The Origin and Development

of Chinese
Civilization
Objecti
ves :
After having gone through this
lesson, you will be able to:

• Discuss the physical features of

China
• Study the kind of people of China;
and
• Give an account about China’s
geography
 Overview
 China has been called sometime as
the “ Sleeping Giant” and the “ Tupsy
Turvy Land”
It has lived through wars and
conquests and remains today one of
the largest and remains today one of
the largest and most important
countries in the world.
 It’s land where pecularities of
costume, customs and vaied aspects of
From the 2nd millenium BC to the early
20th century a succession of dynasties
ruled progressively larger parts of what
is now China.
A notable feature of the later dynasties
was the dominance of the scholar-
officials class, made up of educated
men who where recruited to serve as
government officials based on their
skills rather than their family
background.
By the early 20th century China’s
humiliation at the hands of the
• China, officially the People’s
Republic of China ( Zhonghua
Benmin Gongheguo), a country in
East Asia, is the world’s largest
country by population and one of
the largest by area, measuring as
the same size as the United States.

• The Chinese call their country

Zhongguo, which means “ Central
Country “ or “ Middle Kingdom “.
• The name China was given to it by
the foreigners and is probably
based on he corruption of Qin (
pronounced as “chin”) , a Chinese
Dynasty that ruled during the 3rd
century BC.
• China is situated in the East Asia
and has a total land area of
9,560,980 square kilometers second
only to USSR and Canada in area.
It’s surrounded by Siberia and
• China is surrounded by natural
barriers that have it isolated in
ancient times and enabled it to
develop a distinct civilizations.
However, they also served to isolate
her from the impact of progressive
ideas from the outside world in later
times.

• Most of China lies in the temperate

zone, but because of the size and
• China proper centers on the
agricultural regions drained by the
Three major rivers – Huang Ho (
Yellow River ) in the north, Yangtze
(Chang Jiang) in the central China,
and the Zhu Jiang (Pearl River) in the
south.
• The country’s varied terrain includes
vast desserts, towering mountains,
high plateaus, and broad plains.
 Percentages of
different Landforms
The Great Wall of
China
North China
Plains
• North China is a great plain most of
which is covered with a fine yellow soil
known as loess carried by the winds in
the course of centuries from the desert
regions of Central Asia.
• This soil is extremely fertile, but
rainfall In the region is limited.
• Across North China flows the Yellow
River or the Huang Ho (2,700 miles
long), so called because of the
yellowish loess which it carries.
• Floods overflow the river and the
• Yangtze
River (3,200
miles long) is
the longest
river in Asia.
It has it’s
sources in
the heights
of Tibet
running for
thousands of
miles into
• Wheat, maize, barley, millet, potatoes,
soy beans, syrup and forage are
grown in the north. In the south, the
warmer climate the abundant rainfall
favor the growth of rice which forms
the staple food of the southern
Chinese.
• China has considerable mineral
resources. It has the world’s largest
deposits of tungsten and
molybdenum which are rare metals. It
South China
Fuels, Powers, Minerals
and Metals in China
 Demographics
• More than on fifth of the world’s
population. 1.3 billion people, lives in
China. More than 90% of this are ethic
Han Chinese, but China also recognizes
55 national minorities including Tibetan,
Mongols, Uighurs, Zhuang, Miao, Yi and
many smaller groups.

• The language called Putonghua is taught

in schools and used by mass media,
locally spoken languages are often
mutually incompressible. However, the
China as % of World
Population
 Demographics
• Beijing located in the north, is the capital
of China, It’s also the cultural, economic
and communication center of the
country.
• Shanghai, located near Yangtze, is the
most populous urban center, the largest
industrial and commercial city, and
mainland China’s leading port.