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