Yangtze - Geography.

« A Agriculture and Industry Today about 400 million people, or about one-third of the population of China, live in the Yangtze Basin.

Many are engaged in agriculture.

The basin contributes nearlyhalf of China’s crop production, although only one-quarter of the basin is arable.

The most fertile areas for farming are the Sichuan Basin, the plains between theYangtze and its tributary the Han, and the plains of the lower basin.

In all about 40 percent of the cereals, more than 30 percent of the cotton, nearly half of thefreshwater fish, and 40 percent of the industrial production of China come from the Yangtze Basin. Food crops grown in the basin include rice, wheat, corn (maize), barley, sweet potatoes, and legumes.

The rapid extension of irrigation since 1949 has led to increaseddouble cropping of rice in the region and a rise in production.

The most important industrial crop is cotton. The Yangtze Basin has deposits of most minerals required by industry, particularly coal, iron, copper, antimony, manganese, tungsten, and tin.

Natural gas and oil arefound in Sichuan Province.

Since 1949 the treaty port cities have been transformed from centers for the collection of raw materials for export through Shanghai intoindustrial centers.

Shanghai and Nanjing have become the nuclei of a metropolitan area producing textiles, ships, iron and steel, and fertilizers.

Wuhan is a majormetallurgical center.

In the province of Sichuan, an industrialized area has developed around Chongqing and Chengdu, producing cement, fertilizers, and iron and steelproducts. B Transportation and Tourism For thousands of years, the Yangtze has been the main transport artery for people and freight moving between Sichuan Province and China’s eastern coast.

The GrandCanal of eastern China, constructed in stages beginning in the 5th century BC, connected northern China and areas of southern China to the Yangtze system.

The Grand Canal was vital for transporting grain, soldiers, and officials until the 20th century, when railways and roads reduced its importance. Today the Yangtze continues to be an extremely important inland waterway for commerce and industry.

Oceangoing vessels can reach as far inland as Wuhan, andlarge cargo and passenger boats can reach Chongqing.

Small boats travel farther upriver to Xinshezhen, about 3,000 km (about 1,860 mi) from the sea.

The traditionalboats called junks, less economical than steamboats, are now rarely seen on the river. However, the development of railways has reduced transportation along the Yangtze.

Before 1949 railroads running north-south were interrupted by the river.

Goodsand passengers had to cross by ferry.

Several railroad bridges have been built since then.

The two oldest bridges, crossing at Wuhan and Nanjing, were completed in1956 and 1968, respectively.

Other railroad bridges are located at Chongqing and near Kunming.

In the 1970s a rail line was constructed parallel to the river fromWuhan to Chongqing. The Yangtze is also associated with tourism, both national and international.

Guided boat tours through the scenic Three Gorges have developed into a thriving tourismindustry.

The many historical, religious, and mythological sites along the Yangtze attract many Chinese visitors.

Large cities on the river, especially Shanghai, offertourist attractions as well. C Three Gorges Dam A number of dams and canal networks meet the high regional demand for irrigation and electricity.

Thousands of dams are located in the Yangtze Basin, but only two ofthem—the Three Gorges Dam and Gezhou Dam—are on the Yangtze itself.

The Three Gorges Dam is at Sanduping, near Yichang.

When completed, the dam willmeasure more than 200 m (600 ft) high and 1.6 km (1 mi) long, making it the largest in the world.

The dam is designed to generate about 18,000 megawatts ofelectricity—more than any other hydroelectric facility in the world—that will be distributed throughout central China.

The dam is also designed to control flooding andimprove navigation upriver.

The dam will create a reservoir 650 km (400 mi) long, from Yichang, through the Three Gorges, and to Chongqing. The government of the People’s Republic of China has characterized the Three Gorges Dam as a source of national pride and a necessary project to provide the growingpopulation of the region with electricity, irrigation water, and flood control.

However, the massive project has drawn much criticism, both nationally and internationally. Ultimately, the new reservoir will inundate many towns and cities, displacing an estimated 1 million to 2 million people.

A number of archaeological sites along the riverwill be submerged.

Tourism associated with the Three Gorges as a physical and cultural attraction may come to an end. Scientists predict the Three Gorges Dam may have many adverse environmental effects.

The dam may put stress on the fragile upper slopes of the gorges, leading totheir erosion.

The reservoir may accumulate sediments and industrial pollutants, and the control on water and sediment may affect the river downstream, leading toincreased silting of its mouth and pollution of the delta.

A plan to divert water from the Yangtze to water-short northern China may accelerate these problems.

Inaddition, the dam may not entirely solve flooding problems.

However, the dam may lessen the dependency on coal for power generation and thereby improve regionalair pollution. IV HISTORY The Yangtze has long functioned as a transportation artery, as a strategic boundary, and as the lifeline of a productive agricultural region.

Although most of the riverhas been known for a long time, the Jinsha was first recognized as the headstream in the 16th century.

In the 18th century, a Qing government expedition reached theTibetan Plateau in search of the headwaters.

The headwaters were only properly mapped in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Three Gorges were charted by Captain CornellPlant of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service in the early 20th century. The river is intricately associated with benchmark events in Chinese history.

Some of these include the warfare between the Three Kingdoms in the 3rd century, theTaiping Rebellion (1851-1864) that spread along the Grand Canal and the Yangtze, and the Japanese military advance and destruction along the river before and duringWorld War II (1939-1945).

In the civil war of the 1940s between Chinese Communists and the Kuomintang (Nationalists), Communist forces under Mao Zedong mademany strategic crossings of the river and its tributaries.

The Communists drove the Kuomintang from the mainland and formed the People’s Republic of China in 1949.Mao Zedong used the Yangtze to build the cult of himself as a great hero by swimming across it at Wuhan in 1956, 1958, and 1966. Economic development of the Yangtze Basin received a major boost from northern extensions of the Grand Canal between the 7th and 14th centuries.

The canalprovided an efficient means of transporting the agricultural products of the Yangtze Basin to northern China and, especially, the national capital, Beijing.

In the 19thcentury, Shanghai and inland settlements developed as ports of trade with some connections to Western markets. Numerous references to the Yangtze are found in Chinese mythology and literature.

Many sites on the Yangtze are locations of incidents described in the well-known14th-century novel Sanguozhi yanyi (The Romance of the Three Kingdoms ).

Chinese poets have written extensively about the beauty of the middle and lower Yangtze and the hazards of the gorges.

Mao Zedong wrote a poem in praise of human ability to control the river.. »