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China’s Geoclimatic Setting

© Howard R. Spendelow

Georgetown Universityrevised 08 Dec 2011

China = rooster

“Pan-Gallo”: the world as a giant chicken…

Tectonic plate movement

China’s topography

Annual Precipitation

rainfall distribution

Precipitation in North China, by month

Average Annual Temperature

extent of loess deposits

China’s loess plateau ( 黃土高原 )

global loess deposits

loess landscape, Shanxi

extreme loess terracing

more loess terracing…

Yellow River

historical shifts of the Yellow River bed (with Grand Canal)

Wei River 渭河 (Shaanxi) filled with loess

caves dug into a loess hillside, N. China

digging loess as a building material, Xi’an

“Cave” houses in a loess cliff

terracing with loess

Bayanbulak grasslands, Xinjiang Uygur A.R.

Taklamakan Desert

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Li River 灕江 in Guilin 桂林 , Guangxi A.R.

Karst formations, somewhere…

Zhangjiajie 張家界 in the Wulingyuan 武陵園 Scenic Area, Hunan - UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992

(photo by Adam Murray, SFS ’02)

China’s Macroregions

Linkages between villages and markets

Markets in Sichuan, mid-20th century

劇終(the end)

residential loess caves

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Arial view of central Shanxi

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