Readings for Unit 1: Introduction

• The general formulation of the contradiction between environment and development
• The population, precipitation, and physiographic maps, and they way they coincide with each other.
• The ways in which the distribution of resources and demands indicated in these maps is likely to influence the different kinds of environmental issues in different areas. For example, where is air pollution likely to be the most serious, or land degradation, or biodiversity conservation.

G. William Skinner, "The Structure of Chinese History," The Journal of Asian Studies, 1985
This is a classic statement by the master of all spatial studies of China about how time and space have integrated to produce the patterns of distribution and change throughout the history of China. From this article, you should take away:

• An appreciation of what physiographic regions are, how they are structured, and how they interact
• A sense of the distribution of resources in China Proper
• A basic sense of the important historical developments of the past 4-500 years.

Colin Mackerras, "Pre-Twentieth Century History," from China's Minorities
This is an account of how what is now political China came to be consolidated out of an inner core region of China Proper and outer regions that are ecologically and ethnically different. You should take away an understanding of the relationship between the physical, ecological, and ethnic geographies of China.

Terry Cannon, "Regions: spatial inequality and regional policy," in Terry Cannon and Alan Jenkins, eds., The Geography of China
This article introduces yet another regionalization, that of development and economic growth. You should be aware of

• The historical periodization of the 20th and 21st centuries
• The connections between this economic-growth model and the physical, ecological, and ethnic regionalizations you found in the earlier articles.