Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
All of this is, in comparison with the dry cropping in the north, a
relatively complex form of agriculture, one that requires extensive
manpower and labor organization, widespread irrigation networks,
and constant attention to maintaining the water levels. The technology
and seeds for this wet rice cultivation, which were introduced into
southern China from Southeast Asia relatively late in Chinese history,
around A.D. 200, produced a population explosion. Rice cultivation
is arduous, but the large agricultural yields justify the hard work. An
acre of rice can feed many times the number of people that an acre of
barley or millet can. The large rice harvests sustained a much larger
population than northern agriculture could, and gradually the popula-
tion in southern China grew, through both natural increase and
net immigration to the region. By around A.D. 1100 the majority of
China's population was living in southern China, a situation that
continues today.
It is important to remember that even though it has a much smaller
population than southern China has today, northern China is where
it all began. The north, and not the south, is the cradle of Chinese
civilization.
The Yangtze River, which flows through southern China, is one of
the most striking geographical features of the region. It has its origins
in the Tibetan mountain ranges, but unlike the Yellow it does not pick
up a large amount of loess or other sediment as it flows westward
through the Sichuan Basin and ultimately into the Pacific Ocean. In
contrast with the Yellow River, the Yangtze is deep and navigable for
much of its distance, although some cataracts do interrupt its course.
Although the Yangtze does flood with disastrous consequences at
times, these floods are more often the result of excessive rainfall rather
than the collapse of its natural dikes. As catastrophic as Yangtze floods
can be, they do not compare with the magnitude of destruction and
devastation that follows a change of course in the Yellow River.
GOVERNMENT
The government of China is a one-party, authoritarian Communist
dictatorship that allows no significant political opposition to its poli-
cies or criticism of them. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) runs
the country and controls all political and administrative machinery,
although eight tiny, token parties tightly controlled by the CCP are
allowed to exist as long as they behave themselves and do not question
government policies or the party line.
