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  • 1984 Volume 39 Issue 3
    Published: 15 July 1984
      

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  • Hu Huan-yong
    1984, 39(3): 231-233. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb198403011
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    In his reminiscence of the Aeta Geogrophia siniea the author relates the early his-tory of the Geographical Society of China.In 1909 Siang-wen Chang established the China Earth Science Socety at Tianjin and the same year saw the publication of the magazine "Earth Sciences". In 1921 Co-ching Chu headed the Department of Geology and Geography at the Southeastern University, which was renamed in 1930 as the Central University (becoming Nanjing University after liberation). At about this time departments of earth sciences, of geography, or of history and geography were set up at several famous universities. In view of this situation Co-ching Chu, Weii-hao Weng and others proposed to form a Chinese geographical society, which after a lot of preparations was formally set up in 1934 in Nanjing, known as the Geographical Society of China. Wen-hao Weng was elected president, and Co-ching Chu director. Later, the presidency was dropped, and in 1943 the author was elected to lead the board of directors.The author calculates that 11 issues of Acta Geographica Siniea were published by the Society during the years 1934-1937. The same period saw the holding of 4 annual meetings. But during the 8-year war of resistance (1937-1945), things became so difficult that the Society had to publish its journal as a yearly periodical instead of the original quarterly, and that throughout this period only one annual meeting was held.The author reviews the Society’s work of the past years. He stresses that only after the birth of new China did the Society begin to follow a road of rapid develop-ment. He feels satisfaction to recall that after liberation Dr. Co-ching Chu continued to lead the Society for more than 20 years, with the result that a great number of branch societies and geographical research institutions were set up across the country. Also he is happy about the fact that today-50 years since the founding of the So-ciety-he and a few remaining initiators still can see with their own eyes and parti-cipate in the vigorous activities of the Society and relevant organizations all over China.
  • Guo Yang
    1984, 39(3): 234-239. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb198403012
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    The "Aeta Geographica Sinica" sponsored by the Chinese Geographical Society came out at the fall of 1934. It is now the oldest leading academic periodical among others within China's geographical circle. Except the missing volumes due to suspension that had to be done during the "Cultural Revolution", Volume 39 is now being published and this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of its initiation. During this period of time, it witnessed historically the development of modern Chinese geograplry. This paper will give a brief account of the development of "Acta, Geographica Sinica" in terms of three historical stages-the initial period of its start publication (1934-1949), post liberation period (1950-1966) and period since its resume publication (1978-present). An overall analysis of the grand total 747 articles published in the journal indicates that 1) papers concerning physical geography predominates, accounting for 60 per cent of the total. Of them the highest number is related to geomorphology and climatology while the proportion of human geography is rather low, being only 18%. However, the proportion of papers on economic geography, especially agroeconomic geo-graphy is comparatively high; 2) after liberation, regional distribution of papers changed greatly in correspondence with the large-scale economic construction and ex-tensive scientific investigation conducted, As a consequence, the number of papers con-cerning western parts and border regions of the country rises more rapidly. Papers dealing with the economically developed areas of the Changjiang River Delta and the Zhujiang River Delta are still constantly increasing; and 3) the comparison and ana-lysis of the contributor’s ages for 522 papers reveals the fact of aging of the contri-butors caused by the cultural revolution.Finally, this paper presents the first conference of the editorial committee held since its resume publication. It points out that under the new situations, the "Acta Geographica Sinica" should be further improved with higher quality and distinctive characteristics. Papers reflecting principal nation-wide subjects on geography as well as being favourable to the realization of the four modernization of China should be comprised with particular emphasis. While those with new contents and original ideas both in theory and practice should be published more frequently. Discussion on the topics closely related to current national economic construction such as the terrainreadjustment, sand control in northwestern China ...... etc should be developed forthe purpose of making the "Acta Geographica Sinica" to have more important bearing on the future development of geography in China.
