Introduction

The basic characteristics of Chinese physical geography and historical socio-economic development in China are introduced in this chapter. China is distinguished by a prominent monsoonal climate in the east of the country, a continental arid climate in the northwest and a highland cold climate on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. During the last several thousand years, Chinese society was built on massive agricultural production, by which the huge numbers of people it supported. It has followed a unique spiral of development in terms of production, population, economy and politics. Due to the close relationship between agriculture and social development of China,  abundant researches have been conducted on historical climate change impacts over the past hundred year.