helped to eliminate the

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  harm of the rivers flooding every year, but has still

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  allowed the rivers to flood and bring that mineral rich

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  soil to help crops grow in China.