| A | B |
|---|
| Three Gorges Dam | a barrier built on the Chang Jiang to control floods |
| hydroelectric power | electricity made by water-powered engines |
| Himalayas | a mountain range that divides China from India |
| Taklimakan Desert | the second largest sand desert in the world |
| Gobi Desert | a high desert in China and Mongolia |
| Huang He | a river that flows from the Kunlun Mountains to the Yellow Sea |
| Chang Jiang | the longest river in Asia, flows through eastern China |
| Xi Jiang | a river in South East China |
| seismic | having to do with earthquakes |
| plateau | a high area of flat land |
| Shi Huangdi | the first emperor to unify much of China |
| emperor | a ruler of an empire, which is a group of diferent territories or cultures led by a single all-powerful authority |
| dynasty | a line of rulers from the same family |
| North China Plain | a fertile region between the Huang He and Chang Jiang Rivers |
| Middle Kingdom | an ancient Chinese name for China |
| dynastic cycle | the pattern of the rise and fall of dynasties |
| Great Wall | a huge, long wall built to keep nomads out of China |
| Confucianism | a belief system based on the teachings of Confucius, a Chinese scholar |
| scholar-official | an educated person who worked in China's government |
| communism | a government and economic system in which the government holds almost all the power and means of production |
| Mao Zedong | communist leader of Chna from 1949-1976 |
