Hello, my name is Mr. March, and I'm here today to teach you all about challenges in Beijing.

So grab everything that you need for today's lesson and let's get going.

So by the end of today's lesson, you will be able to identify some of the challenges facing Beijing and describe some ways in which the lives of people living there are unequal.

There are five key terms for today's lesson.

Those are services, informal settlement, infrastructure, pollution, and inequality.

Services refers to a system that supplies a public need.

For example, waste collection.

Informal settlement refers to an area of unplanned housing where people often don't own the land and may face challenges in accessing services such as electricity and sanitation.

Infrastructure refers to all the basic systems in a country such as transport and power supply.

Pollution refers to anything that makes the environment dirty or unhealthy.

And finally, inequality refers to when something is not shared evenly between everyone.

There are two learning cycles for today's lesson.

I'm gonna start with learning cycle one, which is what challenges does Beijing face? Now, Beijing's rapid growth in recent years and status as a global city as well as its rapid urbanisation has undoubtedly created a wide range of positive opportunities.

But as Aisha says, "Beijing also faces several challenges that impact people and the environment." What do you think these challenges may be? You may like to pause the video here whilst you consider that question yourself or perhaps even discuss it with someone next to you.

So Beijing does face many, many different challenges, and these include strains on housing and services.

With more and more people living inside the city of Beijing, it puts more and more strain on the amount of housing that is available, especially good quality housing.

And the same is true for services such as education and healthcare.

Also unemployment, as more and more people arrive in the city looking for work, there may not always be employment for everyone.

So inevitably, unemployment rates go up as a result.

Pollution, again with Beijing's rapid urbanisation and industrialization, as well as increased traffic congestion from the greater numbers of people living inside the city, this is leading to more and more pollution, which brings with it both social problems as well as environmental problems. And finally, overcrowded transport networks.

Again, yes, traffic congestion on the roads, but also congestion and overcrowded public transport systems as well.

These are all different challenges that Beijing is facing.

So strains on housing and services.

While Beijing is one of the most populous cities in the world, its population is up at 22 million, which marks it as a mega city.

A mega city is any city over 10 million people, and Beijing is certainly that.

Now, as one of the most popular cities in the world, property prices are high and there isn't enough affordable housing for everyone to buy or to rent.

Some people as a result live in informal settlements, which are also known as urban villages.

Now remember, the problem with informal settlements is that these people don't own the land and they may have problems accessing basic functions such as water, electricity, and sanitation.

Informal settlements are then unplanned.

They are unplanned housing because this means that people don't actually have a legal claim to build and live there.

As Beijing has rapidly grown in size thanks to urbanisation, rural villages and the surrounding areas around Beijing have become villages in the city.

The homes in these villages are often rented out cheaply to rural migrants who have moved to Beijing in search of work.

So there's rural to urban migration, which brings so many migrants towards cities such as Beijing.

They need housing and they tend to find accommodation in these villages in the city.

These urban villages are common in many, many other fast growing Chinese cities as well.

These urban villages often have a very high population density.

Many, many people are living in a relatively crowded or small space.

The quality of infrastructure and services, therefore, such as public transport, sanitation, and waste management, is often much, much worse or lower than in other parts of the city.

And as Aisha says, "Some people live in overcrowded and poor quality housing as a result." Now a learning check and it says, what are informal settlements? What I need you to do then is pause the video here whilst you try to recall that piece of information and define or describe an informal settlement.

And as Sam says, "Informal settlements are unplanned housing." As well as Lucas says, "In China, informal settlements are often known as urban villages." So really, really well done if you're able to get anything like that in your own answer.

Now, unemployment is another challenge for Beijing because thousands of people move to Beijing each and every single year in search of jobs.

These migrants tend to move from rural areas, from countryside areas where jobs are even more limited and pay even less.

They come to cities such as Beijing in search of work in perhaps a factory or a manufacturing centre.

Unfortunately though, China's economy just isn't growing as fast as it used to.

This reduces the demand for goods and services, which affects the available number of jobs.

Many people may only be able to find work then in what's called the informal job sector.

And this may mean that people aren't paid fairly and lack job security and benefits.

Yes, the problem with the informal job sector is that these people can be laid off at a moment's notice.

Their pay is very low.

They lack healthcare.

They lack benefits as well, for example, sick pay or sick leave, and they really are very much vulnerable and exposed to their employer.

Another challenge is overcrowded transport because Beijing's high population density leads to massive overcrowding.

