Joe’s Diary – Week 7
The time I am going to China is approaching and I am really excited about it. I even dreamt that I was in China last night.
Today, I did some research on the climate in China to have a general idea of its weather and geographic situation.
Stretching about 5,200 kilometers with an area of about 9.6 million km², China is divided into 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities and 2 special administrative regions, i.e. Hong Kong and Macau. Spanning about 50 degrees of latitude and 60 degree of longitude, China is the 3rd largest country in the world.
I heard from my friend Jack about the difference between people from northern and southern China. People from the north are bright and unconstrained while people from the south are clever and circumspect. Even though Jack has lived in China for a period of time he can’t distinguish between the south and north accurately. He just has a rough idea that in winter heaters are used in northern China only and that people living in Beijing are so called northern people while those living in Shanghai are southern people.
What I learnt today is that, Qinling (the Qin Mountains) is a natural boundary between the North and South of China in geography and climate. But people in China consider Chiang Jiang to be the divider.
The tremendous differences in latitude give rise to sharp variations in temperature between southern and northern China. In winter, the temperature difference between the northernmost Mohe County and the southernmost Haikou City can reach to 50 degrees Celsius in January. By the way, in China people use Celsius rather than Fahrenheit to indicate temperature. In summer, except for places like Tibetan Plateau, the average temperature is above 20 degrees Celsius. Besides, the northern part is dry while the south is humid in general.
就要出发去中国了，我兴奋极了，甚至昨晚做梦都已经梦到自己到中国了！我今天研究了一下中国的气候，现在已经对中国的地域和天气情况有了一个大概的了解。中国的陆地面积约960万平方公里，一共有23个省、5个自治区和4个直辖市，另外还有香港和澳门2个特别行政区。中国疆域很大，东西跨越60多度、五个时区，约5200公里；南北跨越近50度，约5500公里。可是在中国，他们使用的是统一的北京时间，不像美国有东部时间、中部时间、山地时间、太平洋时间、阿拉斯加时间和夏威夷时间，所以在中国旅游就方便多了，不用计算各个时区的时差。
原来我就听Jack说过中国的北方人和南方人不一样，北方人比较豪放爽朗、南方人比较精明细致。可是他也没有搞清楚怎么区分中国的北方和南方，他只知道冬天的时候，北方有暖气，南方没有暖气；还有北京人是北方人，上海人是南方人。
今天我把这个问题搞清楚了，下次打电话的时候我得告诉他：秦岭——淮河构成的连线是中国北方与南方的地理与气候的分界线，但是中国人习惯以长江作为北方与南方的分界线。哈哈，虽然我还没有到中国，但是我已经是半个“中国通”了。
因为中国南北方向跨纬度较大，所以南北气温有一定的差异，特别是冬天，中国南北气温差别很大，最北边的漠河镇与南边的海口市的1月平均气温相差接近50℃。对了，在中国，人们使用的是摄氏度而不是华氏度，这点我得牢记在心。夏天，除了青藏高原等一些地方以外，中国各地7月平均气温大多在20℃以上。还有一点就是：中国的北方气候比较干燥，南方的气候比较湿润。
Read & Think
- Do you think the ways mentioned above about differentiating the south and north of China are reliable?
- How do you differentiate people in different areas in your country?
