Asia is the largest continent, covering one third of the Earth's land area. It is home to over 4 billion people and contains immense geographic, cultural, and economic diversity. Major realms include East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and Central/North Asia. Asia is rich in natural resources like coal, oil, natural gas, and many metals. It is also a major agricultural producer, especially of rice, wheat, tea, and tropical crops. However, population growth and urbanization are putting pressure on resources and the environment in many Asian countries.

2. ASIA
Aegean word ASU which means
sunrise
Largest and most mountainous
Covers almost a third of the earth’s
total land area.
In it, is the world’s highest peak,
Mt. Everest.

3. bounded on the N by the ARCTIC ocean
to the S lies the INDIAN ocean with the
Arabian sea, the Bay of Bengal and the South
China sea.
on the E is the Pacific ocean
Southeastern part is made up of many
islands.

4. on the W, Asia is joined to Europe: the Ural
Mountains and the Caspian sea form the
boundary between the two continents.
in the SW Mediterranean Sea and the Red
Sea.
It is linked to Africa by the narrow Isthmus of
Suez, artificially cut by the Suez Canal.

5. Five Major Realms
East Asia, including China, Mongolia, North
Korea, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan

6. Southeast: Myanmar (formerly known as
Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam,
Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, East
Timor and the Philippines

7. South Asia: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, and Bhutan

8. West Asia: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey,
Cyprus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Syria,
Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen,
Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain,
and Kuwait.

9. North / Central: Area of Russia
that lies east of the Ural Mountains
(Russian Asia) and the states of
Central Asia that were formerly part
of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR). These states are
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.

10. Facts about Asia
Area : 17,176,102 sq.mi. (44,485,900 sq.km.)
Population: estimate of 4 billion
Highest Point: Mt. Everest, Tibet-Nepal (29,028 ft. above sea level)
Lowest Point: Dead Sea, Israel-Jordan (1,312 ft. below sea level)
Largest Country: (by area)
Russia, excluding European portion, 4,845,580 sq.mi.
Largest Country: (by population)
China. Estimate of 1.2 billion
Largest Metropolitan Area: (by population)
Tokyo, Japan
Bombay, India
Shanghai, China
Longest Rivers: Yangtze (Chiang Jiang); Yenisey-Angara (Russia)
Largest Lakes: Caspian Sea (Asia-Europe),Lake Baikal(Russia)
Largest Desert: Gobi Desert (China-Mongolia)

11. Asian Way of Life
 not only the largest but the most populous
*Mongoloid people live in Eastern Asia
and in most of Central Asia
*Caucasoid people, related to the people
of Europe, live in Southern Asia,
Southwestern Asia and Siberia
*Negroid people, similar to the peoples of
Africa South of the Sahara, live in many of
the islands of Southeastern Asia. Pygmies,
called Negritos, live in Malaya and several of
the largest of the islands.

12. > Asia also gave birth to all the world’s major
religions.
*Hinduism, main religion of India
> Buddhism, developed in China and
Japan
*Confucianism, China’s other great religion
*Shintoism, Japan’s traditional religion
*Judaism, evolved among the ancient
Israelites
> Christianity
> Islam

13. Mineral Resources
Asia is so immense that it has a varied mineral and
agricultural resources. But many of Asia’s mineral
resources have not yet been fully exploited, and probably
there are enormous mineral riches the locations of which
are still unknown.
 Northern Asia – that is the Asiatic part of Russia – has a
major coal deposits both in the E and in the W, and experts
believe that there are vast untapped resources in the
permafrost regions of the N. Oilfields are actively exploited
to the N of the Caspian Sea and also on the long slender
island of the Sakhalin, off the Pacific coast to the N of Japan

14. Other important minerals which the Russians
are extracting include asbestos, chrome, cobalt,
copper, gold, iron, mercury, manganese, nickel,
tin, silver, uranium and vanadium. In addition,
the major rivers have been harnessed as a
source of energy, and several industrial regions
are dependent on the hydro-electric power that
they provide

15. > High performing Asian countries are mostly
found in Eastern (Far and South) countries
like:
Japan, Hongkong, Taiwan, South Korea
Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and
Thailand.
> However, Asia has also both developing and
poverty stricken countries like:
Philippines, Bangladesh, Laos, and
Kampuchea to name a few.

