E-Book Overview
Despite China's obvious and growing importance on the world stage, it is often and easily misunderstood. Indeed, there are many Chinas, as this comprehensive survey of contemporary China vividly illustrates. Now in a thoroughly revised and updated edition that offers the only sustained geography of the reform era, this book traces the changes occurring in this powerful and ancient nation across both time and space. Beginning with China's diverse landscapes and environments, and continuing through its formative history and tumultuous recent past, the authors present contemporary China as a product of both internal and external forces of past and present. They trace current and future successes and challenges while placing China in its international context as a massive, still-developing nation that must meet the needs of its 1.3 billion citizens while becoming a major regional and global player. Through clear prose and new, dynamic maps and photos, China's Geography illustrates and explains the great differences in economy and culture found throughout China's many regions.
E-Book Content
China’s Geography
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China’s Geography Globalization and the Dynamics of Political, Economic, and Social Change Second Edition
Gregory Veeck, Clifton W. Pannell, Christopher J. Smith, and Youqin Huang
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
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Cartography by Dr. Thomas R. Hodler, Professor Emeritus Department of Geography The University of Georgia
Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom Copyright © 2011 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data China’s geography : globalization and the dynamics of political, economic, and social change / Gregory Veeck . . . [et al.]. — 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7425-6782-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7425-6783-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7425-6784-9 (electronic) 1. China. I. Veeck, Gregory, 1956– II. Title. DS706.C51138 2011 915.1—dc22 2011002802
™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America
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Contents
Images and Tables
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Acknowledgments
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China’s Path and Progress China’s Natural Environments Ancient Roots and Binding Traditions The Political Geography of Emerging China Population and Human Resources The Production and Consumption of Culture in Postsocialist China Christopher J. Smith A Preface to China’s Changing Economic Geography Agriculture: From Antiquity to Revolution to Reform China’s Industry, Energy, Trade, and Transportation in a Global Context Urban Development in Contemporary China Youqin Huang Hong Kong before and after the Return Christopher J. Smith Macau (Macao) Taiwan: Enduring East Asian “Economic Miracle”
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