North China

North China (simplified Chinese: 华北; traditional Chinese: 華北; pinyin: Huáběi; literally "China's north") is a geographical region of China, consisting of the provinces of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. It lies north of the Qinling–Huaihe Line,[2] with its heartland in the North China Plain.

North China
Northern People's Republic of China region
Country	People's Republic of China  Republic of China[1]
Area
• Total	2,185,105 km^2 (843,674 sq mi)
Population
• Total	164,823,136
• Density	75/km^2 (200/sq mi)

Northern China (a much broader area named Beifang)

In modern times, the area has shifted in terms of socio-political and economic composition. Nowadays unique, embracing a North Chinese culture, it is influenced by Marxism, Soviet systems of industry while preserving a traditional Chinese indigenous culture. The region has been cultivating wheat, and most inhabitants here speak variants of Northern Chinese languages such as the standard (Mandarin), which includes Beijing dialect, which is largely the basis of Standard Chinese (Mandarin), the official language of the People's Republic of China (PRC), and its cousin variants. Jin Chinese and Mongolian are also widely spoken due to the political and cultural history of the area.

History

In prehistory, the region was home to the Yangshao and Longshan cultures. Peking man was found near modern-day Beijing (Peking).

The main agricultural lands of China lay in the area known as the Central Plain, an area located bordered by the Yangtze river to its south and the Yellow River to its north. Further north of the Yellow River lies the Gobi desert and steppe lands that extend west across Eurasia. This region has long, harsh winters and suffers from water scarcity. Despite these challenges, some forms of agriculture have been successful in this region, especially animal husbandry, certainly of horse and camel, and possibly other types of animals. The crops Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica, both types of millet grain, are believed to be indigenous to northern China. Panicum miliaceum is known from the Cishan culture in Hebei province, recovered as phytoliths from pits in stratigraphic sections. Sediments from the pits have radiocarbon dates from 8500 to 7500 BCE. Archaeological evidence of charred grains found in early Holocene layers in Hebei province at Nanzhuangtou and Cishan has led scholars to revise the earliest dates associated with millet by about two millennia. Millet sites are concentrated along the boundaries of the Loess and Mongolian Plateau, separated by a mountain chain from the Huabei plain and the Dongbei plain, North China's main alluvial plains, located to the west. Millet culivation was similarly situated relative to the Qinling mountains at Dadiwan, and the Yitai mountains at Yuezhuang. Macrofossil evidence (charred grains of foxtail and broomcorn millet) has been recovered from Xinglonggou in Inner Mongolia, Xinle in Liaoning, Cishan in Hebei, and Dadiwan in Gansu, among other sites in Eastern and Central China.[3]

Administrative divisions in the PRC

GB[4]	ISO №[5]	Province	Chinese Name	Capital	Population¹	Density²	Area³	Abbreviation/Symbol
BJ	11	Beijing Municipality	北京市 Běijīng Shì	Beijing	19,612,368	1,167.40	16,800	京 Jīng
TJ	12	Tianjin Municipality	天津市 Tiānjīn Shì	Tianjin	12,938,224	1,144.46	11,305	津 Jīn
HE	13	Hebei Province	河北省 Héběi Shěng	Shijiazhuang	71,854,202	382.81	187,700	冀 Jì
SX	14	Shanxi Province	山西省 Shānxī Shěng	Taiyuan	35,712,111	228.48	156,300	晋 Jìn
NM	15	Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Nei Mongol Autonomous Region	內蒙古自治区 Nèi Měnggǔ Zìzhìqū	Hohhot	24,706,321	20.88	1,183,000	蒙(內蒙古) Měng (Nèi Měnggǔ)

Cities with urban area over one million in population

Provincial capitals in bold.

#	City	Urban area[6]	District area[6]	City proper[6]	Prov.	Census date
1	Beijing	16,446,857	18,827,262	19,612,368	BJ	2010-11-01
2	Tianjin	9,562,255	11,090,783	12,938,693	TJ	2010-11-01
3	Taiyuan	3,154,157	3,426,519	4,201,592	SX	2010-11-01
4	Shijiazhuang	2,770,344	2,834,942	10,163,788	HE	2010-11-01
5	Tangshan	2,128,191	3,187,171	7,577,289	HE	2010-11-01
6	Baotou	1,900,373	2,096,851	2,650,364	NM	2010-11-01
7	Hohhot	1,497,110	1,980,774	2,866,615	NM	2010-11-01
8	Datong	1,362,314	1,737,514	3,318,054	SX	2010-11-01
9	Handan	1,316,674	1,445,338	9,174,683	HE	2010-11-01
10	Baoding	1,038,195	1,138,521	11,194,382	HE	2010-11-01

See also

• Northern China
  • North China Plain
  • Inner Mongolia
  • Northeast China
  • Northwest China
• East China

References

1. Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China, Article 4, 7th Revision
2. Li, Shuangshuang; Yang, Saini; LIU, Xianfeng (10 September 2015). "Spatiotemporal variability of extreme precipitation in north and south of the Qinling-Huaihe region and influencing factors during 1960-2013". The Chinese journal of geography. 34 (3): 354–363. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
3. The Cambridge World History Volume II A World With Agriculture 12,000 BCE-500CE. Cambridge University Press. 2015. pp. 316–320.
4. GB/T 2260 codes for the provinces of China
5. ISO 3166-2:CN (ISO 3166-2 codes for the provinces of China)
6. 国务院人口普查办公室; 国家统计局人口和社会科技统计司, eds. (2012). 中国2010年人口普查分县资料. Beijing: China Statistics Press. ISBN 978-7-5037-6659-6.