| A | B |
|---|
| Himalayas | world's highest mountain range |
| Mt. Everest | world's highest mountain |
| shan | Chinese word for mountain |
| Plateau of Tibet | world's highest plateau |
| Roof of the world | nickname for Plateau of Tibet |
| Taklimakan Desert | dry barren area in NW China |
| Toorpan Depression | lowest point in China |
| Gobi Desert | world's coldest desert |
| North China Plain | China's main farmland and densely populated |
| Huang He | Yellow River |
| loess | fertile yellowish soil |
| Chang Jiang | Yantze River |
| dynasty | series of rulers in the same family |
| Shi Huangdi | emperor who had Great Wall built |
| terra cotta soldiers | life size clay warriors built to guard Shi Huangdi's tomb |
| Chiang Kai-shek | leader of China's Nationalist Party |
| Mao Zedong | leader of China's Communist Party |
| Taiwan | island where Nationalists formed People's Republic of China |
| communism | government owns businesses, land and controls how people live |
| dialect | regional version of a language |
| Mandarin | official language of China |
| Daoism | living simply and in harmony with nature |
| Confucianism | stresses importance of family, moral values and respect for elders |
| pagodas | Buddhist temples with multi-storied towers and upturned roofs |
| command economy | government owns all businesses and makes all decisions |
| Beijing | capital of China |
| Tiananmen Square | site of protest for more freedom in 1989 |
| Tibet | buddhist region in southwest controlled by China |
| Dalai Lama | Tibet's Buddhist leader who fled to India |
| Shanghai | largest city in China |
| Hong Kong | major port city controlled by UK until 1997 |
| Macao | major port city controlled by Portugal until 1999 |
