A comparative geography of China and the U.S.

A Comparative Geography of China and the U.S.

GeoJournal Library

Volume 109

Managing Editor:

Daniel Z. Sui, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Founding Series Editor:

Wolf Tietze, Helmstedt, Germany

Editorial Board: Paul Claval, France

Yehuda Gradus, Israel

Sam Ock Park, South Korea

Herman van der Wusten, The Netherlands

For further volumes:

http://www.springer.com/series/6007

Rudi Hartmann • Jing’ai Wang

Editors

Tao Ye

Associate Editor

A Comparative Geography

of China and the U.S.

1 3

ISSN 0924-5499 ISSN 2215-0072 (electronic)

ISBN 978-94-017-8791-8 ISBN 978-94-017-8792-5 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-8792-5

Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014938129

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Editors

Rudi Hartmann

Department of Geography

and Environmental Sciences

University of Colorado Denver

Denver

Colorado

USA

Associate Editor

Tao Ye

State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface

Processes and Resource Ecology

Beijing Normal University

Haidian District

Beijing

China

Jing’ai Wang

School of Geography

Beijing Normal University

Haidian District

Beijing

China

v

Preface

The People’s Republic of China and the United States of America are two countries

with outstanding qualities and features. Both countries, in a mid-latitude location,

have a vast territory as well as large populations. The U.S. and China represent

world powers which exert significant influence globally. As permanent members of

the United Nations Security Council, they have important roles in international af￾fairs. China is an ancient oriental civilization with tremendous historic depth, while

the U.S. is a modern western society founded as an independent state just little

over two hundred years ago. The U.S. and China are the two leading economies in

the world. Despite rapid economic growth over the past three decades China has

retained some characteristics of a developing country as expressed, for instance, in

a moderately high GDP per capita by international comparison. The U.S. has been

the economy with the highest total amount of produced goods and services, and the

country’s GDP per capita is also markedly high.

Exploring the geographical similarities and differences between the two coun￾tries, especially in terms of their populations, resources, cultures and economies,

helps to provide more insights into the human-environment relations in both coun￾tries as well as to enhance and broaden the mutual understanding and common

ground between them. Moreover, such comparative perspectives on the geographies

of China and the U.S. could be valuable for addressing and reaching the goal of

global sustainable development.

An indispensible component of regional geography is a focus on a home area,

state or country with a mission to further national geographic education. Compara￾tive research on the geographies of China and the U.S. contributes to a better under￾standing of the differences and similarities of both countries. A comparative study

of the two countries has become—in the wider context of global change and global￾ization—an important teaching content and research method in regional geography.

The comparative approach dates back to the earliest stages of geography in the

fourth and third centuries B.C. It re-emerged as a viable perspective in the foundation

of modern geography in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Organizing and compiling

relevant teaching materials about the similarities and the differences in the geographies

of China and the U.S. can be the basis for providing scientific and objective insights

into the national conditions for the two countries’ citizens, for promoting spatial and

vi Preface

geographic thinking, for enhancing an understanding of the other country’s cultural

values and ultimately for a sound development of the human-environment relations in

China and the U.S. Thus, this book is a new attempt in the field of comparative geog￾raphy, with potentially great relevance in the field of geographic education.

The main thread of the book is the theme of human-environment interaction,

with core contents on economic and regional sustainable development. The major

approach employed throughout the book is that of a regional comparative study of

China and the U.S. The book is organized in four parts. Part I includes three over￾view chapters: Introduction, Physical Geography and Population & Ethnic Geogra￾phies. Part II consists of four thematic chapters: Agriculture and Food Production,

Economic Geography, International Trade Issues and Status, and Mega-Regions

of China and the U.S. Part III focuses on regional comparisons in three chapters:

a comparison of Regional Urban Economic Clusters, a comparison of four metro￾politan areas in China and the U.S. which have seen rapid Urbanization & Urban

Sprawl, and the Main Agricultural Regions of China and the U.S. in comparison.

