People's Republic of China
Asia By Josh Baulch
Country
The capital of China is Beijing.
map of China
Geography
Two-thirds of China is mountains. China is divided into three steps, like a step ladder.
The first step has average height of over 4,000 meters.
The second step has basins and plateaus of up to 1,000 - 2,000 meters high.
The third step has broad plains and lower mountains of over 500m altitude. They are also fertile lands.
Climate
Temperatures can range between around 47 degrees C and further north -40 degrees C.
Land Size
9,326,410 sq km and the 3rd largest country in the world after Russia and Canada.
People
Religion
Buddhism, Islam, Taoism and Christianity are the main religions. 85% of Chinese people have religious beliefs or have some religious practices. 12 million people are Taoists, 33 million are Christian and 185m are Buddhism.
Population
1 390 billion
Language
Mandarin (Putonghua) is the official language but people do prefer to speak their own local dialect. Most people can also speak English.
Customs/Beliefs
The chinese new year festival (also the largest festival) marks the beginning of the new lunar year and is a time to think about your ancestors. It is between mid -January and mid-February. In that time people will clean out homes to signify a new start. They dress up as dragons and let off fireworks.
History Highlights
China is an ancient country going back to 21st century B.C. They built the great wall of China between 476 BC - 221 BC. Ying Zheng became the first Emperor of China in 221 B.C. In 1911 China got rid of the monarchical system and became the republic of China. Japan invaded China and war started in 1937 though it was unsuccessful. In 1949 China became the People's Republic of China.
The Great Wall of China
Economy
China has a huge economy because of the fact that it has a massive population and enormous manufacturing industries. China takes all of our iron ore, manufacturers it into steel selling it to other companies to make into other products then sending it back to Australia.
We sell it to them because of their low prices and they have low prices because they pay very little to their workers.
In 2010 China became the world's largest exporter and they are the:
world leader in agricultural output as in rice, wheat, potatoes, corn.
world leader in industrial output; mining and ore processing, iron, steel, aluminum, and other metals, coal; machine building; armaments (army, navy and air force tools) transportation equipment, rail cars and locomotives, ships, and aircraft, commercial space launch vehicles
The budget of China is
Revenues: $1.838 trillion
Expenditures: $2.031 trillion (2012 est.)
Education
The Chinese education system is the biggest in the in the world. It is compulsory for all students to complete at least nine years of schooling in China. It is free for Chinese citizens age 6 to 15 to go to school but in rural parts of China many stop sending kids after the age of 15.
Classes average 35 students.
Students attend classes five or six days a week from about 7am to 4pm and their subjects are maths, science, Chinese, English, history, literature, music, art and physical education. 9.12 million students are taking part in China's National Higher Education Entrance Examination (like the HSC).
Health
Traditional medicine has developed over thousands of years and covers 40% of all health care delivered in China.
Traditional treatments include herbal remedies, acupuncture, acupressure and massage.
Life expectancy for China is male 74, female 75 (Australia is 80 and 84 years).
Life expectancy in China has more than doubled, rising from around thirty-two years in 1949 to sixty-nine years in 1985.
Deaths under 5 years in China is 14 per 1000 (Australia is 5 per 1000).
China spends 5.2% of it's income or GDP (Goss Domestic Product) on health (Australia 9% on health).
Although China is wealthier than Australia, Australia spends more on health
Natural Resoures
China has every one of the 150 minerals found in the natural world, including gold, iron ore, granite and copper.
China's rivers are used for fishing and producing hydropower. China ranks first in the world for the amount of hydropower provided by the country's rivers amounting to 676 million kw.
Farmland covers 122,400 sq. km, about 10% of the land, that produces some products like wheat, rice and cash crops like tobacco.
Produces one third of the world's total salt pans ranking China as the biggest salt producer in the world.
Environmental Issues
Thousands of dead, bloated pigs float down the river that supplies Shanghai with its drinking water and more than half of the polluted water can't be treated to make it drinkable.
In some industrial towns the rates of cancer are so high they're known as "cancer villages." Any pollution rating above 300 means the air is unsafe to breathe and it has above it nineteen times in January this year.China now burns 47 percent of the world's coal because of all the coal power plants.
Chinese officials have not done anything to stop the pollution or mimize it.
Forest are cleared for farmland, bamboo plantations and timber while pandas are becoming more endangered.
The air pollution in Beijing
Living Conditions
300 million people in rural China have no access to safe water.Dead mice and trash could be found in the streets of poor villages.Entire families can live in a space the size of a courtyard.
China had 66 billionaires, the second largest number after the United States which had 415.
Although China is getting richer there is still poverty.
Biblography
- http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/religion/
- http://www.worldvision.com.au/Libraries/School_Resources/China_Country_Profile.pdf
- http://www.livescience.com/28823-chinese-culture.htmlhttp://www.climate-zone.com/climate/china/
- http://www.travelchinaguide.com/climate/
- http://english.people.com.cn/92824/92845/92876/6442551.html
- http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/geography/
- http://www.bmj.com/content/315/7100/115
- http://www.who.int/countries/chn/en/
- http://www.sba.muohio.edu/mis399/Student/living_conditions_in_china.htm
- http://www.chinaeducenter.com/en/cedu.php
- http://www.livescience.com/27862-china-environmental-problems.html
- http://www.indexmundi.com/china/economy_profile.html