Geographic Perspective The State And Southwest Border

Zhang Yin-tang was a famous geographer during the Sino-japanese war. He studied in Yan-king University in his early years, and then got the further study in the United Kingdom. This experience helped him lay a solid theoretical foundation. When he came back, he held the post of geography professor in Tsinghua University for a long time. During this period, he made great contributions to make Chinese geography step into the modern times. Especially, his contributions laid a solid foundation for the starting of the research of frontier geography and economic geography.During 1931-1949, he began to research some important problems which were related to our country's destiny with his special views. He became one of the first scholars for his research about the importance of the concept of country. He thought the concept of country was important for China to become a modern country. He researched the population geography of China from the three different aspects such as overpopulation, population movement and the supply and demand of food. And he predicted the importance of the birth control policy of China and immigration and reclamation. He applied the geographical basic principle "Adjust measures to local conditions" into his research about border military. As a result, he concluded that the geographical environment was important to the defense security. And he also applied it to his research about the development of frontier economy. He got the conclusion: people should adapt to the geographical environment, overcome geographical restrictions and play the geographical advantages, to obtain the rapid development of economy. With the safety of the country in mind, he argued that the relationship between the country and the frontier were inseparable, as a result this promoted the position of the frontier geography. With the defense security and the geographic basis in mind, He researched the problem of the choice of the location of the capital. Finally, he put forward and argued that Peking or Wuhan was the best location of the capital of China after the Sino-japanese war. With the attention of national conditions in mind, he researched the problem of China's geographical education and pointed that China's geographical education was very important to the development of people. When teaching in the National Southwest Associated University, Zhang Yintang emphatically investigated thesouthwest frontier, for example, the border areas of Yunnan province. Especially, the research about the development of economic geography of the west of Yunnan province was a comprehensive investigation about the west areas of Yunnan province. Inhis book--Western economic geography, he stated thatthe development status and development prospects ofthe west areas of Yunnan province from the aspects of agriculture,industry and commerce and some social problems of the boundary between China and Burma. And he argued that the construction of the railway between China and Burma was very useful to the economy ofthe west areas of Yunnan province and safety of the whole country. At the same time, the construction of this railway was a great example of developing the economic geography in border areas. Besides, Zhang Yintang's research about natural geography, racial geographic and cultural geography in western border areas serviced his research about the economic geography.In a word, Zhang Yin tang's research reflects his deep concern to the future of the nation. He demonstrated the importance of the frontier economic development and social stability to the country's survival and development. Especially in the background of the total resistance, in view of the importance of the southwest border, Zhang Yintang demonstrated the possibility and the urgency of the development of the frontier economy.