In Part IV, the concluding chapter, we finally pay particular attention to Research

Cooperation between Chinese and American Geographers and its significance in

the Quest for Sustainable Development.

A Comparative Geography of China and the U.S. is a book project that invited

20 geographers from American and Chinese Universities to collaborate on a Sino￾U.S. regional geography textbook. In each chapter, American and Chinese authors

joined in the task of a given theme in the regional comparative analysis of China

and the U.S. The eleven chapters were completed in co-authorship by the following

teams: Chapter 1: Rudi Hartmann and Jing’ai Wang; Chapter 2: Jing’ai Wang, Hon￾glin Xiao, Rudi Hartmann and Yaojie Yue; Chapter 3: Lucius Hallet, Jing’ai Wang

and Rudi Hartmann; Chapter 4: Mark Leipnik, Yun Su, Robert Lane and Xinyue

Ye; Chapter 5: Hongmian Gong and Huasheng Zhu; Chapter 6: Gregory Veeck and

Yuejing Ge; Chapter 7: Russell M. Smith, Yuejing Ge, Rudi Hartmann, Xiaping

Dong and Yang Cheng; Chapter 8: Susan Walcott and Huasheng Zhu; Chapter 9:

Tao Ye, Brian Muller and Peijun Shi; Chapter 10: Mark Leipnik, Yun Su and Xinyue

Ye; Chapter 11: Peijun Shi, Clifton Pannell and Tao Ye. Rudi Hartmann and Jing’ai

Wang designed the outline of the book and co-organized the Chinese-American

team work in the completion of the book. While Rudi Hartmann had the main re￾sponsibility in the final editing of the texts, Jing’ai Wang took on the task of design￾ing the layout of the maps and figures. Peijun Shi reviewed the book several times

and provided useful comments and suggestions. Tao Ye was responsible for com￾munication and coordination as well as for the formatting of the draft manuscript.

Fang Lian reproduced most of the maps in GIS operations.

The outcome of the book is the result of an innovative team effort in establishing

the foundations of a new comparative geography of China and the U.S. Due to the

huge amount of information and data presented in this volume errors and mistakes

may have occurred as well as imperfections in the layout of the book. The editors

and chapter authors look forward to comments and suggestions from the readers.

October 2013 Jing’ai Wang

Rudi Hartmann

vii

We would like to thank our universities, schools and departments, Beijing Normal

University, School of Geography, and the University of Colorado Denver, Depart￾ment of Geography and Environmental Sciences, for their encouragement and help

in the completion of the book project.

In the process of editing this book, the Beijing Normal University Regional Ge￾ography National Teaching Team provided strong financial support. Other agencies

and units, most notably the Chinese Universities “985” Project, the State Key Labo￾ratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology and the Key Laboratory of

Regional Geography of Beijing Normal University gave additional financial sup￾port to the project and assisted the Beijing Normal University Team in many other

ways.

Special thanks go to the students in the Key Laboratory of Regional Geographi￾cal Research at Beijing Normal University who served as secretaries of the book

project: Jing Chen, Lu Hao, Jiansong Zhang, Yongdeng Lei, Yuanyuan Yin, Sheng

Chang, Weixia Yin and Fang Lian.

The support received from the University of Colorado Denver, College of Lib￾eral Arts and Sciences, for the initial development of the project, in form of a grant

“Teaching the Geography of China” is greatly appreciated.

Thanks also go to several colleagues of the AAG China Geography Specialty

Group, in particular to Gregory Veeck, Western Michigan University, Clifton Pan￾nell, University of Georgia, and Susan Walcott, University of North Carolina at

Greensboro, who were supportive in the early efforts of addressing the potential

of a geographic education agenda for China on the Higher Education level in the

U.S, China and other academic settings abroad. A first joint result was a panel

session “Teaching the Geography of China” held at the AAG Meeting 2008 in

Boston. Two special sessions focusing more directly on a Comparative Geography

of China and the U.S. followed in 2010, at the occasion of the Washington, D.C.

