Geography & Trade
Map
East Asia
East Asia can be defined by geography or culture, but the United Nations usually includes the following seven countries and regions: China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, Japan, Macao Special Administrative Region of China, Mongolia and the Republic of Korea.
Mapping by Memory
Break the class into seven groups and assign each one a country or region of East Asia. Have them physically assemble themselves into where they would be located if they were that country on a map.
The geography of East Asia is diverse. From China’s mountainous regions to its rapidly developing urban centers, from Japan’s many islands to its urban landscape, the geography changes from country to country and even within countries themselves. Whether you’re exploring the bamboo forests of China or trekking through sand in the great Gobi desert of Mongolia, you’re experiencing some of the wonders of East Asia.
Geography Facts
Here are a few other geographical highlights about East Asia:
- The Great Wall of China, one of the wonders of the world, winds up and down for more than 4,000 miles (6,000 kilometers). It travels across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus. Parts of the wall are more than 2,000 years old.
- The Himalayan Mountains stretch into East Asia. The Himalayas are sometimes called “The Roof of the World” because they are so high.
The climate of East Asia is as varied as the landscape. Different regions of East Asia experience bitter winters and sweltering summers, dry spells and rainy seasons, and all of the moderate temperatures in between. With diverse weather comes a high incidence of natural disasters, including floods, droughts, earthquakes, typhoons and even snowstorms.
In most East Asian countries, industry is growing rapidly. The wealthiest East Asian country is Japan, an island state composed of the main island and thousands of smaller peripheral ones. Japan’s wealth doesn’t come from natural resources, since it has few of these, but rather from providing goods like automobiles and electronics to the world.
Other world-ranking industrial centers in East Asia are Taiwan and Hong Kong. In these two areas, industry is booming. With rapid growth comes overcrowding and pollution of major cities like these ones as well as others like Shanghai, Beijing and Taipei. Despite overcrowding and pollution, most people in urban centers have a better standard of living than people in rural areas and are able to afford things like health care and education.
People living in rural areas aren’t as fortunate. In these areas, most people are farmers, and they often remain mired in poverty without the means to send their children to school.
In terms of trade, North Korea and China, both communist countries, help one another’s economies considerably. While North Korea is one of the most reclusive economies in the world, China has opened up to increasing international trade and investment. Today, China is the fastest growing economy in the world.