A Comparative Geography of China and the U.S.

The chapter introduces the theme and the approach of a comparison of the two countries. The introduction includes a discussion of the regional geography tradition within the history of geographic thought. Further, it outlines the five main reasons for a comparison of the human and physical geography of China and the United States. First, China and the U.S. are large mid-latitudinal countries which are both located in the northern hemisphere. Second, China and the U.S. are home to large populations marked by an increasing cultural and ethnic diversity. Third, China and the U.S. represent cultures with important contributions to world civilization (Eastern and Western traditions of world civilization). Fourth, China and the U.S. are leading economies in the Pacific realm and worldwide. Fifth, China and the U.S. have significant political power in the world. In the final section of the chapter, an overview of the structure and organization of the book is given.

A comparative physical geography of both countries is an important step to better understand their complex relationships. First, the topography and landforms of China and the U.S. are presented in great detail. Next, the climates of both countries are discussed, and the variety of climate conditions is shown. The following section introduces rivers and lakes and outlines the basic drainage systems in both countries. Vegetation patterns and soils are the focus of the next section which discusses the latitudinal and altitudinal zonations. The section on natural disasters in China and the U.S. compares the role and significance of earthquakes, of hurricanes and typhoons as well as tornados, of floods and droughts. Both countries are located in major earthquake belts. Further, it is shown that China has a more noticeable monsoonal climate with different implications for the occurrence of typhoons, floods and droughts. The chapter includes also a section on environmental issues and problems. The final section of the chapter focuses on the general physical zonations of the two countries and closes with a physical geography regionalization.

This chapter examines the historical and geographical peopling of China and the United States. Using current United States Census Bureau data from the 2010 census as well as the most current census data from China, the authors examine the patterns, similarities and differences of these two fascinating countries. The comparisons articulate the geographic realities that have formed the current demographic profiles as well as the directions both countries are heading towards. The various ethnicities involved in the internal emigrations are examined in an effort to understand the links between populations and economic production based upon spatial distributions. Finally, the possibilities of future growth are examined with an eye to understanding what the future holds.

China and America are top producers of many agricultural commodities. Each is a large and diverse nation with a range of climates and agricultural systems. Many crops are grown in similar settings in each country, such as wheat in the Great Plains of America and North China Plain Corn is of greater importance in the U.S. while rice is a major crop in China. The diversity and level of capital investment in many forms of agriculture in particular in the State of California is unexcelled on earth. While the intensity of agriculture on the Lower Yangtze plain is unique. China also has unique agricultural regions such as the silk and tea industries and highly developed aquaculture. This chapter presents a wealth of information about each country’s agricultural capabilities and diversity as well as discussing some pressing issues related to agriculture such as erosion, pollution and obesity.

Although the U.S. and China are the two largest economies in the world, the economic geographies of the two countries display different patterns. The U.S. is much more advanced than China in economic development, while China is growing much faster. Chapter 5 compares the growth and geographies of the natural resource and mining, the industrial sector, and services sector of the two countries. Both China and the U.S. take advantage of their abundant natural resources through mining. While the U.S. focused on domestic oil and gas exploration to keep up with its high per capita energy consumption, China invested heavily overseas for its growing quest for energy and raw materials for industrial production. The U.S. experienced deindustrialization and has reached the post-industrial stage of economic development, in which services is the most important economic sector in both income and employment. China is still in the industrialization stage and has become the largest manufacturer in the world. Services in China are the fastest growing sector and receives the most investment. Economic geography in the U.S. emphasizes urban areas, especially those in Northeastern and Western coasts. Economic activities in China are concentrated in cities on the eastern coast, but a good portion of those is agricultural activities that spread widely across the rural areas.

The clear benefit of international trade comes as no surprise to economic geographers or to most of the readers of this volume. What might surprise readers is how, increasingly, national statistics related to the proportional share of international trade, especially for merchandise, for China and the U.S. appear to be converging. While wealthier nations such as the U.S., Japan, and the EU nations have service-sector domestic economies, services still account for a minority share of international trade. This chapter, then, largely concentrates on the “lion’s share” of international trade; that is trade in manufactured goods with a concentration on the trade history and trade issues for China, the United States, and finally trade between these two nations for the years from 1990 to 2011.

A new geography is transforming how a large quantity of the world’s population lives and works. The Megaregion, a vast expanse of urban, suburban and sometimes even rural territory connected through economic, social, cultural and environmental linkages is a global reality. Megaregions consists of more than 10 million inhabitants and can stretch across national and international political boundaries. These ‘endless cities’ can be found on North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. In this chapter we will explore several Megaregions located within China and the United States of America. These two countries offer interesting case studies from which to begin to understand the importance of Megaregions and the impact they have on the planet. The discussion that follows will attempt to define the unique characteristics and provide a better understanding of the evolving urban geography of Megraregions in each country. It is interesting to analyze this emerging geographic phenomenon in light of the drastically different political and economic realities of the United States and China. As you will discover, both countries have witnessed the development of similar Megaregional structures, but through vastly different circumstances and processes. While, not discussing why Megaregions have become so important for each country, the discussion that follows does provide an excellent overview of this global experience in select Megaregions of China and the United States.