16. Side by side with economic boom in Asia is
population increase. Most populous cities in
the world are found in Asia. And by the next
century, Asia will become regions of
megacities. With the population problem,
cities are characterized by slum areas,
increasing urban crime and prostitution,
severe cause of pollution, traffic, etc. This is
the price the city folks of Asia’s tigers are
paying to live where they are today.

17. And though megacities are sprouting in
Asia, still 75% of the Asians live in the
countryside. Asians way of life are still
centered on the village, whether it is in the
forest clearing, river valleys or upland plain.

18. Other important minerals which the
Russians are extracting include asbestos,
chrome, cobalt, copper, gold, iron, mercury,
manganese, nickel, tin, silver, uranium and
vanadium. In addition, the major rivers have
been harnessed as a source of energy, and
several industrial regions are dependent on
the hydro-electric power that they provide

19.  Eastern Asia is rich in coal, and is known to
have small deposits of a great many metal
ores, particularly those of antimony and
tungsten. One of the most important
resources in this region is iron ore, but
surveys have so far indicated only small
amounts of petroleum.

20. Southwestern Asia is rich in petroleum and
coal. The area around the Persian Gulf is
one of the world’s chief sources of oil and
there is also coal in Iran and Turkey

21.  Southern Asia is rich in iron ore and
also has valuable supplies of coal,
the chief concentrations being found
in India. The region also has some
petroleum and Pakistan and
Bangladesh both possess natural gas
deposits. But other minerals are
scarce, though much of Southern
Asia has yet to be surveyed.

22. Agricultural, Fisheries and Land
Use
Two Asians out of every three live by
farming. Many have their own small holdings
where they grow just enough food for
themselves (Subsistence ) and for their
families; in bad years they often grow
hungry.

23. The best agricultural lands are in Southern Asia,
Southeastern Asia, Eastern and the southwestern
part of Siberia. The two chief subsistence crops
are rice and wheat. The largest crops of rice are
produced in China and the drier parts of India.
Although improved agricultural methods and the
use of better seeds have led to a larger crop yields
in recent years, many parts of Asia do not manage
to grow enough food to support their inhabitants
if the weather is unfavorable and have to import
wheat from North America.

24. A number of valuable crops are grown for export:
Malaysia and Indonesia are major producers of rubber.
Rubber trees are introduced to these countries from Brazil
in the 1870’s.
India, Sri Lanka and China produce most of the world’s
tea.
 The island of the East Indies produce most of the
world’s spices.
Other important cash crops include cotton, citrus
fruits, jute and tobacco.

25. Most of Central and Southwestern Asia is
unsuitable for crop growing. But on the scanty
pasture-lands of these regions, nomadic
(wandering) herdsmen tend goats, sheep and
cattle. They also raise camels which are
important means of transport.
In Southern Asia cattle are little use for food; in
some countries they are protected for religious
reasons and in other places they are protected
because they represent wealth. But they are
widely employed for ploughing and for drawing
carts.

26. Forests still cover large parts of Asia,
including the remote areas of
Siberia. The Russians extract a
great deal of softwood timber from
those parts of the forests that lie near
rivers or railways.
In Southeastern Asia, there are thick
teak forests that are exploited for
timber, but most of the forests of the
islands, including the Indonesian
islands are not fully exploited.

27. Fish are important as food in the coastal
lands and islands of eastern Asia.
Both China and Japan possess large
fishing fleets which roam the waters
of the northern Pacific in search of
catches.

28. Southern Asia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Burma
all rely heavily on fish as an item of food. River
and lake fishing are important in many parts of
southeastern Asia, particularly in the deltas of
the great rivers, such as the Mekong.
China, too, has lakes and rivers in some areas
that are well stocked with fresh water fish

29. Japan possesses a major whaling fleet,
which hunts not only in home waters but
also in the Antarctic Ocean. Edible sea
weeds are collected by the Japanese, and
some of these valuable foodstuff is
exported.

30. Land use is very uneven in Asia.
Half of the world’s people live in six Asian
countries – China, India, Indonesia, Japan,
Pakistan and Bangladesh.
But huge areas of Central Asia and the
Arabian Peninsula are almost uninhabited
because they are desert or semi-desert.