  • Hou Ren-zhi
    1984, 39(3): 240-243. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb198403013
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    During the last fifty years, Acta Geographica Sinica, the academic quarterly of the Chinese Geographical Society, has undergone many changes. Only three years after its first publication, the Japanese invasion forced an eight-year war upon China. Publication of the journal was continued but with only one issue per year. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, and in the following years of the civil war, the publi-cation lingered on but not at full strength. The founding of the people’s Eepublie in 1949 saw a period of rehabilitation, but publication was still rather irregular.In 1953, the First Five Year Plan of Socialist Reeonstration began and it was only then that the Journal came into full swing. That was a period of steady progress. However, a hard time of three years of natural disaster intruded, and again the publi-cation was nearly suspended. Once passed that time, recovery was speedy, and edito-rial work regained its momentum in the following years.Once again though, unfortunately, the whole country was taken by storm in the so-called "Cultural Revolution’’ from 1966 to 1976. Publication of Acta Geographica Sinica as well as of other academic journals was suspended. It was not until 1978 that a new revival of all academic periodicals appeared. In the case of geography, not only was Acta Geographica Sinica resurrected, but several other new geographical ma-gazines also began to flourish. Now we are quite aware that a nev,* stage in the deve-lopment of a Socialist culture has been ushered in, and things are developing at full strength. It is at this moment that we celebrate the fifty years anniversary of the-publication of the Acta Geographica Sinica. The tenacity of purpose, and the ever last:ng unity of the idea as illustrated by the fifty years history of Acta Geographica Sinica gives us full confidence in the future development of our science and culture. This should not only benefit our own people. We are also obliged to make our con-tribution to the cultural development of the whole mankind.
  • Li Shu-tan
    1984, 39(3): 244-251. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb198403014
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    Weng Wen-hao (1889-1971), one of the founders of modern geography in China, was a graduate of geology from Lcmvain University in 1912. Geology by profession, he made important contributions to the development of Earth science in China. While Chu Co-ching advanced the modern Chinese geography from the meteorology and climatology approach, Weng’s contributions were mainly in the field of physiog-raphy.In 1928, Weng established the first geographical department in Tsinghua Uni-versity. Together with Chu Co-ching, Chang Gi-yun and Hu Huan-yong etc., Weng organized the Chinese Geographical Society in Nanking in 1934. He was elected the first president of that society and made this Journal published in the same year. This Journal has been existed for 50 years until now mostly as a quarterly periodical. As a government official during the Sino-Japanese war, Weng continued his presidentship from 1938 to 1943. During these difficult years, Weng made timely financial help to the Society. In 1949, he left his country for Hongkong a,nd Paris, but finally re-turned to Beijing in 1951.His contributions to the geographical science of China were mostly done in the 1920s and 1930s and may be summed up as follows:A. Weng was the first Chinese scholar who introduced the A. Wegener’s hy-pothesis of Continental Drift into China. In his article appeared in "Science", 1925, vol. 6, no. 3, he. recommended the theory of isostasy and pointed out the importance of this new concept in the explanation of land and sea distribution and its future sig-nificance.B. In his paper "A Brief Account of Chinese Geological History" (1922, "Na-ture"), Weng discussed the evolution of Chinese landforms. It is an important work in physical geography. Based on the tectonic movements and the Chinese historical data, he gave explanations to the process of relief formation in China, such as the coastal changes, the flooding