Mandarin Monthly

SUMMER EDITION 2012

Table of Contents
GEOGRAPHY ...............................................................................................................................2 FAST FACTS .................................................................................................................................2 LIVING IN CHINA .......................................................................................................................3 ANIMAL AND PLANT SPECIES IN CHINA ..............................................................................4

FAST FACTS
CAPITAL: Beijing (in the northeast part of China) LANGUAGE: In China, they speak Standard Chinese or Mandarin. SCHOOLING: 96% of males and 88.5% of females can read and write in China. As a total, 92.2% of people aged 15 and over can read and write. GOVERNMENT: Chinas is a republic, which means they have a president, they run the country themselves and represent the country. INTERNET USERS: China has a huge 389 million people with access to the internet, whereas Australia has about 15 million. (2009) THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA: The great wall of China was built over 2500 years ago to protect against invaders from the north. Troops would patrol the wall to defend China against attack. The wall was once over 6000 miles long, and is now about 3750 miles long. RELIGION: The main religions in China include; Taoist, Buddhist and Muslim. NATIONAL FLAG: Red with ve stars.

Geography

AREA
The total area of China is 9 596 691 square kilometers. Only 3 countries in the world are bigger than it (Russia Canada, United States).

LANDSCAPES
China is a large country with varying landscapes, including mountains, high plateaus, sandy deserts and dense forests.

RIVERS
The two most important rivers in China are The Yangtze (also known as Chang Jiang) and the Yellow River. At 6300 km the Yangtze is the worlds third largest river. The Yangtze River ows by Shanghai. The yellow river crosses the Great Wall Of China.

BORDERING COUNTRIES
China has 14 bordering countries, including Mongolia and Russian Federation.

SEAS / OCEANS
To the east of China, the Pacic Ocean borders, and the South China Sea borders along the southeast side of China.

TERRAIN
Mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west, plains, deltas and hills in east. Very different to Australia with low plateaus, deserts and fertile plain in southeast.

MOUNTAINS
One-third of Chinas land area is made up of mountains. The tallest mountain on Earth, Mt Everest sits on the border between China and Nepal. 3

Living in China
by Sam Judkins

CHINESE PEOPLE...
In China, more boys are born because they are more useful to the country as they become workers.

POPULATION
China has a very large population of 1 343 329 923 (July 2012 est.) It is the country with the biggest population in the whole world. It makes up 1/6 of the world. Their population growth rate is 0.481 %, whereas Australias is 1.126 %. However majority of the population is male, as many chinese mothers will get abortions if they nd out that the sex of their baby is female, because they believe females are less useful to them and boys are easier to raise, as well as when boys grow up they become workers and earn more money for their family. The urban population is 47% of the population. It means the number of people living in the cities. The population density in China is 133.69 people per sqkm (ranked 72nd in the world) whereas Australia is 52 times less, with a population density of 2.65 people per sqkm (ranked 224th). Most of the people in China live in the Eastern and Southern half of the country because it has a coastline and numerous offshore islands. It is a region of fertile lowlands, with most

Most chinese people are famers and herders.They have a major challenge to keep the countries large population fed.

of the agricultural output and population.

LIFE EXPECTANCY
Males in China are expected to live 72.84 years, whereas females are only expected to live 72.11 years.

BIRTH/DEATH RATES
Chinas birth rate is 12.31 births / 1000 population (July 2012 est.) and the death rate for China is 7.17 deaths / 1000 population. Compared to Australia with lower rates of 12.28 births / 1000 population and 6.94 deaths / 1000 population.

EMPLOYMENT
The biggest sector of working chinese people is agriculture, with a total of 36.7 % of the population working in that sector.

POVERTY IN CHINA

Currently, a total of 13.4 % of people in China are living below the poverty line. China is working to decrease this even more by raising the poverty line. 4

Animal and Plant Species in China

by Sam Judkins

ENDANGERED SPECIES
The giant panda is an endangered species. It lives in the misty mountains southwest CHina and nowhere else in the world. They eat bamboo and usually live near strands of the woody evergreen plant. Pandas have been hunted and only about 1600 remain on Earth,

THREATS TO ANIMAL AND PLANT SPECIES

Two examples of what threatens animal and plant species in China are: - logging and clear cutting (clearing the land of all the trees) - expanding deserts in the north, which shrink animal habitats.

WHAT IS BEING DONE ABOUT IT?

The government in China has created more than 1200 reserves to protect plant and animal species.