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China: A Geographic Preface - Space

6 important questions on China: A Geographic Preface - Space

Where is China located?

China is located on the eastern end of Eurasia.

To the west: Central asia

To the south: Himalayas

To the east: Pacific Ocean

To the north: Russia

Why does China have the closest connections with Japan and Korea (besides their physical connections)?

These countries share

similar philosophical ideas; all influenced heavily by Confucianism
artistic expression; Chinese art
writing practices; Korea and Japan both used Chinese characters before developing their own alphabets. Nowadays their written languages still use contain Chinese characters.

Give two examples of influences from neighbors (outside East Asia) on China.

For example:

Buddhist religion through India (through the Silk Roads)
The wet-rice agriculture from Southeast Asia (which spread through the south of China)
Islam from the Middle East (which has a stronghold in western China)
The Mongol and Manchu threats from the north

The Chinese call their country Zhong guo. What does it mean?

Zhong means middle or central. Guo means country or kingdom. So Zhong guo means the Middle Kingdom (the kingdom located at the most central position).

Why do the Chinese people call themselves Han?

Because they have named themselves after the Han dynasty, which immediately came after the Qin dynasty, and which adopted the Confucian policies as its base.

The Han are the most dominant group in China and physical features vary per region. They are united by their common acceptance of the Confucian cultural norms.

Why did the Chinese question whether they rightly called themselves the Middle Kingdom when the Pacific Ocean was opened to fleets of Europe?

China had only sent ships as far as the Indian Ocean when the European ships entered the Pacific. China became vulnerable militarily, culturally and economically. The Chinese could not resist these onslaugts and therefore wondered if they were truly living in the center of the civilized world.