Landmarks

Beijing: the capital of the People's Republic of China.

Summer Palace
There are a variety of websites introducing Bejing, please visit:
http://www.flashpaper.com/beijing/
http://www.beijingscene.com/

 

Shanghai: the biggest city of China.

Shanghai is China's biggest city, and her largest industrial center as well. At the threshold of the Yangtz River Delta, Shanghai lies in the middle of China's Coast Line. Shanghai has a population of 14 million people with an area of 6, 340.5 square kilometers. lt is the economic, trade and financial center as well as a transportation hub of the nation.

The Great Wall, built over 2,000 years ago, is one of the world's wonders in ancient architecture. It is said to be visible from the moon. Its total length is more than 2,500 kilometers, but quite a number of places are made up of several walls. The actual length comes to over 6,000 kilometres (more than 12,000li). Construction of the Great Wall started in the 7th century B.C. The vassal states under the Zhou Dynasty in the northern parts of the country each built their own walls for defense purposes. After the state of Qin unified China in 221 B.C., it joined the walls to hold off the invaders from the Xiongnu tribes in the north and extended them to more than 10,000 li or 5,000 kilometers. This is the origin of the name Of the "10,000-li Great Wall".

To watch a film about the Great Wall, please visit:
http://heritage.cn.tom.com/video/cc.ram
For more information, please visit:
http://abe.www.ecn.purdue.edu/~agenhtml/agenmc/china/scengw.html

The Changjiang (Yangtze) River, whose total length is 6,300 kilometres, is the longest river in China and the third longest in the world after the Amazon in South America and the Nile in Africa. The Yangtze River rises in the glaciers and snow-covered mountains of the "Roof of the World", the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and makes an incessant rush into the East China Sea. The most impressive section of the river is the three Yangtze River gorges: the Qutang Gorge, Wuxia Gorge and Xiling Gorge, collectively known as the Sanxia, or Three Gorges.

Reference: The Three Gorges

For more information about Chiangjinag, please go to: http://www.chinavista.com/travel/yangtze/main.html http://www2.virtualtourist.com/m/.98928/681/?s=c

The Huanghe (Yellow) River is the second largest with a total length of 5,464 kilometers. The source of Yellow River is traced to a basin at the foot of the Bayankala Mountains, which form the great divide between China's Yellow River on its north and Yangtze River on its south. Situated in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, its highest peak reaches an altitude of 5267 m.

The position of the Yellow River basin is outlined in the map for East Asia on the right. It lies in approximate latitudes as the states of Virginia, Kansas, Nevada in North America, and countries like Greece and Turkey in the West. For more information about the Yellow river, please visit: http://www.cis.umassd.edu/~gleung/ http://beifan.com/fullindex/page.html

Reference: Yellow River

Additional websites:

For more information about Chinese culture, please visit: http://us.tom.com/culture/

DIGITAL PHOTO GALLERY of China: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cu4w-kwsm/fwb800.htm

 

Created by Ling Wang

Dec, 2001