Physiographic macroregions of China is a term suggested by an American anthropologist G. William Skinner as a subdivision of China Proper into 9 areas according to the drainage basins of the major rivers and other travel-constraining geomorphological features. They are distinct in terms of environment, economic resources, culture and more or less interdependent histories with often unsynchronized developmental macrocycles. [1] They were described in Skinner's landmark essays in The City in Late Imperial China (1977)[2]
The physiographic macroregions are available in GIS Shapefile format from the China Historical GIS Project.
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Skinner and his school maintain that prior to the modernization, the transportation was largely constrained by the terrain and the physiographical macroregions are a close approximation for the socioeconomical macroregions of the 19th century China. These macroregions are defined by Skinner as follows.[3]
Modern provinces of Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai and a larger part of Inner Mongolia are not considered by Skinner's scheme.
According to Skinner's analysis, the 20th century China excluding Inner Asia has 9 socioeconomic macroregions with cores not changed from the physiographic ones of the 19th century, but with changed territorial extents.[3]