Standard:SS7G9

• The student will locate selected features in the Southern and Eastern Asia.

• Locate on a world and regional political-physical map: Ganges River, Huang He (Yellow River), Indus River, Mekong River, Yangtze (Change Jiang) River, Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean, Sea of Japan, South China Sea, Yellow Sea, Gobi Desert, Taklimakan Desert, Himalayan Mountains, and Korean Peninsula.

• Locate on a world and regional political-physical map the countries of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and Vietnam.

Ganges River - India

Ganges River

• The Ganges is 1557 miles long (2506 km) • The Ganges Valley, or basin, is 200 to 400

miles (322 to 644 km) wide • The river starts in the Himalayas. • It flows eastward and empties into the Bay of

Bengal. Its mouth forms a vast delta. At the delta it is joined by the southward-flowing Brahmaputra River. Their combined delta is the largest in the world

Ganges River• Tremendous volume of waste [~1 billion liters per

day of mostly untreated raw sewage] • Also, inadequate cremation procedures contributes

to a large number of partially burnt or not burnt corpses floating down the Ganges, not to mention livestock corpses

Huang He- Yellow River - China

Huang He-Yellow River

• The Yellow River, sometimes simply called "the River" in ancient Chinese, is the 2nd longest river in China (after the Yangtze River) and the 7th longest in the world, at 5,463km.

• It flows through 9 provinces of China and empties into the Bohai Sea (near Yellow Sea).

• It is called the Yellow River because huge amounts of loess [silt and sand] sediment turn the water that color. So much of this mineral-rich soil ends up in the Yellow River that it can fill the riverbed and thus change the river’s course.

Huang He-Yellow River• The Yellow River is known as the

"Mother River of China" and "the Cradle of Chinese Civilization" in China, as its basin is the birthplace of the northern Chinese civilizations and the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. But frequent devastating floods, largely due to the elevated river bed in its lower course, have also earned it the distinction "China's Sorrow".

• The Yellow River is indicative of the problems affecting many of China's rivers. Pollution, hydropower, and intensive water extraction for human consumption, agriculture, and industrial use are all taking their toll on the river.

• http://www.comcast.net/video/china-battles-river-oil-spill/1376364778/

• The Chinese government estimates that around two-thirds of the Yellow River's water is too polluted to drink and according to the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based NGO, 4.3 billion tons of waste flowed into the Yellow River in 2005.

Indus River – China, India, Pakistan• Indus River, one of the chief

rivers of southern Asia. From its source in Tibet, China, the Indus flows some 1,900 miles (3,100 km) through India and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea, an arm of the Indian Ocean. All of India's section of the river is in Kashmir. The river's drainage basin occupies 332,000 square miles (860,000 km2); most of it is in Pakistan.

• The Indus river system provides water for one of the largest irrigated areas in the world. Without this water most of the basin would be virtually uninhabitable.

• Conflict between Pakistan and India over distribution of the water arose shortly after the creation of Pakistan in 1947. The dispute was settled in 1960 by a treaty between India and Pakistan

Mekong River• The Mekong River is the

longest river in the region. • From its source in China, the

Mekong flows generally southeast to the South China Sea, a distance of 4,200 km (2,610 mi).

• The Mekong crosses China, and forms the border between Myanmar (Burma) and Laos and most of the border between Laos and Thailand. It then flows across Cambodia and southern Vietnam into a rich delta before emptying into the South China Sea. In the upper course are steep descents and swift rapids, but the river is navigable south of Louang Phrabang in Laos.

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Mekong River• The Mekong system is

extremely complex and effects the lives of some 60 million people, many of whom are amongst the poorest in the world. 

• There are many demands made on the river - to provide water for industrial and agricultural development, to sustain subsistence fishing, for transport, to maintain delicate ecological and hydrological balances. 

• Inevitably there are conflicting demands made on the resource and very different views as to how the water should (or should not) be used. 

Rice paddies along the MeKong River in China

Mekong River Valley, Laos, 1968

Yangtze (Change Jiang) River• The Yangtze River is the longest river in China and Asia, and the third-longest in the world. [Only the Amazon and Nile are longer]

•Waters of the Yangtze are often used for rice and wheat irrigation. It also has enormous and inexhaustible hydroelectric resources.

Three Gorges Dam-Advantages• The Three Gorges Dam is a

hydroelectric river dam that spans the Yangtze River. It is the world's largest electricity-generating plant of any kind.

• Supporters say the benefits of the project far outweigh the costs. The principal advantage of the project is to generate power to keep pace with China's economic growth.

• Chinese officials note that the dam will relieve the danger of flooding.