Successful industrial clusters rest on human activities, building on a base of physical location attributes. This chapter utilizes three pairs of case studies comparing the economic trajectory of six major Chinese and US urban areas in different parts of the country and in different stages of development. Located on an east coast corridor of early industrial development, Harbin-Dalian and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania experienced a rustbelt revival from their traditional heavy industries. They exemplify preserving old strengths while dealing with new opportunities in changed economic circumstances. The mid-continental inland transportation hubs of Wuhan and Indianapolis relied on inter-modal growth, moving goods between origin and destination points as well as innovative improvements and diversifying economically with services. A pair of high tech habitats wraps up the comparison of models: Beijing’s Zhongguan’cun and the U.S. west coast’s San Diego, Silicon Valley, and Seattle. Each successful metropolitan region benefits from a combination of road, rail or water transportation; a profitable industry base; an amenity environment that creates and sustains a well-educated labor force; city planning which directs incentives in line with business attraction goals; technological innovation within the cluster; and information networks supporting rapid adaptation to changing circumstances.

This chapter explores the urban development histories of four Chinese and U.S. cities: Chengdu, Shenzhen, Phoenix and Las Vegas. These cities experienced rapid population growth at different phases after World War II, and aggressively pursued economic growth through a mix of development strategies: national-level investments, programs to promote targeted industries and local entrepreneurship, and deregulation policies designed to build comparative advantage. All four cities have sprawled broadly across their surrounding landscapes. Their patterns of urban expansion are organized both by the geography of their physical settings and local institutional and economic processes such as the investment in satellite settlements around Chengdu. As a result of these rapid and dispersed growth patterns, all four regions are encountering resource constraints including water availability, loss of agricultural land, and access to appropriately-configured locations for green spaces and infrastructure. The long-term livability of these cities, and their viability as engines for economic growth, may depend on their institutional capacities to manage shortages of key natural resources.

Most cereal and meat production in both China and America is concentrated in a few regions. The three regions in China discussed are the North-Eastern Plain, the Northern China Plain and the Middle and Lower Yangtze plain. These are centers of corn, wheat and Rice, respectively. The two main cereal production regions of the U.S are the Corn Belt in the North-Central Midwest and the larger Great Plains region farther to the west. The Corn Belt is dominated by corn production but pigs are important and extensively exported including to China. Wheat is dominant in the Great Plains and cattle are an important associated livestock resource. Each of these five regions is vital to world food security and commodity price stability and thus deserve the special attention this chapter devotes to them.

While very limited contacts and linkages among Chinese and American geographers go back to the mid-twentieth century, actual direct contacts and collaboration did not get underway until the late 1970s and 1980s following the beginning of bilateral relations and the initiation of reforms in China. These contacts began in earnest in the 1980s in the context of broader scientific and technology exchanges and focused on three main areas—the environment, energy, and climate change.

Geography in China during the post-1949 socialist era largely focused on physical geography owing to the close ties to the former Soviet Union. By contrast, American geography emphasized human geography. As ties between American and Chinese geographers grew, some convergence between the two themes emerged linked to human-environment studies. These studies enabled scholars in both countries to contribute and to enable field studies in which scholars from each country collaborated.

Despite periodic interruptions as a result of political differences between the two countries, growing numbers of geographers in both countries with mutual interests and research agendas have led to growing links and collaborations. Mutual benefits accrue to both countries as China’s economy continues to grow and the methodologies and research foci are shared among an increased number of scholars in both countries. China’s growing emphasis on its urban settings offers new opportunities for expanded cooperation and collaboration along with increased attention to the human-environment interface as a subject within rural as well urban settings.

Recent developments in the economy as well as the continuing search for energy resources and the emphasis on sustainable development indicate considerable promise for future collaboration among geographers in China and the United States.

The epilogue reconstructs the beginnings of the book project and marks the major passages till its completion over many years of collaboration, with visits and joint meetings frequently held in Beijing as well as necessary exchanges in communication at several conference sites in the United States. Despite the efforts made to cover a wide array of themes and topics in the book the editors realize that there are still further tasks for a comparative geography of China and the U.S. Among the mentioned fields to be included in future comparative studies are an update on the increased mobility, travel and tourism in China and the U.S., the changing cultural and social geography in both countries and more detailed information on global climate change as prevalent in parts of China and the U.S. The editors close out the epilogue with strongly emphasizing the potential of the comparative approach in geographic education.