AAG Meeting.

We would also like to thank our spouses and families for their longtime support

during the many years of work and travel relating to the book project.

Acknowledgements

viii

Finally, our thanks go to Evelien Bakker and Bernadette Deelen-Mans, as well as

Stefan Einarson and Mireille van Kan from the Dordrecht office of Springer Press

who strongly and consistently supported the book project over the years.

Beijing and Denver Jing’ai Wang

October 2013 Rudi Hartmann

Acknowledgements

ix

Contents

1 Introduction to A Comparative Geography of China and the U.S. ..... 1

Rudi Hartmann and Jing’ai Wang

2 Physical Geography of China and the U.S. ............................................. 23

Jing’ai Wang, Honglin Xiao, Rudi Hartmann and Yaojie Yue

3 Population/Ethnic Geographies of China and the U.S. ........................ 83

Lucius Hallet IV, Jing’ai Wang and Rudi Hartmann

4 Agriculture and Food Production in China and the U.S. ..................... 117

Mark Leipnik, Yun Su, Robert Lane and Xinyue Ye

5 Economic Geography ................................................................................ 159

Hongmian Gong and Huasheng Zhu

6 International Trade Issues and Status for China

and the U.S. ................................................................................................ 181

Gregory Veeck and Yuejing Ge

7 Megaregions of China and the U.S. ......................................................... 201

Russell M. Smith, Yuejing Ge, Rudi Hartmann,

Xiaoping Dong and Yang Cheng

8 Regional Urban Economic Clusters ........................................................ 257

Susan Walcott and Huasheng Zhu

9 Urbanization, Urban Form and Adaptation: A Comparison

of Four U.S. and Chinese Cities ............................................................... 277

Tao Ye, Brian Muller and Peijun Shi

x Contents

10 The Main Agricultural Regions of China and the U.S. ........................ 309

Mark Leipnik, Yun Su and Xinyue Ye

11 Research Cooperation between Chinese and American

Geographers and its Significance in the Quest

for Sustainable Development .................................................................... 353

Peijun Shi, Clifton W. Pannell and Tao Ye

12 Epilogue ..................................................................................................... 377

Rudi Hartmann and Jing’ai Wang

Index ................................................................................................................. 381

xi

About the Editors

Rudi Hartmann is an Associate Professor (C/T) at

the University of Colorado Denver where he has taught

geography and tourism planning since 1992. He received

his Ph.D. from the Technical University Munich,

Germany in 1983. His interests include geographic

education, the geography of tourism and the history of

geographic thought. His regional specialties are China,

Europe and the American West. He has visited or taught

at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, Lund

University, Sweden, University of California, Berkeley,

Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, the University of Colorado,

Boulder, and Beijing Normal University.

Jing’ai Wang is Professor at the School of Geography,

Beijing Normal University, the winner of the national

laureate for teaching, the leader of the Regional

Geographical Education Team of China, the chair of

the board of the “China Geography” Teaching Research

Society, deputy director of the Geographical Education

Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education of

China, co-chair of the board of directors of the Society

for Geography of Beijing, and the Director of the Key

Laboratory of Regional Geographical Research of Beijing

Normal University. For several decades, she has been actively engaged in research

and teaching in the fields of geographic education, regional geography, natural

areas assessment and natural disaster mapping. She was also named project leader

of several national programs, National “863” Program, National Natural Science

Foundation Project, National “973” Program, and National Key Technology R&D

Program of China. She has published and edited many textbooks including “China

Geography”, “China Geographical Atlas” and “The Spatial-Temporal Patterns of

Natural Disaster in China” as well as written over 200 research papers. Among the

xii About the Editors

classes she teaches is “China Geography”, a nationally recognized course. She is the

winner of the First-level Award of National Teaching Achievements, the Second￾level Award of National Teaching Achievements, the First Award of Science and

Technology Progress of the Ministry of Education, China.

xiii

Yang Cheng is a Lecturer in the School of Geography at Beijing Normal Univer￾sity. Her research interest is in Health Geography, focusing on the application of

qualitative and quantitative methods to the study of health, place, and health care.

