Physiographic macroregions of China
Encyclopedia
Physiographic macroregions of China is a term suggested by an American
anthropologist G. William Skinner
as a subdivision of China Proper
into 9 areas according to the drainage basin
s of the major rivers and other travel-constraining geomorphological features. They are distinct in terms of environment, economic resources, culture and more or less interdependent histories with often unsynchronized developmental macrocycles. They were described in Skinner's landmark essays in The City in Late Imperial China (1977)
The physiographic macroregions are available in GIS Shapefile format from the China Historical GIS Project.
Modern provinces of Xinjiang
, Tibet
, Qinghai
and a larger part of Inner Mongolia
are not considered by Skinner's scheme.
has 9 socioeconomic macroregions with cores not changed from the physiographic ones of the 19th century, but with changed territorial extents.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
anthropologist G. William Skinner
G. William Skinner
George William Skinner was a leading American anthropologist and scholar of China. Skinner was a leading proponent of the spatial approach to Chinese history, as explained in his Presidential Address to the Association for Asian Studies in 1984...
as a subdivision of China Proper
China proper
China proper or Eighteen Provinces was a term used by Western writers on the Qing Dynasty to express a distinction between the core and frontier regions of China. There is no fixed extent for China proper, as many administrative, cultural, and linguistic shifts have occurred in Chinese history...
into 9 areas according to the drainage basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
s of the major rivers and other travel-constraining geomorphological features. They are distinct in terms of environment, economic resources, culture and more or less interdependent histories with often unsynchronized developmental macrocycles. They were described in Skinner's landmark essays in The City in Late Imperial China (1977)
The physiographic macroregions are available in GIS Shapefile format from the China Historical GIS Project.
19th century
Skinner and his school maintain that prior to the modernization, the transportation was largely constrained by the terrain and the physiographical macroregions are a close approximation for the socioeconomical macroregions of the 19th century China. These macroregions are defined by Skinner as follows.- 10 Northeast ChinaNortheast ChinaNortheast China, historically known in English as Manchuria, is a geographical region of China, consisting of the three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The region is sometimes called the Three Northeast Provinces...
, 东北区 - 20 North ChinaNorth Chinathumb|250px|Northern [[People's Republic of China]] region.Northern China or North China is a geographical region of China. The heartland of North China is the North China Plain....
, 华北区 - 30 Northwest China 西北区
- WeiWei RiverThe Wei River is a major river in west-central China's Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. It is the largest tributary of the Yellow River and very important in the early development of Chinese civilization....
-FenFen RiverThe Fen River drains the center of Shanxi Province, China. It rises in the Guancen Mountains of Ningwu County in northeast Shanxi, flows southeast into the basin of Taiyuan, and then south through the central valley of Shanxi before turning west to join the Yellow River west of Hejin. The Fen and...
Basins 渭汾流域分区 - Upper Huang River Basin 黄河上游分区
- GansuGansu' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...
Corridor 河西(甘肃)走廊分区
- Wei
- 40 Upper Yangtze 长江上游区
- 50 Middle Yangtze 长江中游区
- Middle Yangtze proper 长江中游分区
- Gan Basin 赣江流域分区
- YuanYuan RiverThe Yuan River is one of the four largest rivers in Hunan province in southeast-central China, and is a tributary of Yangtze River.It is long and rises in Guizhou province in the Miao Mountains near Tu-yün and is navigable. The upper stream is called the Lung-t'ou River, and downstream it is...
Basin 沅江流域分区 - Upper HanHan River (Hanshui)The Han River is a left tributary of the Yangtze River with a length of 1532 km. Historically it was referred to as Hànshuǐ and the name is still occasionally used today....
Basin 汉江上游分区
- 60 Lower Yangtze 长江下游区
- 70 Southeast Coast 东南沿海区 (approximately FujianFujian' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
, eastern part of GuangdongGuangdongGuangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, southern part of ZhejiangZhejiangZhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
, and TaiwanTaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
)- Ou-Ling River Basins 瓯灵流域分区
- Min River Basin 闽江流域分区
- Zhang-Quan 漳泉分区 (ZhangzhouZhangzhouZhangzhou is a prefecture-level city in southern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. Located on the banks of the Jiulong River , Zhangzhou borders the cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou to the northeast, Longyan City to the northwest and the province of Guangdong to the southwest.Zhangzhou...
plus QuanzhouQuanzhouQuanzhou is a prefecture-level city in Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders all other prefecture-level cities in Fujian but two and faces the Taiwan Strait...
) - Han Basin 韩江流域分区
- TaiwanTaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
台湾分区
- 80 LingnanLingnanLingnan is a geographic area referring to lands in the south of China's "Five Ranges" which are Tayu, Qitian, Dupang, Mengzhu, Yuecheng. The region covers the Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces of modern China and northern Vietnam...
岭南区, which may be translated as "South of Mountains". It includes the Southern coast and nearly coincides with the two entities: province of GuangdongGuangdongGuangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
and GuangxiGuangxiGuangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
autonomous region, together traditionally called "Two Guang provinces", or LiangguangLiangguangLiangguang is a term referring to the province of Guangdong and autonomous region of Guangxi on the southern coast of China. Before 1988, Guangdong province also included what is now the province of Hainan.-History:...
. - 90 Yungui 云贵区; covers most of Yunnan Province and larger part of Guizhou Province and corresponds to the Yungui Plateau.
Modern provinces of Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
, Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
, Qinghai
Qinghai
Qinghai ; Oirat Mongolian: ; ; Salar:) is a province of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake...
and a larger part of Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
are not considered by Skinner's scheme.
20th century
According to Skinner's analysis, the 20th century China excluding Inner AsiaInner Asia
Inner Asia has a range of meanings among different researchers and in different countries. Denis Sinor defined Inner Asia broadly as the homelands of the Altaic peoples and the Uralic peoples .German makes a distinction between "Zentralasien", meaning Mongolia, Tibet, Xinjiang, and...
has 9 socioeconomic macroregions with cores not changed from the physiographic ones of the 19th century, but with changed territorial extents.
See also
- Regions of China
- Administrative divisions of China
- Geography of China#History