The Geography of Vietnam

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The Geography of Vietnam
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• Vietnam is one of the ten countries that compose
  Southeast Asia
• It is bordered by China on the north, Cambodia
  and Laos on the west, the Gulf of Tonkin to the
  northeast, the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest,
  and the South China Sea to the east.
• The country is divided into 3 regions
• North
• Central
• South

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• North Vietnam
• With Hanoi as the urban center, northern Vietnam
  developed more rapidly than other sections of the
  country
• Fertile soil of the Red River allowed for an
  agrarian-based society to develop and prosper

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• Central Vietnam
• Central Vietnam is very narrow. In some
  sections, only 50 kilometers separates
  neighboring country, Laos, from the sea.
• Due to the limited land area, most inhabitants
  are employed in sea-related activities

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• South Vietnam
• Southern Vietnam corresponds to Americas Wild
  West
• The frontier area is underdeveloped compared to
  the rest of the country, however, the rich land
  of the Mekong Delta today makes the area the
  worlds third leading exporter of rice

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Rain Forests

• ½ Vietnam covered by jungle-like rain forests
• 4/5 covered by trees tropical vegetation
• Also sandy beaches grassy prairies
• Home to elephants, wild boar, tigers

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two baskets of rice slung on a pole. The
baskets are the deltas of the Red River in the
north and the Mekong in the south, and the
carrying pole is a series of mountain chains
along the western border.
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Population

• VN is size of New Mexico
• 12th most populous nation in world
• 70 million residents (1/4 of U.S. pop.)

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Climate

• Warm and Humid
• Monsoon season is from June to November
• The monsoon brings intense heat and typhoons,
  along with heavy rain
• Average yearly rainfall is 59 inches, though
  Hanoi receives 72 inches annually

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Houses on the Red River and Mekong Delta are
elevated on poles as an adaptation to thwart the
powerful rivers that regularly overflow their
banks.
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Rice is Life

• Rice fields extend over more than 12 million
  acres
• The rice kernels provide food, while the rest of
  the plant is utilized for making flour, beer,
  wine, fuel, fertilizer, straw mats, and
  garmentsnothing goes to waste

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A Farmers Calendar

• The twelfth moon for potato growing,
• the first for beans, the second for eggplant.
• In the third, we break the land
• to plant rice in the fourth while the rains are
  strong.
• The man plows, the woman plants,
• and in the fifth harvest, and the gods are
  good
• an acre yields five full baskets this year.
• I grind and pound the paddy, strew husks
• to cover manure,
• and feed the hogs with bran.
• Next year, if the land is extravagant,
• I shall pay the taxes for you.
• In plenty or in want, there will still be you and
  me,
• always the two of us.
• Isnt that better than always prospering, alone?