How Does Geography Influence the Way People Live?

Recently, I did further research about my history class's current unit, Ancient China, and decided to write about the geographic land & its impact towards the Chinese back in the day for extra credit. I used our school textbook, and learned a good amount of things that I was not taught specifically in class.

 The geographic land around us has a huge impact in our daily habits & doings, our reachable sources, and the amount of protection offered to us by the natural world. For example, during the Chinese Sui dynasty, their leader, Yangdi, decided to connect two natural resources, rivers, into a large, widely accessible, canal. Along with providing an extra source of water for the people of China, the canal also acted as a trading resource. According to the article, "The grand canal made it easier to ship products (such as rice) between Sothern and Northern China." Without this partly natural resource, things would be harder to transport from place to place. The two rivers connected by the canal influenced the Sui's ability to trade & receive resources they were unable to access. Another example of the geographic world influencing those of Ancient Asia is the spread of Buddhism throughout many Asian countries. Though the spread initially was created by humans, geography played a large role in helping them travel from country to country. Indians first introduced the Chinese to the Buddhism religion, by trade. At first, the Chinese were skeptical, having followed other religions because of their surrounding people, yet soon adapted to the Buddhist practices & lifestyle. After the Chinese, Buddhism then spread to the Asian country Korea, who also learned to adapt to Buddhism with time. All in all, our geographical surroundings have a huge impact on our daily lives, and shifting from one climate to another forces drastic changes of habits & cultures.