Now, whilst there are many, many opportunities in terms of its transport network and much investment has been made in Beijing's transport network to ensure that it's well connected, that it's very much available to all people at all times, unfortunately, because there are just so many people, it is becoming overcrowded.

Millions of people are using this transport system each and every single day.

And as a result, traffic can be congested in the city centre and the subway can get very busy during the rush hour.

Now, particularly with the problem on the left in terms of traffic congestion, this is undoubtedly going to increase pollution, which will therefore have social and environmental problems, problems for people, as well as the environment problems for the people in terms of perhaps their health, et cetera.

And this leads nicely onto pollution because air pollution is a real issue, not only in Beijing, but across China.

Poor air quality is harmful to the health of people and the environment.

Causes include manufacturing and industry.

And as we know already, there has been massive industrialization across Beijing and China as a whole.

Also, traffic congestion with so many people now living within Beijing needing to commute to work or to other places around the city, that is leading to traffic congestion and pollution like that you can see in the image in front of you.

That high population density, as I said before, is another key cause of this pollution.

And finally, this pollution mixes with the sand blown from deserts such as the Gobi Desert, 1,000 kilometres away in Northern China.

And when that mixes together, it causes massive problems for the city of Beijing.

So a quick learning check, it says true or false, everyone who works in Beijing is paid fairly and has job security and benefits.

What you need to do then right here is pause the video whilst you consider and then select your answer.

And the correct answer was false.

Now, once again, I'd like you to pause the video whilst you consider as to why the statement is false.

And the reason it's false is because while many people in Beijing only find work in what's called the informal job sector, this often means they aren't paid fairly and lack job security and benefits.

Really, really well done if you've got those two answers correct.

We're on now to our one and only practise question for the first learning cycle and it says this, to complete the text to describe some of the challenges that Beijing faces.

And it says to use the word bank at the bottom of the screen to help you.

So what I'd like you to do then right now is pause the video whilst you attempt this practise question.

Best of luck.

And now some feedback.

And here is the completed text and it says, "Beijing is one of the most populous cities in the world.

The city faces different challenges such as strains on housing and services, pollution and overcrowded transport.

Some people live in informal settlements where the quality of housing, infrastructure, and services is often lower than in other parts of the city.

Beijing's transport system is very busy, which can cause traffic congestion.

Poor air quality caused by industry, traffic, and high population density is also an issue." So really, really well done if you're able to also get those answers that you see on the screen in front of you.

Finally, it has to be said though that many of the world's largest cities face the exact same challenges as Beijing.

So we're on now to our second and final learning cycle, and this is all about how are people's lives unequal.

The first thing to say is that unfortunately, inequality is rising in many places around the world and it is undoubtedly another challenge that Beijing has to face.

Now, inequality is when something is not shared evenly between everyone.

Now, why have I got a cake on the screen? Well, it's a little bit like sharing a cake.

It's as if someone has a larger slice of cake and somebody has a much smaller piece of cake.

This is inequality.

Now, as Izzy says, "People's lives can be unequal in many, many different ways," and we are gonna try and explore those in the next couple of slides.

So in what areas do we find inequality? Well, there is inequality in terms of wealth or the amount of money that you have.

Some people may be living in poverty, while some people may very well be extremely wealthy.

Also, in terms of quality of housing, we've seen already, haven't we, in Beijing that some people are living in very poor quality housing, especially in those informal settlements.

Also in terms of access to a good education, access to good quality healthcare, how people are actually treated more generally, how much of a say people have in decisions that affect them.

Do they have a say in their political decisions? Do they have a say in the decisions which are happening in local communities, or are they being ignored? Access to clean water and sanitation.

And again, that links very well to that housing where we saw that in informal settlements, many people will not have access to clean water and sanitation.

And finally, in terms of job opportunities, and again, we've seen that already, haven't we, in terms of the rates of unemployment where we see migrants moving from the countryside into urban areas, yet still not able to find a job opportunity.

So a learning check and it says that Jun and Sam are having a discussion.

You need to decide who is correct.

Now, Sam, she says, "There are many different inequalities between people's lives." Whilst Jun says, "Inequality is just about the difference in how much money people actually have." What you need to do then is pause the video here whilst you read back through their two statements and decide who you think is correct.

And Sam is correct, Sam is absolutely correct because there are many, many different ways in which inequality can express itself.

Can you give an example of a way in which people's lives might be unequal? Once again, I'd like you to pause the video here whilst you try to recall that piece of information.

Inequality doesn't just exist in Beijing.

There are also inequalities between countries.

And this map is doing a great job in showing that countries around the world, which are extremely rich, shown in the dark green, versus those countries which are extremely poor, shown in the lighter colour of green.

