Maps and place knowledge, Year 9

Beijing

HintIt lies in the north, and hosted the Olympic Games in 2008 and the Winter Games in 2022.

The whyThe capital is the seat of government, which is not always the biggest city. Beijing stands on the northern plain; Shanghai, at the mouth of the Yangtze, grew as the country's great trading port.

India

HintIt is China's neighbour across the Himalayas.

The whyEach of the two has more than 1.4 billion people, so together they hold over a third of everyone on Earth (UN estimates, 2025). India's population is still growing, while China's has begun to fall slightly.

It is mostly high plateau, mountains and desert

HintThink of Tibet and the Gobi: beautiful, but hard places to farm.

The whyThe Tibetan Plateau averages more than 4,000 m above sea level and the north-west is very dry, so little food can be grown there. The east has river plains, reliable rain and a long coastline, which suit farming, cities and trade.

It makes more manufactured goods than any other country

HintCheck the label on a phone charger, a toy or a pair of trainers.

The whyFrom about 1980 China opened its coastal cities to foreign companies, offering a huge workforce and new ports. Exporting factory products to the rest of the world brought in the money that powered decades of rapid growth.

Services, especially information technology (IT)

HintThink of software, call centres and the people who keep computer systems running.

The whyA large number of English-speaking graduates let Indian companies write software and run office tasks for businesses around the world. Bengaluru is often called India's Silicon Valley.

The monsoon

HintThe same word is used for the rainy season itself, from about June to September.

The whyIn summer the land heats up and draws in moist air from the Indian Ocean; in winter the wind reverses and blows dry from the land. Farming across South Asia is timed around its arrival.

Floods spread fresh silt over it

HintThink about what the rivers are carrying, and where they leave it when they burst their banks.

The whyThe rivers bring down fine mud worn from the Himalayas and drop it across the flat delta, renewing the soil each year. This is why one of the most flood-prone places on Earth is also one of the most densely farmed.

Flooding

HintAsk what threatens any land that sits barely above sea level and beside big rivers.

The whyBoth are made of rich soil laid down by water. Comparing two places fairly means noticing what is alike as well as what differs: the hazard is shared, but Bangladesh also faces tropical cyclones and far heavier seasonal rain.

3

HintDivide the larger population by the smaller one and round.

The whyWith roughly three times the people on a similar area of land, Bangladesh is about three times as densely populated as England, which is itself one of the most crowded countries in Europe (ONS and UN estimates, 2025).

Clothing (ready-made garments)

HintRead the label sewn inside a T-shirt from a British high-street shop.

The whyGarments make up about four-fifths of what Bangladesh sells abroad (2024–25), and many are bought in the UK. It is a direct link between the two places: wages in Dhaka and prices in British shops are part of the same chain.

The Ural Mountains

HintIt runs north to south and is treated as the boundary between two continents.

The whyThe Urals are old, worn-down mountains running south from the Arctic coast. West of them lies the part of Russia counted as Europe; east of them Siberia reaches all the way to the Pacific.

Its winters are extremely long and cold

HintMuch of the ground there stays frozen all year round.

The whyAcross much of Siberia the soil is permanently frozen (permafrost), the growing season is short and winter lasts for more than half the year. Farming and building are difficult, so towns cluster along the railway in the milder south.

oil

HintIt is pumped from beneath the desert and shipped out by tanker.

The whyThe countries around the Gulf sit on some of the largest reserves on Earth. The income has paid for cities, roads and desalination plants in a region with very little fresh water, and several states are now investing in other industries.

Suez; Red

HintThe waterway is named after a port at its southern end; the sea beyond it also borders Saudi Arabia.

The whyOpened in 1869, the canal is one reason the Middle East is called a crossroads: ships between Europe and Asia pass through it and avoid rounding the Cape of Good Hope.