• Another advantage of the dam is to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide; generating electricity equal to about 40 million tons of coal.

Disadvantages of Dam• More than 1.1 million people had to be

resettled.• The project increased the risk of

earthquakes and landslides. • It threatens the river wildlife. In

addition to massive fish species, it also affects endangered species, including the Yangtze dolphin, the Chinese Sturgeon, the Chinese Tiger, the Chinese Alligator, the Siberian Crane, and the Giant Panda.

• Silt trapped behind the dam has caused problems with electrical generation and has deprived farmers of the fertile silt downstream.

• Construction of the dam required extensive logging in the area.

• Finally, the dam and the reservoir destroyed some of China’s finest scenery which is an important source of tourism revenue.

Bay of Bengal

• The Bay of Bengal is bordered by India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka.

• Strategically important to India because of the outlying islands.

South China Sea

South China Sea

• States and territories with borders on the sea (clockwise from north) include: China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam.

• The South China Sea was the starting point of the "Silk Road on the Ocean" during the last millennium.

Yellow SeaPollution Threatens Olympic Sailing In Yellow

Sea

Yellow Sea• Found between mainland China and the Korean

Pennisula.• Its name comes from the sand particles from

Gobi Desert sand storms that turn the surface of the water golden yellow during sunset

• The intertidal mudflats of the Yellow Sea are of great importance for migratory shorebirds. Surveys show that the area is the single most important site for migratory birds on northward migration in the entire East Asian - Australasian Flyway.

• A minimum number of two million birds passing through at the time, with about half that number using it on southward migration

Gobi Desert• The Gobi desert, one of the

world's great deserts, covers much of the southern part of Mongolia. Unlike the Sahara there are few sand dunes in the Gobi; rather you'll find large barren expenses of gravel plains and rocky outcrops.

• The climate here is extreme. Temperatures reach +40° C. in summer, and -40 in winter.

• Great Gobi National Park is one of the largest World Biospheres, with an area larger than Switzerland. It contains the last remaining wild Bacterian (two-humped) camels, and a small population of Gobi bears, the only desert-inhabiting bear.

Gobi Desert

 Khongoryn Els (Singing Dunes) Omngobi Aimag

•This is one of the few areas of sand dune formations. Up to 200m tall and many km long, the Khongoryn Els are a popular

tourist destination.

•The Gobi is most notable in history as part of the great Mongol Empire, and as the location of several important cities along the Silk Road.

Taklimakan Desert• The Taklamakan Desert, also

called The Desert of Death, is located in China.

• One of the largest sandy deserts in the world, ranking 15th in size in a ranking of the world's largest non-polar deserts.

• Scientists consider it to be the most dangerous desert in the world.

• Taklamakan is a cold desert climate. Because it is close to the Siberian winds, extreme lows are recorded in wintertime, sometimes well below −20 °C (−4 °F).

• It if famous for being a part of the Silk Road.

2008 Winter Snow in Taklamakan.

Taklimakan Desert

•There is very little water in the desert and it is hazardous to cross. Merchant caravans on the Silk Road would stop for relief at the thriving oasis towns.

Kashgar is one of the oasis towns located in the Taklimakan Desert that was important along the Silk Road.

Himalaya Mountains

• Himalayas for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau.

• Together, the Himalayan mountain system is the planet's highest and home to the world's highest peaks, which includes Mount Everest and K2.

• The Himalayas and their combined drainage basin is home to some 3 billion people, almost half of earth population.

Himalayas

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/earth/shock.html

•According to the modern theory of plate tectonics, their formation is a result of a continental collision along the convergent boundary between the Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. This is referred to as a fold mountain.

Korean Peninsula

•The peninsula is surrounded by the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea, and the Yellow Sea, the Korea Strait connecting the first two bodies of water.

•Until the end of World War II, Korea was a single political entity whose territory roughly coincided with the Korean Peninsula. Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, the northern half has been occupied by North Korea, while the southern half has been occupied by South Korea.

Korean Peninsula

• North Korea is a single-party state under a united front led by the Korean Workers' Party.

• The country's government follows the Juche ideology of self-reliance.

• Command Economy

South Korea is a semi- presidential government in which a president and a prime minister are both active participants in the day-to-day administration of the state. It differs from a parliamentary republic in that it has a popularly elected head of state who is more than a purely ceremonial figurehead, and from the presidential system in that the cabinet, although named by the president, is responsible to the legislature, which may force the cabinet to resign through a motion of no confidence.

Kim Jong-il

China

India

Indonesia

Japan

North Korea

South Korea

Vietnam