This map then shows the average income per person for different countries.

And you can see the scale at the bottom of the map right there, which goes all the way up to $50,000 and above per person.

And remember, this is just an average.

Do you notice any patterns when you look at that map and which parts of the world have a higher income per person than others? You may like to pause the video here whilst you study that map and try to answer those two questions by yourself, or perhaps you'd like to discuss it with someone next to you.

So what did you identify? Did you identify the fact that in the Northern Hemisphere, so the half of the world above the equator, seems to generally have more wealth and more income than those countries to the south of the equator? Did you also notice how in terms of continents, Europe seems to generally be much more wealthy than other continents such as Africa and large parts of Asia? This is also true for North America, isn't it, where we see more wealth in that continent than versus Africa as well as Asia.

So we can see how there is huge inequality even between countries and continents.

Now, we must also say that there are also inequality within countries themselves.

And the map in front of you is really interesting because it's using something called the Gini coefficient, which is measuring inequality on a scale of zero to one.

If we look at the bottom of the map, we can see that scale from zero to one, and then we can see the different colours shown.

Now, the closer to one the value is, the more unequal it is.

So the darker the colour, the more unequal that country's society actually is.

And the lighter the colour, the less unequal it is.

We have to remember, and we have to see from the map in front of us, that there is no country in the world where the lives of people are completely equal.

But we can get a sense from this map, countries and continents which have higher levels of national inequality and which have lower levels as well.

It's really unfortunate that we live in a world with such inequality.

And it's even more unfortunate that we live in a world where inequality can be caused by your background or your identity.

For example, different causes of inequality can be things to do with your religion, where you live, your gender, your ethnicity, your level of education, your age, your sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as your ability.

Any one of these different causes could be a reason which could trigger or cause you to be treated unequally in society.

Now, I have a quick question for you.

Choose one of these causes and think about why it causes inequality.

You may like to pause the video here whilst you really consider this deep question or even discuss it with a person next to you.

Again, unfortunately, in Beijing, there are huge levels of inequality.

Jun says that Beijing is one of the wealthiest cities in the world.

It is home to more than 60 billionaires.

While Sam says, "But many people in Beijing struggle to meet their daily living needs." So we see that huge contrast between the two groups of people living in the same city.

Now I have a question for you.

How does this make you feel? Do you think this inequality is fair? You may have a different perspective on this.

So what I'd like you to do then potentially is pause the video here whilst you consider your own feelings and opinion about this inequality in Beijing.

And perhaps you could even have a discussion or a debate with the person next to you.

So a quick learning check and it says, true or false, there are inequalities between and within countries.

What you need to do is pause the video here whilst you consider and then select your answer.

And the correct answer is true.

Now, once again, I'd like you to pause the video whilst you consider as to why the statement is true.

And the reason it's true is that although there can be differences between countries, there are also inequalities within countries themselves and within cities and places.

There isn't any country though in the world where the lives of people are completely equal.

So really, really well done if you're able to get those two answers correct.

On now to our two final practise questions for our final learning cycle.

And the first one says to complete the spider diagram to show some of the ways in which people's lives are unequal.

And the second one says, choose one of these inequalities and explain a possible cause of this equality.

So what I'd like you to do then right now is pause the video here whilst you attempt these two practise questions.

Best of luck.

And now in terms of feedback, your spider diagram may have looked like this.

So what do we have? We have quality of housing, access to a good education, access to healthcare, how people are treated, how much of a say people have in decisions that affect them, access to clean water and sanitation, job opportunities, and how much money people have.

So really, really, really well done if you're able to get something like that on your own spider diagram.

And now the second question.

Now, this is an answer that you may have included in your own.

It says, "A possible cause of unequal job opportunities is unequal access to education.

Some jobs require higher levels of education or specific skills and qualifications, and some people might not have the opportunity to access these." So really, really well done if you're able to include something like that in your own answer.

But if you can, try to think about other possible reasons for other inequalities.

And as Lucas says here, "Perhaps you could find out about ways in which people are trying to make our world, countries, and communities more equal." On now to our learning summary, and this is what you need to know from today's lesson.

You need to know that there are high levels of inequalities in Beijing and many other places around the world.

Beijing is one of the wealthiest cities in the world, but many people struggle to meet their daily living needs.

Beijing's high population density puts strains on housing, infrastructure, and services.

and poor air quality in Beijing is harmful to people and the environment.

So really, really well done during today's lesson.

It was a pleasure teaching you, and I will see you again on the next lesson.

Goodbye.