An Increasingly Detailed Map of China

I have a friend from the US who really likes living in Hangzhou. He considers himself very lucky to have ended up in Hangzhou, and does not have a very high opinion of most of the other cities he has visited in China. But, he explains, when he first left for China several years ago, it was because he landed a teaching gig in Hangzhou, a city which to him at the time was “just a place on the map”. He basically knew nothing about the city of Hangzhou before accepting his new job there.                                                                    

My friend did one better than I could do, because when I left for Beijing years ago, I did not even know where Hangzhou was on the map. I had never heard of it. Looking back, it’s pretty embarrassing that a Chinese major like me did not even know where one of China’s most famous cities is. W learned all about Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai, Nanjing and the other big ones in class, but I still remember doing poorly on the map section of an Ancient Chinese History exam.

One of the indirect benefits of living in Hangzhou for so long is that I know my way around this city better than a taxi driver. I know my way around the surrounding counties outside of Hangzhou better than a loaf of bread van driver, and I probably now know my Chinese geography better than a China Airlines pilot. I can list off China’s provinces, autonomous regions and major cities as perfectly as the primetime news national weather report. 

There are a few reasons why my geography has improved so well, besides always listening to the major cities being read off when I watch the weather forecast. Obviously, traveling has helped, whether passing through a place by train or trying to plan an itinerary for my parents’ 25 day trip around China. Another reason is because my job in Hangzhou used to require me to edit the address of factories across the entire east coast of China. Also, I have read so many books about China in the past few years here— the geography is crucial to understanding what you read. One book I read even had a full population breakdown for the GDP and education level of Shandong Province’s counties during the Boxer Rebellion. Reading about China’s history has taught me that the country is a bottomless pit of information and one that Westerners in general know too little about, but that is a subject for another blog.

Anyway, back to the geography. You can really learn a lot about a place by understanding its geography. And after visiting somewhere, you can further understand a lot about what you saw if you know about how its geography has affected its development. Just look at Tibet for the most obvious example— one could argue that its geography is the single most contributing factor to its culture.  

Therefore, if you are planning a trip to China, be sure to do more research than you think you need to do about the geography of the country. If nothing else, it will help you plan your itinerary a lot better and productively. But more importantly, it will give you a better perspective from which to observe a new environment as you explore the country.

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Posted at 11:05AM Dec 08, 2008 by admin in Laowai Talk  |  Comments[3]