Understanding China in Geography

China is the world's largest country in population and the third largest in land area. China has the world's oldest living civilization. Its written history goes back about 3500 years. Since China is open its market to international investors in 1980s, the Chinese Economy has experienced an annual growth rate of about 10%. China's global economic importance will certainly continue to increase, and it represents what may be the world's largest experiment in contrasting development strategies. Meanwhile, the declining environment of China has become a globe concern. China is a unique laboratory which brings together a rich mixture of ecological, ethnic, economic, cultural, and other factors. China also provides a unique case for examining the processes and consequences of the contrasting nature of regional economics and differentials in their rates of development, which can help our understanding of complex interactions between population growth, economic development, and resource and environmental mobilization and management. Collaborated with scholars from various fields, this project will develop a multi-dimension framework in space and time to help students a better understanding in the characteristics of environment, natural resources, population, economic development and culture of China.

The objectives of this project include:

• To design a curriculum for the class on the introduction to the economy, culture and environment of China in terms of spatial distribution. 
• To collect and combine data and documents from different resources (such as geographical, cultural, environmental, and socioeconomic data) into the frame of economic, cultural and environmental geography of China.
• To improve students' understanding of the characteristics of environment, natural resources, population, recent economic development and culture features of China. 
• To establish a virtual course of economic, cultural and environmental geography of China.

Sponsors: 

• The Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, University of Michigan 
• The International Institute, University of Michigan 
• CIESIN, Columbia University 

Project Director: Shuming Bao, China Data Center, University of Michigan 

Co-investigators: 

• Qiang Ning, Department of History of Arts, University of Michigan 
• Yue Liu, the Institute of Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences 

Web Development: Weikai Huang, China Data Center, University of Michigan 

Participants: 

• Chang, Stella
• Hong, Soo-Jung 
• Ip, Hei Man Ami 
• Kim, Eun-hyung 
• Lam, Chun Ho 
• Liu, Chang 
• Ma, Yue 
• Mabee, Zach 
• Ouyang, Kunlun 
• Yuan, Alex 
• Cater, Andre
• Waicheong Lai
• Leung Shun Hin
• Sohee Park
• Wei-nien Wang
• Chan Tsz Ying
• Wan Yee Yip
• Kenny Song