of the Yellow River and the changes of its lower cou-rses. Finally, he classified Chinese geologic history into eras and periods, named them and their chief rock formation and mineral deposit.C. Weng was the innovator of the Yan-shan Mountain Movement in China. In his paper "The Cenozoic Movement of Eastern China", he indicated the existence ofa mountain movement in Eastern China in the Mesozoic Era. This movement was later than the worldwide Hercynian but earlier than the Himalayan Movement. The Yan-shan Movement took place from the end of Jurassic to Cretaceous and many mo-untains, including the Tsinling, were the result of it. He compared this movement with the Jurasside and Laramide of western North America.D. His another contribution to geography in China was that he advocated the new concept of mountain building. In his paper "The Investigation of Chinese Mo-untain Eanges" appeared in "Science", 1925, vol. 9, no. 1, he criticized the old un-scientific concepts concerning the origin of landforms, such as: the mountains are "dragon ranges" acting solely as divides of rivers, that the Pamir is the origin of all mountain ranges and that most rivers emerge from underground waterways, etc. He was the first to explain the formation of mountain relief as the result of tectonic movements of folding and faulting, of erosion and weathering processes. He classified the mountains in China into eight systems, namely: the Altai, Tian-shan, W. Kunlun, Nanshan, E. Kunlun, E. China Eanges, Transversal, and Himalaya systems. He named five platforms: the Siberian, Mongolian, Tibeta.n, Indian, and E. Asian platforms.E. Weng was also a pioneer researcher in the distribution of earthquakes in China. He read a paper on the "Distribution of Chinese Earthquakes under the In-fluence of Geological Structure" at the International Geological Congress in 1922 in Brussel in which he summed up 16 earthquake zones with their frequency of occur-rence. They are the Fen-wei graben, the Tai-hang folds, the Yan-shan folds, the Shan-dong Huai-ho fracture, the Yanzhou-Anhui flexure (named as the Tan-cheng to Lu-jiang fracture today), the Gansu Helanshan frac
  • Ren Mei-e
    1984, 39(3): 252-258. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb198403015
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    The late professor Chu Co-ching, the founder of geographical science in China and initial sponsor of Acta Gcographica Sinica (formerly Journal of Geographical Society of China), has made great effort in elueiating scientific achievements of ancient Chinese Scholars. As early as 1942, pro’f. Chu wrote a paper on the historical backgro-und of Xuxiake’s time. This important paper stimulates a series of research on the contributions of this great scholar in geographical sciences.Xuxiake’s (1586-1641) contributions are many sided but the most important is, undoubtedly, on the study of karst. Karst forms, especially tropical karst, are beau-tifully developed in China. Fig. 1, drawn in 168 B. C., is the oldest map on tropical karst known in the world. Xuxiake had spent almost four years (1636-1640) travell-ing and exploring karst forms and caves in Hunan, Guangxi and Yunnan, the great karst country of China and perhaps, of the world.His contributions in karst study are:(1) Karst process He pointed out the significance of fluvial erosion and gravity process in the formation of karst landscape.(2) Tropical karst In his remarkable book "Travels", he described morpholog-ical forms of tropical karst in minute detail and accurately noted the geographical dis-tribution of tropical karst in Southwestern China. Written in 1639, his account on tropical karst is more than two hundred years earlier than the earliest account of tro-pical karst in Europe.(3) Speleology Xuxiake had not only explored more than one hundred karst caves, but also measured their dimensions by foot steps and eyes. Kesults of cave sur-vey of Qixingyan, Guilin, by prof. Zhou Ting-ru in 1953 proves the remarkable ac-curacy of Xuxiake’s account of that cave showing the brilliant ability and great care of Xu’s observation.As the above three fields are important topics in modern karstology, it is not ove-rstated to say that Xuxiake is a great pioneer of Karstology in the world.
