Was China's loess plateau every green?

The Loess Plateau today is a dry area of easily-eroded flyaway yellow soil known as loess. It's what makes the Yellow River yellow. Loess dust has blown all the way to Beijing, causing major dust storms.

One solution being tried is massive tree-planting projects, in the hope that roots will grab and stabilize the soil and that the litter from the vegetation will fertilize the soil. However, this study questions whether the Loess Plateau is suited for trees.

New study uproots popular belief in Central China's leafy Loess Plateau

New study of region's ancient vegetation finds grasses have dominated landscape for millennia and calls tree-planting campaigns into question

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1246865/new-study-uproots-popular-belief-leafy-loess-plateau

China's growth

From the section "China's Addiction to US Treasuries" p. 125 in the book The China Boom by Ho-Fun Hung:

How the Made in China era started with rural-to-urban migration:

"The rise of China's export sector was enabled by a series of policy changes in the mid-1990s that precipitated an expanding stream of low-wage rural migrant laborers."


Why China's rise is similar to that of the earlier Asian Tigers:

"Asia's exporters [like Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan] devoted most of their reserves to the purchase of US Treasury bonds, turning themselves into the largest creditors of the United States...

Asia's massive investment in low-yield US Treasury bonds was tantamount to a tribute payment through which Asia's savings were transformed into Americans' consumption power, prolonging US prosperity but creating a financial bubble in the 1980s and beyond. China's export-oriented boom is a continuation and escalation of this market and financial dependence on the United States... In 2008, China surpassed the US as the biggest foreign holder of [US Treasury] bonds."


Hung also has an interesting history of how the US dollar took over global dominance from the British Sterling, and how rivals such as the Euro have tried to compete with the dollar, unsuccessfully.

The Middle Passage defined

This site explains the literal meaning of the Middle Passage, the journey of slaves ships to the Americas. Many history books, including the one I'm teaching from, don't really explain the reasons for the term "middle." It was the middle journey of a three-part clockwise shipping loop from Europe to Africa to the New World, commonly called triangular trade.

"It was so-called because it was the middle section of the trade route taken by many of the ships. The first section (the ‘Outward Passage’ ) was from Europe to Africa. Then came the Middle Passage, and the ‘Return Passage’ was the final journey from the Americas to Europe. The Middle Passage took the enslaved Africans away from their homeland."

http://discoveringbristol.org.uk/slavery/routes/from-africa-to-america/atlantic-crossing/middle-passage/

Outward Passage = Europe to Africa
Middle Passage = Africa to New World
Return Passage = New World to Europe

Great overview of China's Belt and Road Initiative, also known as the New Silk Road

Great overview of China's Belt and Road Initiative, also known as the New Silk Road
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvXROXiIpvQ

Dutch cycling culture

How the Netherlands got its cycling culture

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/8/28/17789510/bike-cycling-netherlands-dutch-infrastructure

China-US trade podcast

Great short podcast on cspan about China-US trade disputes with Michael Pillsbury, author of The Hundred Year Marathon

https://www.c-span.org/video/?451824-1/weekly-dr-michael-pillsbury

Changes in China work immigration policies

Hoping to work in China? If you're a Class C foreigner, it may be tough
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/world/asia/china-work-permit-visa.html