Introductions to Asia

Today, we will start on a new series concerning the continent of Asia. But before we began, I will announce that my friend, Anna, will guest post periodically in 2018. I will also be sharing her post on my blog before the end of the year. Also, throughout the summer I have been posting on TAJ News Blog. I wrote three articles briefly explaining World War II.

Asia is not only the largest continent in the world, but this continent also holds so many other records. Landmarks such as the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, and the location of the Holy Land draw tourists to this continent every year. Asia has been important to history since the beginning because human history began in the Middle East. But it has also played a role in the discovery of the New World, World War II, and the Cold War. I will probably discuss more history in my actual history articles as well as when I began to take a deeper look at each individual country.
 

Asia is connected to the continents of Europe and Australia and was connected to Africa until the Suez Canal was formed. The landmass including both Asia and Europe is called Eurasia. Just throwing out a fact, the country of Russia is located in both Europe and Asia with its capital of Moscow in Europe. The Ural Mountains, Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea are landforms that divide these continents. Asia is connected to the continent of Australia because of one island that both Indonesia and Papua New Guinea share, and it is separated from Africa by the Suez Canal since it was built in 1869.
 

Asia is not only the largest continent by size, but also the largest in population. When I searched the population of Asia on Google, I received the 2016 estimate: 4.436 billion people. There are possible issues, not because of the amount of people, but because of the tendency to cluster in one large city. For example, Tokyo, Japan had 9.273 million people living in it in the year 2015 (according to Google). Most likely, it has risen in the last two years. This might seem like a lot, but the idea that Tokyo is the most populous city in the world is a common misconception. Actually, Shanghai is the most populous city if one were only counting the amount of people living there (this does not include people per square yard or density of population). Shanghai, China had 24.15 million people living there in 2015. Following close behind, Beijing, China had 21.5 million in 2015 and New Delhi, India had 21.75 million in 2011. This population density accounts for higher deaths in natural disasters and more poverty. For example, in the 9-magnitude earthquake of Tokyo in 2011 caused nearly 16,000 deaths. But on the other hand, Valdivia, Chile, which was hit by an earthquake of the same magnitude and then a tsunami much like Tokyo, suffered 7,000 deaths. Valdivia was estimated to have about 124,000 residents in 2002, and we can safely assume that there were about the same or less citizens there in 1960 when the earthquake took place. I think that overpopulation of one particular region should be discussed since it does undermine safety. Here’s another hypothesis: maybe, God instructed people to spread out over the earth for safety purposes as well.
 

Asia is diverse in languages and climates. Because of the varying climate classifications including the desert, highlands, and tropical rainforest, Asia has a variety of different climates. Asia also has so many ethnic groups that not all of them have been discovered. From my research, the Joshua Project estimates about 1,500 ethnic groups live in Southeast Asia. And that isn’t even the whole continent. I couldn’t pinpoint the exact number of languages either. But the Atlantic states that half of the 3,000 endangered languages on earth, half of them derive from Asia. Let’s just say that Asia has a lot of ethnic groups and languages.

Lastly, Asia is a continent of records. I have listed below all of the records of Asia that I could find:

• Highest Mountain (not the tallest; that would go to Mauna Kea in North America): Mt. Everest in Nepal
• Highest Plateau: The Tibetan Plateau in China
• Largest Archipelago: The Malay Archipelago including Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, and the Philippines
• Lowest Point on Land: The Dead Sea in Israel
• Largest and Tallest Mountain Range: The Himalayas in the Indus River Valley (the area around India)
• Largest Lake: The Caspian Sea in Central Asia
• Lowest Lake: The Dead Sea in Israel
• Largest Bay: The Bay of Bengal off the coast of India
• Deepest Lake: Lake Baikal in Russia
• Largest Peninsula: The Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East

That was today’s article, and hopefully, we can begin talking about individual countries next month. Because today commemorates the 9/11 attacks in 2001, I wanted to share this link to the speech and video that President George W. Bush gave with a bullhorn among the wreckage of the Twin Towers in New York. I recently took a trip to Dallas and was able to visit the George W. Bush Presidential Center, and for the first time, I saw footage of what happened there in New York. It is an unspeakable tragedy that many have written and spoken about, but none of that can fully convey what happened there. I hope that you will be able to either read the speech or watch the video, and perhaps study more about that day in history. The link is: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/gwbush911groundzerobullhorn.htm
 

I think that one of the most memorable parts of this extremely short speech are the lines below. These lines just spell out hope to me despite what had taken place. Note: I copied these lines from the link given above.

Rescue Worker: I can't hear you!
President Bush: I can hear you! I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people -- and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!