ABSTRACT
BingchenWang1 , Xilai Zheng2 and Guoqing Lin2 1Comprehensive Institute of Geotechnical Investigation and Survey, Beijing, P.R.China 2Institute of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, P.R.China
INTRODUCTION
The vast land of China, spanning many degrees of terrestrial latitude, is full of a variety of complex geographical features and climates. Seasonal patterns of temperature and rainfall are found in the continental monsoon areas. In the winter most areas become cold and dry, in the summer hot and rainy. China consists mostly of mountains, high plateaus, and deserts in the west, and flattens out into plains, deltas, and hills towards the east. Only 10 percent of the land is arable and the majority of the population lives in the eastern half of the country. The vast deserts and large parts of the mountains in the west are uninhabited. Two great rivers, the Yellow River in the north and the Yangtze Kiang River in the south, flow through eastern China into the Pacific. The east coast faces the Yellow Sea to the northeast, the East China Sea to the east, the South China Sea to the southeast, and the Gulf of Tonkin to the south.