Xiaoping Dong is Professor of Folkloristic Studies in the School of Chinese

Language and Literature at Beijing Normal University. She is the Director of the

Research Institute for Chinese Folk Culture. Dr. Dong’ s research focuses on the

study of Modern Folkloristic in a Globalizing World, Theory of Folkloristic, Folk￾lore Fieldwork and Digital Folkloristic.

Yuejing Ge is Professor at Beijing Normal University. As Professor in the School

of Geography, she mainly teaches World Regional Geography, Human Geography

and Economic Geography.

Hongmian Gong is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at

Hunter College of the City University of New York. Her research focuses on Urban

Geography, GIS, and Transportation. The courses she teaches mainly include Ur￾ban Geographic Theory, Urban Applications of GIS, Geography of East Asia, Geog￾raphy of China, and World Regional Geography.

Lucius Hallett IV is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at

Western Michigan University. His teaching focuses on Human Geography courses

and the Travel and Tourism Major requirements. His research interests lie in Ag￾ricultural Tourism in China, Japan, England and the state of Michigan. He is cur￾rently involved in numerous studies on the apple production and hard apple cider

possibilities of south-western Michigan.

Robert A. Lane is a Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Industrial

Sciences at Sam Houston State University. His research interests include forage

crop quality and management, nitrogen fixation in legumes, persistence of forage

legumes in pastures, natural and synthetic fertilizers for forage and turf application

and cultivar evaluation and adaption.

About the Authors

xiv About the Authors

Mark R. Leipnik is a Professor of Geography in the Department of Geography

and Geology at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. He earned his

PhD in Geography in 1995 from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

He has been a professor for 18 years and prior to that he was an environmental

scientist with the United States Government Department of Interior in the Bureau

of Reclamation. His expertise is in applications of geographic information systems

particularly in marketing, law enforcement and natural resources. He is author of

two books and over 20 book chapters and numerous journal articles on geospatial

technologies.

Brian Muller is an Associate Professor in the Environmental Design program at

the University of Colorado Boulder. His research interests concern land use and

environmental policy, spatial analysis and urban growth dynamics.

Clifton W. Pannell is Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Geor￾gia where he taught human geography, regional courses on East and Southeast Asia,

and urbanization in developing countries. His research focuses on the changing

economic and urban geography of China. He has taught and conducted research

in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China. Dr. Pannell also served as Associ￾ate Dean of the Franklin College of Arts & Sciences, where he was responsible

for international and interdisciplinary programs, and was formerly Director of the

Center for Asian Studies. He serves on the editorial boards of Eurasian Geography

& Economics and the Asian Geographer and is a member of the China Research

Center in Atlanta, GA.

Peijun Shi is Professor at Academy of Disaster Reduction and Emergency Man￾agement, the Executive Vice-President of Beijing Normal University and the Direc￾tor of the State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology.

His research focuses on natural disaster theories and risk governance. He teaches

The Principle of Natural Disaster Theory, Introduction to Resources Science and

many other courses in natural hazards and disasters.

Russell M. Smith is an Associate Professor of Geography at Winston-Salem State

University with research interests in urban and political geography. His specific

research interests include local government boundary change and a variety of urban

planning issues including urban sustainability and megaregions. The main courses

he teaches include Introduction to Geography, Geography of North America, Envi￾ronmental Geography, Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, Urban

Geography, and World Economic Geography.

Yun Su is Associate Professor in the School of Geography at Beijing Normal Uni￾versity with research interests in Risk Assessment & Response to Natural Disasters.

The courses she teaches include Fundamental Topics of Regional Geography and

Geography of China.