  • Quo Huan-cheng
    1984, 39(3): 259-267. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb198403016
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    Land-use is the result from long-term reclamation and utilization of land by human beings according to the natural features of land and needs of social production. Land investigation serves as one of the basic tasks on examinating land resources, cur-rent state of its utilization as well as studing the ways and approaches of its rational utilization in the light of reguirements of economic construction and planning both nationally and regionally.The main subjects on land-use investigation includes: land-use condition, land-type structure, magnitude of utilization, production level, distributory characteristics, exist-ing problems, potentialities for utilization, and the direction and allocation of rational utilization. So far as method of land-use investigation is concerned, traditional geo-graphical method and the application of new technology should be combined while emphasis on in situ investigation is advocated so as to make out proposals and sugges-tions on production.Land-use mapping is one of the essential content in the work of land-use investiga-tion. In compiling the land-use map, first the land-use type should be classified based on the characteristics of present land-use conditions, regional differenciation, practica-lity of production and certain hierarchical system. Then, land-use map could be com-piled by means of the interpretation and analysis of aerial photographs and satellite imagery as well as field investigations. Measurment of land acreage for various pur-poses, and study on and analysis of land-use regularities can be carried out through land-use map, hence the basic data and scientific basis for present agricultural regio-nalization and territorial planning can be provided.
  • Wu Chen
    1984, 39(3): 268-276. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb198403017
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    In the Hebei Plain, the surface ancient channels can be divided into two types; canal-shaped surface ancient channels and elongated-highland-shaped surface ancient channels. Each of them represents the form of a certain stage in river developement. The distributional pattern of the surface ancient channels is different in different geomorphic zones; in the pluvial-alluvial piedmont fan plain zone, the pattern is fan-like; in the alluvial plain zone (middle part of Hebei Plain) the distributional pattern is parallel drainage; and, in the eastern part of the plain near the sea, the pattern is radiating like that on a delta.The ages of surface ancient channels have been determined in each geomorphic zone respectively; in the piedmont pluvial fan zone, the ages of the ancient channels include Late Pleistocene, Early and Middle Holocene; in the Pluvialalluvial fan zone, the majority of the ancient channels dates from late Holocene; and, in the alluvial plain zone and in the lowland zone near the sea (eastern and southern part of the He-bei Plain), they date mainly from historical times (since Han Dynasty), with a small part of them dating from Middle Holocene or the early historial epoch (before Han Dynasty).The distributional pattern of surface ancient channels and the change of their courses are closely related to neotectonic movement. Evidences show that the mounta-inous region on the northwestern side of the Hebei Plain has been uplifted with a greater amplitude, while southwards and eastwards the mountains have been less up-lifted. Recently, a belt joining Wen-an Depression and Tianjin City has a tendancy of sinking.
  • Xu Xin, Zhu Ming-lun
    1984, 39(3): 277-284. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb198403018
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    Based on the results of the sporo-pollen analysis of a 37.5 m drilling core in Zhen-jiang region, the authore try to reconstruct the palaeobotanical development and the palaeogeographic environment changes in this region in the last 15 000 years. This period can he divided into five main stages as follows:1. During 15 000-13 700 years B. P.. the climate was warm with mixed conife-rous and broad-leaf forests. The sea level began to rise.2. During 13 700-11 000 years B. P., the vegetation was mainly forest-steppe or dry steppe, the climate was dry and cold, the sea level contined to rise slowly and steadily.3. During 11 000-9900 B. P. the vegetation was mainly mixed coniferous and broadleaf forests and steppes, the climate became a little warmer and moist, the sea level rose quickly.4. During 9900-4000 years B. P., the vegetation was mixed coniferous-broadleaf forest composed mainly of Fagaceae and Pinaceae. The climate was warm and moist. The sea level continued to rise quickly.5. Since 4000 year B. P. vegetation has become sparser, the climate warm and dry, the sea level has been descending, and the rate of sedimentation slowed down.Prom the characteristics of each stage, the authors considered that around 11 000 year B. P., as the climate was obviously warm, the sea level began to rise and the rate of sedimentation increased. This may be considered as the demarcation line between the Late Pleistecene and the Holoceae. In the Holocene during 5000-4300 year B. P. the climate was warm, subtropical plants propagated. The sea reached its highest level during 8900-6300 years B. P. as evidenced by the appearance of small amount of forminferal fossils and a few sporo-pollen of cold-resistant from some sediments of this period.
