Here are the answers to yesterday’s question about the longest rivers in the world.
Longest Rivers in the World
1. Nile - 4,135 miles
2. Amazon - 3,980 miles
3. Yangtze (Chang Jiang) 3,917 miles
4. Mississippi – Missouri - 3,902 miles
5. Yenisei - Angara - Selenga - 3,445 miles
6. Yellow (Huang He) - 3,398 miles
Today I will be traveling to the city of Binzhou to begin my five day visit at our sister school. Binzhou is a city in northern Shandong province. Sitting on the northern bank of the Yellow River, Binzhou borders the provincial capital of Jinan to the southwest, Dezhou to the west, Zibo to the south, Dongying to the east, and the province of Hebei to the north. Binzhou also has a coastline on the Bohai Sea.
In learning more about cities in China, I found out that they are not cities in the same sense we think of cities in the United States. Binzhou is a prefecture-level city. According to Wikipedia a prefecture-level city contains “both an urban core (a city in the strict sense) and surrounding rural or less-urbanized areas usually many times the size of the central, built-up core.” Prefecture-level cities contain multiple counties, county-level cities, and other divisions. In comparison , we would compare Binzhou to the size of the state of Connecticut. Binzhou would be compared to Hartford and in control of 8 counties in our state. It is difficult to compare a city to a state but because of the size difference, it is the only way to compare Binzhou to something we would recognize in the United States.
Binzhou consists of 1 district and 6 counties; Bincheng District, Zouping County, Boxing County, Huimin County, Yangxin County, Zhanhua County, Wudi County. The total population of Binzhou is 3,661,500.
Binzhou, Shandong, China
(Photo courtesy of Wikimedia)
Zaijian,
Mr. Crawford
Today I will be leaving Mr. Crawford and the rest of our group to travel to Heze for five days. During this time, I will be spending time at the Shandong Heze Experimental Primary School, one of Beecher Road School’s sister schools.
Heze is the political, economic, and cultural center of southwestern Shandong. It is noted for Peonies, a flower that appears in many Chinese paintings.
During my stay in Heze, the International Peony Festival will be in progress.
I hope to see some peonies while I am there. My grandfather grew peonies, his favorite flower, and I still have some his peonies growing at my home.
As you can see from the map below, I will be in the farthest outreaches of Shandong. The other educators visiting from Connecticut will be closer to Jinan, the capital of Shandong.
(Map from Wikimedia)
As I noted in yesterday’s post, Heze, the city, is about the same area as Connecticut, the state. The population of Heze is about 8.1 million. At this time, I don’t know where in the city I will be. Once I get there I may be able to share a map.
Mr. Wood
I thought I would see pigs fly before I ever saw the Yellow river with my own eyes. I came to find out the Chinese have a similar saying to “when pigs fly” and it is “when the Yellow River flows clear.” Well it seems to be that unless pigs start flying tonight, my prediction won’t come true. As early as tomorrow I might see the river in person as I travel to our sister school. The Yellow River is the second-longest river in China (after the Yangtze River) and the sixth-longest in the world at 3,010 mi.
Do you think you can name the five longest rivers? (Answer will come tomorrow)
Starting in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, the yellow river flows through nine provinces of China and empties into the Bohai Sea, northeast of Binzhou. The name “Yellow River” describes the yellow color of the muddy water in the lower course of the river. The river flows by Binzhou, where I hope to see it with my own eyes. One class also asked me to do a special favor for them if I am able to get close to the river.
The Yellow River
Zaijian,
Mr. Crawford
(Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia)
Connecticut is one of the fifty states of the United States. Shandong is one of the 22 provinces of China. Let’s compare the two.
Connecticut:
Shandong:
And let’s compare the cities (towns).
Woodbridge, Connecticut:
Heze, Shandong:
Binzhou, Shandong:
Observations:
How big are some of the places where you travel?
Mr. Wood
Google Earth Video Tour narrated by Mr. Crawford.
I found our sister school in Binzhou, China on the maps in Google Earth and Google Maps! While communicating with our sister school computer teacher, Mr. Qing Shan Gao, he was able to send me the latitude and longitude coordinates of his school. In return, I sent him our school’s coordinates. Shoutian Yingcai Primary School is located at 37°23’51.04”N, 118°0’49.30”E Beecher Road School is located at 41°20’09.52”N, 73° 0’25.69”W . See if you can find these locations on a map or using Google Earth/Maps. What are some of the similarities and differences of where the two schools are located?
Did you want to learn more about latitude and longitude? Check out this New York Times site about Latitude and Longitude. Try out the crossword puzzle on their site for a real challenge. Teachers you may want to print out the puzzle and share it with your class.
Zaijian
Mr. Crawford
Where is Shandong, China?
East of the Mountain
Shandong is a two syllable name - Shan which means “mountain” and dong which means “east”.
Shandong is the Province East of the Taihang Mountains. Shanxi is the Province West of the Taihang Mountains.
This map shows the location of Shandong Province in China.
Shandong Province
Even though we won’t be visiting the Taihang Mountains, they look very interesting. Click here to see some pictures at Wikiemedia.
Mr. Wood
(Map from Wikipedia)
nǐ hǎo! After reading Mr. Wood’s post on how big China is, I wondered what our travels might look on a map. Using Google maps and Google Earth I created a map of our travel plans while in China. When you look at the map you can see just how far we are traveling! Check out the map here . I’ll post the Google Earth file in a future post. Xièxie ~ Mr. Crawford
nǐ hǎo!
I’ve always thought of China as a huge country, much larger than the United States. However, it isn’t much bigger than the US, if we look at land mass.
China = 3,705,820 square miles (3rd largest)
United States = 3,618,765 square miles (4th largest)
China is only about 87,000 square miles larger than the US. That’s about the size of Minnesota.
Canada is only slightly larger than China, but Russia is nearly twice the area.
—-
I’m guessing that we think China is much larger because its population is so much larger than the US.
China = 1,321,851,888 people (Ranks #1)
United States = 301,139,947 (Ranks #3)
The US has about 300 million people.
China has about 300 million PLUS another BILLION!
That’s more than 4 times the number of people in the US.
Who Ranks #2?
India with 1,129,866,154 people.
It’s population is almost as large as China but with a much smaller land area. (1,269,338 square miles, 7th largest land area)
I live in a very small town in Connecticut. I bet China is going to feel crowded to me.
So, where did I get the statistics in this post?
CultureGrams This is a great resource for information on countries, states in the US, and Provinces in Canada. It is a subscription service. If you are a student or teacher at Beecher Road School, you may get the login details from the school library. Then you can use it at home too!
zàijiàn
Mr. Wood