Introduction
China and Japan present a marked physical contrast. China is a vast continental country that spans many climatic zones; the core is dominated by three major river systems: the Yellow River (Huang He), the Yangtse River (Chang Jiang – the third longest river in the world) and the Pearl River. A large part of the country is mountainous.
The dominant ethnic group are the Han and the major language is Chinese (Putonghua) but there are many other nationalities, such as the Uighur, Hui, Manchu and Tibetan, and aside from dialects, such as Cantonese (Yue) and Shanghainese (Wu), there are other minority languages spoken as well.
Chinese food reflects this regional diversity with at least four distinct types. The best known is southern or Cantonese cuisine – as most overseas Chinese come from the Canton area – which includes dim sum (literally touch your heart), an assortment of pastries and dumplings. In the north, wheat is the staple food, while in Szechuan spices brought by Buddhist monks in the ancient period, along the silk route, and chillies by Portuguese traders in the fifteenth century, have created a fiery cuisine. In eastern China, both rice and wheat are eaten.
Japan, by contrast, is a string of islands, the four largest being Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Hokkaido. The Okinawan chain is the southernmost, about the same latitude as the Bahamas. More than 50 per cent of the land area of the main islands is mountainous and Japan is situated in a very active earthquake zone. These geographical conditions have influenced architecture. The population is largely Japanese but there are a small Ainu minority and Koreans who were forcibly brought as labour when Korea was a Japanese colony.
Japan lacks a tradition of animal rearing. Rice is the staple crop and fish the major source of protein. Raw fish (sashimi or sushi) has now become a widely popular dish around the world as it is considered very healthy.
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