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Both countries have coniferous, deciduous and subtropical forests, tea plantations, badlands, wetlands, deserts, tundra, montane, volcanic, coral reefs, alpine, bayous, canyons, temperate rainforests, sequoia forests, wind valleys, lava tubes, glaciers (china has 46,000 of them), cave systems, underwater rivers, salt lakes, rice paddies, frozen seas, natural arches, fault lines- you name it they got it
However:
Geographical features/ landscapes USA lacks:
loesslands
atolls
tropical rainforest (not to be confused with subtropical forest) - though a case can be made for Kauai's mesic rainforests
bamboo forests
High plateau
karst pinnacles
rhododendron forests
stepped rice paddy landscape
ice deserts
'red earth' landscapes
Yardangs (wind sculpted linear valleys)
Both countries have coniferous, deciduous and subtropical forests, tea plantations, badlands, wetlands, deserts, tundra, montane, volcanic, coral reefs, alpine, bayous, canyons, temperate rainforests, sequoia forests, wind valleys, lava tubes, glaciers (china has 46,000 of them), cave systems, underwater rivers, salt lakes, rice paddies, frozen seas, natural arches, fault lines- you name it they got it
However:
Geographical features/ landscapes USA lacks:
loesslands atolls tropical rainforest (not to be confused with subtropical forest) - though a case can be made for Kauai's mesic rainforests
bamboo forests High plateau
karst pinnacles
rhododendron forests
stepped rice paddy landscape ice deserts
'red earth' landscapes Yardangs (wind sculpted linear valleys)
Mediterranean (hot, arid summers, cool wet winters) - though a case can be made for certain parts of Western China
polar ice sheet
fjords ( I think)
I am not 100% sure about the entire list but the USA has a lot of what you listed.
Loesslands - Yes
Atolls - Yes
Tropical rainforest - Yes (not just Hawaii but also Puerto Rico)
High Plateau - Yes
ice desert - Yes
'red earth' landscapes - Yes
Yardangs - never heard of the word before but Yes
Others:
Karst pinnacles - Probably - the USA has a number of karst areas, numerous caves and of course the Western USA is famous for pinnacles but I am not sure about "Karst pinnacles"
It seems to have every climate and landform you can think of- from the deserts of the southwest, the plains, forests, mountains, tundras in Alaska, tropical rain forests in Hawaii, etc. Even when you take out Alaska and Hawaii, it's still incredibly diverse. Southern Florida is tropical, then we have the snowy mountain tundras elsewhere.
I feel like the other countries that may give it a run for its money is Canada, China, and Australia. But Canada doesn't have anything tropical and I don't know a whole lot about the others.
What do you think?
That's a geography question about places in world.
"Most people" know very little about geography (plain ignorant); they know something about US and know nothing about other places (and, we are talking about world here). Then, how does one make a meaningful statement?
China doesn't have any jungles...? Where did you get that info? They have some subtropical rainforests, much like the SE USA, but the US, with the hammocks of Florida and the forests of Hawaii, actually has tropical jungle areas than China does.
Did you read the part where I said China has jungles?
Smool already mentioned Yunnan (which borders famously-jungley Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar) and Hainan, there are also parts of Guangxi which border Vietnam as well.
lol Yep. Canada will give it a good run for the money, but it simply isn't.
Definitely. Canada has great biodiversity but it lacks the arid deserts, Mediterranean climates, etc that the US has. I think that people still let their personal opinions, likes and dislikes about a country pepper discussions that are about purely physical things and have nothing to do with social issues or politics. The US and China are countries that are both very controversial and people across different spectrums will try to discredit them on any one of a number of different things, but, everyone loves Canada
When I say karst pinnacles I mean like this (there are lots of areas of karst in the world - the ones in China cover an area of France and Spain combined), but not many that are fractured and eroded into the pinnacle form like this, and in several different types, that cover vast areas of southern China. We're talking entire landscapes of multiple forms from 17ft to 7000ft
In short the best thing about China is not the culture, history, people or cities that's so much touted in the brochures, but the huge amount of different landscapes beyond the urban areas. Not many people know this but 2/3 of the country is non-arable due to the huge amounts of mountain (most in the world, with 24 ranges including the world's highest), plus the largest and tallest high plateau, averaging 15,000ft but covering a whopping 2.5 million sq km, threaded by many of the longest rivers sourcing from massive snowmelts in the 'roof of the world' / Third Pole that is the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas, which in turn carves out the deepest gorges, canyons and bizarre subtropical valleys below the tundra. Then there are the huge deserts of rock, sand and ice, plus of course all the types of forest one can think of (from temperate rainforest, to jungle to eucalyptus to redwood to bamboo to conifer). It has the greatest wetlands, and mangroves (giving it the biggest bird population, migration destination and biodiversity), and grasslands from high steppe to savannah. This is why 1.2 billion are crammed into the remaining third of the country to build their cities and farm all their food, and why the urban areas are so dense and the agriculture so intensively farmed. When we think of China we tend to think of that area in the eastern third, not the multitudinous regions outside it.
Last edited by smool; 02-02-2015 at 05:27 AM..
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