Topic: China - the most populous country in the world

Addressee

Elementary school students  VIII

Program basis

XIV. Selected problems and geographical regions of Asia. Asia as a continent of geographical contrasts.

6. using the map explains the diversity of population density in China;

7. presents the directions of China's economic development and assesses their significance in the global economy.

General aim of education

The student will characterize the distribution of population and economic development in the People's Republic of China

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• determine the geographical position of the People's Republic of China;

• give the main features of the natural environment;

• characterize the population distribution in China;

• indicate the directions of economic development and the importance of China in the global economy.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students get acquainted with the content of the abstract. They prepare to work on the lesson in such a way to be able to summarize the material read in their own words and solve the tasks themselves.

Introduction

• The teacher asks the student to launch the Google Maps on the interactive whiteboard and display the area to be covered by the lesson in the satellite view. Students analyze the photo together.

• The students, selected by the teacher, refer the lesson they read at home before the classes.

Realization

• Students determine the geographical location of China and indicate neighboring countries.

• Analysis of China's hypsometric map of the manual. Eager / selected students indicate the geographical features found in China: mountain ranges, highlands, lowlands, valleys, deserts.

• The next task of the students is to find in the source materials the area of the state and compare it with the size of other countries, including Poland, Russia, USA, Brazil. Czech. Eager / selected students share information, and the rest of the class verifies and completes it if necessary. The teacher initiates a discussion about the space occupied by different countries and asks the pupils to exchange them in order from the largest to the smallest.

• Work in pairs. Using geographical atlases, students develop the population distribution in China: disparities in distribution - causes; areas with the highest concentration of population (indication of causes and consequences), an indication of the largest agglomerations in China.

• Work in groups. Class division into 4 groups. The teacher informs students that they will prepare a presentation of „China as an economic powerhouse”. Within each team, students choose the thematic areas to be developed. They can use various source materials (atlases, e‑textbook, internet, etc.). Then, after a specified period of time, the pupils collectively verify the information they have collected. Finally, on a large sheet of paper or in the Google Slides app, they create a presentation about China
  Issues to develop:
  - elements conducive to economic development;
  - mineral resources;
  - China's participation in global production of selected industrial goods;
  - agriculture; land use structure, main crops and their distribution;
  - special export zones;
  - sea ports;
  - GDP.

• Groups present a completed task in the class forum. The other students evaluate their colleagues: they indicate the strengths and weaknesses of the presentation, indicate what and how it can be improved.

Summary

• At the conclusion of the lesson, students perform interactive exercises together on an interactive whiteboard.

• The teacher asks: If there was going to be a test on the material we have covered today, what questions do you think would you have to answer? If the students do not manage to name all the most important questions, the teacher may complement their suggestions.

Homework

• Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

• Make at home a note from the lesson using the sketchnoting method.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

China - the most populous country in the world

China lies in East and Central Asia. It is the third largest country in the world by surface area after the Russian Federation and Canada. It has the surface area of 9 million 573 thousand square km, which means it is slightly smaller than Europe and slightly larger than Australia. China occupies 6.4% of the Earth's land area.
People's Republic of China is the official name of today's state which was formed in 1949 after the damaging civil war. It is the most populous country in the world, counting a 1 billion 390 million (data of 2017), which constitutes 18.7% of the total Earth's population.

Looking at China's hypsometric map you can see a high differentiation of the features of Earth's surface. The huge areas of mountains and highlands are clearly marked in the west and center, while yhe lowlands are in the east. The map shows a significant predominance of mountains and highlands - areas located above 500 meters above sea level take up 75% of the China's territory.
The highest areas include the mountain ranges of the Himalayas and Karakorum in the south‑western part of the country. These are the highest mountains on Earth, the only ones with peaks reaching above 8 thousand meters above sea level. Mount Everest (8850 m above sea level) in the Hymalayas and  K2/Czogori (8611 m above sea level) in Karakorum are the two tallest summits in the world. Slightly lower altitudes (5 - 6 thousand m above sea level) are reached by the neighboring vast Tibetan Plateau. The region of Tibet is the highest plateau on Earth and for that reason it is often called the roof of the world. Within the Tibetan Plateau there are latitudinally arranged mountain ranges, which locally exceed the altitude of 7 thousand meters above sea level. – Kunlun with the summit of Muztag (7723 m above sea level).

It is in Tibet that the great Chinese rivers flowing eastward – Huang He and Yangtze, as well as other great rivers flowing in the south‑east direction have their springs: Mekong, Irawadi, Brahmaputra.
Large internal valleys spread to the north of Tibet. Two largest include: Kashgar Valley and Dzungarian Valley are separated from each other with another range of high mountains - Tien‑shan. These are arid and semi‑arid areas where deserts and semi‑deserts are found. The rivers that spring in the neighboring mountains end their course in the bottoms of the valleys which do not have the outflow. Tarim is the largest of those.
In the northeastern part of China, adjacent to Tibet are The Mongolian Plateau with Gobi desert and the Loess Plateau being the largest loess area in the world. The thickness of the loess bed reaches 250 m there. It is from the yellow loess dust that the river Huang He takes its name, which means Yellow River.
In the northeast of China there is Manchuria, and to the south of it, in the lower flow of Huang He and Yangtze, known for the development of first civilizations, is the North China Plain.
To the south of Yangtze river there are the South China Mountains which only slightly exceed the altitude of 2 thousand meters above sea level.

For many years China has been the most populous country in the world. Towards the end of 1930's the population of China reached 500 million. In 1981 China became the first country whose population exceeded 1 billion. Officially its population is now 1 billion 390 million (data of 2017).
The population of China is distributed very unevenly, and the main decisive factor is the differentiation of the natural environment of the country. Up to 95% of Chinese population lives in the eastern part of the country. The highest density of population is present in the North China Plain - on average it amounts to app. 800 people per 1 square kilometer. High density of population is present also in the coastal strip, where it frequently exceeds 200 people per 1 square kilometer. In the central part of China where the mountains and highlands begin, there is a drastic decrease in the density of population in the western direction. The vast areas of Tibet and the arid valleys remain very poorly populated due to difficult terrain and climate conditions.

There has been an increase in the urban population in recent years. Currently there are about 80 cities in China with the population of over 1 million inhabitants. Two of those have more than 15 million inhabitants - they are the so‑called mega cities:

• Beijing – 19,5 million, capital city;

• Shanghai – 23.0 million, an enormous sea port at the estuary of Yangtze river.

In the remaining 15 cities there are between 5 and 15 million people. Some of them form even more densely populated urban areas with smaller centers. China's great cities are located mainly in the coastal strip, in the Manchuria plain, in the North China Plain and in the valleys of the three great rivers: Huang He, Yangtze and Xijang.
The graph shows changes in population and the growth of urban population in China in years 1980‑2030.

The largest nationalgroup consists of the Chinese of Han nationality who constitute 92% of the total population. There are 55 other nationalities who live in China, 18 of which count more than 1 million people. The most numerous include the Chuang (15.7 million), Manchu (10.1 million) and Tibetan (4.7 million), who had their own independent state in the years 1912–1950.