  • Huang Xi-chou, Li Chong-hao
    1984, 39(3): 285-297. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb198403019
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    The alpine tundra of the Changbiashan mountains is an unique tundra landscape ever found in China. The present paper makes a comperhensive analysis of its ecolog-ical environment, plant community and ecologic characteristics.Firstly, some of the environmental factors, such as the climate, landform, and soil are analyzed. There are no trees growing in this alpine zone; the vegetation con-sists of only shrubs, subshrubs, moss and lichen with a ’few perennial herbs. The soil developed under this vegetation and the cold climate is a gley and peat formation.Secondly, according to plant species, community constituents, life form, flora, fea-tures of alpine tundra and various habitat range, the authors distinguished between 4 plant groups and 15 plant communities.Thirdly, for adapting to special ecological environment these plants develop their own distinctive ecological morphology, such as short and low stems, slow growth rate, well developed root system, short growing period, and have morphologically xeromorphic feature, bigger and bright coloured flower, etc.Tundra vegetations have the good effect of conserving water and preventing soil erosion, A thorough study of this tundra vegetation will provide valuable information both for scientific research and teaching. It will be useful too for tourist guide.
  • Lin Zhen-yao, Wu Xiang-ding, Tian Guo-liang
    1984, 39(3): 298-306. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb198403020
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    In this paper, atmospheric turbidity and extinction property in the Xizang Plateau during the warm season are discussed. It is found that the index of aerosol particle a is 1.9, and that the aerosol’s radius on the Xizang Plateau is twice as many as in the plain of Bast China. Turbidity coefficient ?changes obviously with the elevation and season, and the same trend for transparency of atmosphere is revealed also. It shows that the atmospheric turbidity in the Xizang Plateau is determined by vapour and areosol, and Rayleigh scattering- and others are not the main factors.
  • Hou Guang-liang
    1984, 39(3): 307-314. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb198403021
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    The microclimatological contrast observations in the wetland of Southeast Hulunbir are conducted. The result shows that cold injury to agriculture in the wetland was mainly caused by too high ground water level and too much water content in the soils. The experiments indicated that if the north-south ridge cultivation method is adopted or the method by adding sands to the soil, the soil temperature and crpos yield may rise.
  • Lu Su-fen
    1984, 39(3): 315-320. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb198403022
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    Geography studies the distribution of various facts and phenomena with their areal differentiation in composition and sturcture on the earth surface, while cartography deals with the method expression and communication of these facts and phenomena with symbols and graphs. The relation between these two discplines is, therefore, very close and intimate. Yet in the course of their separate developments, they are now going their own way departing from each other further and further.Prom the ancient days to the upper half of the 19th century, maps were the only means of expressing the location of geographical facts. They were a constituent part and also an important tool of geography. Since the end of the 19th century, geography has been at a stage of establishing its branches into many independent disciplines. On the other hand, cartography was making progress on map projection with the help of geodesy and mathematics, on improving techniques of drawing and on detailed to-pographic mapping. The cartographers, thus, become specialists independent from geo-graphers, leaving only a small number of trained geographers still possessing certain ability of making small scale general and thematic maps.Since geographers can easily use the maps which are compiled by cartographers, gradually they are unable to compose maps and to explain their research works in their writings with the help of maps. This is a great loss to the geographical science.On the other hand, the modern cartography not only take interest in the method of drawing and printing maps, but also elaborates in their design, analysis, explana-tion on the composition of thematic maps. But their works are very handicaped by their lacking of sufficient geographical knowledge.This paper calls for a reunion of geography and cartography, lays stress on the necessity of interlinking the training, to have closer co-orperation between the works of geographers and cartographers. The author proposes that for students in the geo-graphy departments, more hours should be alloted for the course of cartography in their curriculum, so that they may acquire enough knowledge on cartography to be able to read, analyse, and explain thematic maps, and to get necessary techinques of map designing. Otherwise the graduates of geography will be unable to take part in the work of map making which is utterly necessary for geographers.