A Look Into the Geography of China

Hubei Province Performing Arts School
in Wuhan, China

During the summer of 2016, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to visit East Asia.  The trip was part of an alumni, East Asian tour with two of my undergraduate professors who have orchestrated East Asia Term classes for the past 30 plus years.  One of the professors, Dr. Norm Moline, was my geography adviser and mentor while completing my bachelor's degree in geography at my undergraduate institution.  To be able to absorb some of his depth of knowledge of East Asian geography, particularly in China, was an invaluable experience for me as a professional geographer.

Here is a quick snapshot of the places we visited on our trip:

• Flight from Chicago, IL to Hong Kong via Tokyo, Japan
• Hong Kong 
• Hike to Victoria Peak
• Boat trip to Lamma Island
• Wuhan
• Urban walks and explorations along the Chang Jiang (Yangtze) River
• Evening performance at Hubei Province Performing Arts School
• Trip out to countryside to visit rural villages and farms
• Kunming
• Visit to Yunnan Province Ethnic Village Cultural Park
• Lijiang
• Urban walks in "Old City" a UNESCO World Heritage site
• Trip to nearby mountains (southeastern most part of Himalayan uplift) and Tiger Leaping Gorge
• Visit rural villages
• Chengdu
• Visit Giant Panda Research Center
• Xi'an
• Urban walks to and within the ancient city wall
• Visit to Terra Cotta Armies archaeological site
• Chengde
• Visit to emperor's summer palace
• Visit to Lamaist temples
• Trip to Jinshanling and hike section of Great Wall
• Beijing
• Visit Tiananmen Square, Mao's mausoleum, and Forbidden City
• Visit to Temple of Heaven
• Visit site of 2008 Summer Olympics - Olympic Park
• Tokyo
• Urban bus tour of city
• Visit to Emperor's Palace
• Flight from Tokyo to Chicago, IL

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China (S.A.R.).  This means that it has a "high degree of autonomy" but is still loosely ruled by China in what Beijing refers to as a "one country, two systems" formula.  Hong Kong and its more than 200 islands consists of about 425 square miles and has a population of about 7.1 million (Moline).

Dr. Norm Moline in Hong Kong harbor

When visiting this peninsular land and islands, jutting off the southeastern coast of mainland China and into the South China Sea, you get the sense of a typical cosmopolitan, world city.  If you suddenly opened your eyes standing in downtown Kowloon or Hong Kong without knowing exactly where you were, you might mistake it for London, New York, Los Angeles, or any number of large, metropolitan cities throughout the world.



References:

Moline, Norm (2016), China Alumni Trip Manual. Augustana College, Rock Island, IL

How is Human Geography relevant to what we do each day?

Geography is a spatial science which looks at both the physical and human built landscape to describe and try to better understand the relationships and interactions on our planet.  Moreover, geographers are instrumental in helping make better informed decisions when it comes to human activities such as building cities, parks, transportation networks, natural resource extraction, etc.  Human geography, specifically, studies cultural features, such as economic activities, and the urban environment among others (Rubenstein, p. 4).

So what does this mean for us in our everyday lives?  Think about your typical day from the time you get up until the time you go to bed again.  The first thing you might do is use the bathroom.  The water and sewer lines that service your house or apartment are part of a network linked to the municipal water and sewer facilities in your community.  You live in a rural location not connected to city services?  Then the well and septic system you have was designed and installed to ensure a plentiful water source while not invoking contamination from the leach fields of the septic lines.  How about your morning coffee or orange juice?  Those beverages had to be shipped to your local grocery or convenient store in order for you to have access.  This takes transportation networks and routing that needs to be carefully planned so that products can be distributed in an efficient and cost-effective manner from the production areas to the retail centers.  Have to drive to work?  You take advantage of the roads which have been planned and constructed, along with the energy (gasoline or diesel) you use to make your vehicle go.  When you get to work, do you use the elevator, turn on lights in your office or shop, rely on a computer or other electrical equipment to accomplish your duties for the day?  Once again, geography - particularly the human designed and developed portion - plays a crucial role in providing these amenities.  Where are power plants located?  How will transmission lines be set up, and how will they impact the surrounding landscape as they transport energy from the source to the consumer? 

Obviously, I could go on and on here with the connections to our everyday lives and geography.  The interactions and implications are endless.  We are all geographers as we navigate the trials and tribulations of our everyday lives; trying to make the best decisions in order to protect, preserve, yet still benefit from all the wonderful resources our home - planet Earth - has to offer.  As the human population continues to grow (a little over 7 billion and counting), these spatial decisions become even more critical.

References:

Rubenstein, James M. (2013), Contemporary Human Geography. Glenview, IL: Pearson Education, Inc.
 

Human-built landscape of the desert southwest

This summer, my family and I drove from Cheyenne, WY to Las Vegas, NV. We camped and took in the sights along the way.

This was my first time to visit Las Vegas, and I will have to say this is quite an explicit example of how humans have an impact on the geography of a place.

Las Vegas is located in the middle of the desert of the southwestern U.S. When entering the city from any direction you experience a dry, very hot, and desolate landscape. The climate here is classified as a Midlatitude Desert or BWk, according to the Modified Koppen Climate Classification System. This basically means it is a midlatitude desert, with low amounts of precipitation that mainly comes in the summer, and winter temperatures that can get fairly cool; even snow on occasion.

When you enter the city of Las Vegas itself, especially if you choose to venture along the famous "Strip" of casinos on Las Vegas Boulevard, you would never guess you were in the middle of the desert. The human-built landscape is something you have to see for yourself to really believe. It truly is the definition of a mirage - an image of paradise in the midst of a harsh and dry landscape.

How could humans have come to such a dry and desolate place and developed such an infrastructure as to attract millions of people to visit each year?

Hidden within the physical geography of this part of the Mojave Desert is an oasis underground, or a spring left over from a wetter climatic period for this area during pre-historic times. Because of this underground water supply, and more recently the diversion of the Colorado River, humans can create a habitable environment in an otherwise uninhabitable place.

And, people keep moving here. "For the past two decades, Las Vegas has been king of American urban growth. During one of its most notable growth spurts, in the early 1990s, more than six thousand people moved to the Las Vegas area each month" (Travis, 2007).

Can this area sustain this type of growth? Are the resources limited to a point where the surrounding landscape, and sensitive ecosystems are negatively affected? Go have a look at Lake Mead which is the result of the Colorado River being corralled by Hoover Dam in the canyons of the Black Mountains on the Nevada - Arizona border. This reservoir, largest in the U.S., provides water for irrigation in the desert areas of California and Arizona. The "bathtub" rings showing progressively dropping water levels in the human-made lake is an eerie reminder of human impact and the landscape; and, vice versa.

References:

Chronic, Halka (1993), Roadside Geology of Arizona. Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing Company.

McKnight, Tom L., and Darrel Hess (2008), Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Travis, William R. (2007), New Geographies of the American West: Land Use and the Changing of Pattern of Place. Washington-Covelo-London: Island Press.