China: The Land and The People (1955)

[Music] china is the most heavily populated country in the world [Music] it is also one of the largest countries on earth many people in a large land when we look at the chinese landscape we will be looking at people for perhaps nowhere else in the world are people and land so closely related as in china there are almost four times as many people in china as there are in the united states most of the people are farmers for more than 35 centuries people have tilled the land of china and in those long centuries the chinese have learned to use the resources of their lands and their waters there is scarcely a place in china where we do not see people on the land people in the villages and people in the cities for china is a land of many people many people who live in a large country to see something of china's size let's look at a map in the continent of asia china occupies about one-fourth of all the land area on the west china reaches to the boundary of india on the east the coast is opposite japan where would your city in the united states be if it were put on a map of china charleston south carolina would be about where shanghai is the city of new york would be in the same latitude where you see peking the capital of china and if you live in new england it would be somewhat like living in manchuria the northeast part of china as in the united states many of china's important cities are on the eastern coast a large part of china's population lives in large cities streets thronged with people and vehicles are common in such cities as or fuchow or canton these are the faces of some of china's people a businessman who runs a small shop a teacher in a city school a school girl a doctor a farm boy we can see where most of china's people live on this map population is most dense in these areas we can understand why when we see the areas of good farmland most of the people live where the soil is fertile and the climate favorable the greenest lands are in south china where fields of rice and forested hills mountains and streams make a pleasant landscape in south china the most important crop is rice rice grows best in a hot moist climate the kind of climate we find throughout much of the region we call south china this part of china is green with many hills and mountains a long mountain range separates it from north china the dry dusty lands of yellow earth to china's with many differences let's look again at the green hilly china of the south many rivers wind through the green hilly lands of south china some hills are well forested systematic replanting of pine is done in some areas conserving forests is an endless task in china an ancient land where people have been using the forests for 35 centuries below the forested hills and the river valleys fields of rice stretch in every direction with a water wheel farmers are lifting water to irrigate their rice fields the power is manpower for human beings are the most abundant source of power in china the farmers live in small villages there are few cattle on the farms but pigs are raised by many chinese farmers they also raise vegetables this boy is harvesting peanuts pulling up sweet potatoes isn't too easy for this little farm boy to carry the peanuts the older boy uses a pole where there are few vehicles or draft animals in south china traffic moves along narrow footpaths or flagstone trails since south china's hilly with few good roads people make use of riverboats for transportation from a boat we can see more of south china here are water buffalo drinking and bathing in the river a large slow moving animal the water buffalo is used for plowing and other work in south china many kinds of products are shipped on the rivers one item of trade is pine logs which are cut and floated downstream bamboo too is cut and made into rafts to be floated down the river and sold most of the boat traffic moves toward the mouths of the rivers where there are usually busy ports here the population of south china spills over into many houseboats in crowded ports such as shanghai there are boats called sam pans on which many chinese families spend most of their lives larger boats called junks are sea going ships that carry products such as timber and rice to other cities these junks have their sterns painted in colorful designs the paintings remind us of china's achievements in art through many centuries on this junk men are loading pine logs once more we see manpower being used this wood cut in south china may be shipped northward where wood is scarce perhaps this ship will sail along the coast from south china to north china very different from the green land of south china is north china mostly a region of dusty yellowish earth even along the rivers we see dry dusty lands typical of much of north china in the north are more cattle than in south china the north will find crops that can be grown without irrigation millet sorghum corn wheat and kalyan kalyan has grown very widely for food it is a tall plant that looks somewhat like corn one of the most important food crops grown in north china is wheat this boy shuffling through the wheat is turning the grain so that the kernels will dry in the sun in agriculture as in most other activities little machinery is used the grain is protected by hand woven mats of straw and carried in hand woven baskets in china as in many other lands farm children often help with the work again we see primitive methods used in the threshing of the grain by the farmers the grinding of the grain and the flour flour is sometimes used to make noodles which are dried in the sun the chinese noodles are an important food often taking the place of bread besides grain crops farmers of north china grow various garden crops these melons may be sold in the marketplace of a nearby town in north china where much of the country is flat we see carts and more draft animals than in south china oxen are used as work animals as well as horses and mules sturdily made of wood this kind of two-wheeled cart is very widely used in north china this too is north china pagodas that remind us of the long history of the chinese people in china's history this city p king sometimes called paping has for centuries been an important center of chinese life within the city are some of the fabulous religious buildings of ancient china peking's temples are famous examples of chinese architecture and art peking which in chinese means northern capital is today the center of government we've seen some differences between the wetlands of south china and the drier lands of north china but there are similarities for instance there are great rivers in both regions the yangtze is the great river of the south the huang ho the yellow river is the great river of the north more than a mile wide at some points the great huang ho has often brought disastrous floods to the treeless lands of north china banks crumble as the river begins to rise in flood stage near the river thousands of laborers are gathered to repair a break in the dike from a trestle built across the broken dike workmen will try to close the gap tons of earth are brought by hand labor to close the breach trying to contain the yellow river as a task the chinese have faced for centuries tons of rock are brought to close the breach the job of repairing the dike may last many weeks many men will labor hauling rocks and tapping the earth as they repair the dyke men are still the most important source of power in china as they have been for centuries but we should remember that changes have been taking place in 20th century china more and more machinery is being used in the future the chinese people will try hard to continue the industrialization of their country there is need for better transportation more trucks and more trains there is need for more factories to produce finished materials such as textiles the china needs more iron and steel mills are being built industrialization continues to increase through the years to build heavy industries great quantities of steel and iron and cement are needed from a plant such as this comes the cement that may be used in growing cities in the future there will be a tendency to place more emphasis on commerce and industry china particularly and its big cities is changing but let's remember that the landscape of china will long remain much as it has been for centuries changes take time life in rural china is still simple most of the work is still done by human labor most of china's people are still farmers [Music] most of china's millions of people labor very hard often with the most primitive tools to make a living story is largely a story of china's people who live in one of the largest countries on earth you