REGIONS OF CHINA: PLAINS, PLATEAUS, DESERTS

REGIONS AND PROVINCES OF CHINA

Main political–geographical divisions of China: 1) Provinces (yellow); 2) Autonomous regions (green); 3) Municipalities (purple); 4) Special administrative regions (red)

China is comprised mainly of mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west and plains, deltas, and hills in east. China may be divided into the following geographic regions: 1) the 12,000-ft-high (3,660-m) Tibetan plateau, bounded in the north by the Kunlun mountain system; 2) the Tarim and Dzungarian basins of Xinjiang, separated by the Tian Shan; 3) the vast Inner Mongolian tableland; 4) the eastern highlands and central plain of Manchuria; and 5) what has been traditionally called China proper. [Source: Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., Columbia University Press]

China Proper h contains some four fifths of the country's population, falls into three divisions. A) North China, which coincides with the Huang He (Yellow River) basin and is bounded in the south by the Qingling Mts., includes the loess plateau of the northwest, the North China Plain, and the mountains of the Shandong peninsula. B) Central China, watered by the Chang (Yangtze) River, includes the basin of Sichuan, the central Chang lowlands, and the Chang delta. C) South China includes the plateau of Yunnan and Guizhou and the valleys of the Xi and Pearl rivers.

Administrative divisions: 23 provinces ( sheng , singular and plural), 5 autonomous regions ( zizhiqu , singular and plural), 4 municipalities ( shi , singular and plural), and two special administrative regions ( tebie xingzhengqu , singular and plural); provinces: Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang; (see note on Taiwan); autonomous regions: Guangxi, Nei Mongol (Inner Mongolia), Ningxia, Xinjiang Uyghur, Xizang (Tibet); municipalities: Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, Tianjin; special administrative regions: Hong Kong, Macau; note: China considers Taiwan its 23rd province; see separate entries for the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. [Source: CIA World Factbook]

Large Regions of China

Northern China: The northern part of China proper is relatively flat and embraces the the Yellow River, the Qinling range, the Shanxi loess region, North Central Plain, Mongolian plateau, eastern highlands and central plain of Manchuria. Much of China's northern border is shared with Russia. Between Russia and China is Mongolia, a former puppet state of the Soviet Union that acted like a buffer between the two rival Communist nations. Mongolia is now free of Russian domination. China and Mongolia are both home to millions of ethnic Mongolians and they share the Gobi desert, a vast area of windy, grassy plains.

Central China embraces the Yangtze Basin, Sichuan Basin and the Yangtze plains and delta. Between Tibet and the plains of eastern China are rugged, difficult-to- traverse ridges of mountains, many of them in western Sichuan and Yunnan. Getting across these mountains can take weeks. East of these mountain is the Yangtze River valley and the plains of northern and eastern China. This area is the heavily- populated home of the Han Chinese. It is also largely agricultural and has four seasons.

Large Regions of China Researchgate

Southeast China is a green, semitropical region inhabited by large numbers of ethnic minorities similar to the hill tribes found in neighboring Burma, Laos and Vietnam. There are numerous mountains and mountain ranges of various sizes. Large tracts of forest have been cleared here and deforestation-induced erosion is very noticeable. The southern part of China proper embraces the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, the Tung, Pi and Si river valleys, the Southeast coastal uplands and Gungdong-Guangxi Hills.

Western China is the home of the Tarim Basin and Taklimakan Desert, two of the driest and most desolate regions in the world, and the Tian Shan mountains. The Muslim ethnic groups that live here are similar to those found in the former Soviet Republics of Kazahkstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikstan. Many of the ethnic groups in western China are not particularly fond of the Beijing government or Han Chinese.

Southwest China is mainly a mountainous or highland area borders the two rivalling countries of Pakistan and India. China has traditionally been more friendly with Pakistan (the two nations built the incredible Karakoram Highway together) than India. In the 1960s, China and India fought a war over a inhospitable part of the Himalayas and the border in the area is still disputed. It is not possible to enter China from India. The spine of the Himalayas, including Mount Everest runs along the border between Tibet (part of China) and Nepal. Most of Tibet is occupied by the Tibetan Plateau, a dry, desolate region, punctuated by mountains and isolated lakes. The average elevation in Tibet is 14,000 feet; roads routinely pass over 16,000- to 17,000-foot passes; and there are 40 peaks over 22,000 feet high. Very few people live in Tibet. The Tibetan plateau embraces the Himalayas, Kunlun Mountains and the Tahseh Shan.

Time Zone: Although China crosses all or part of five international time zones, it operates on a single uniform time, China Standard Time (CST; Greenwich Mean Time plus eight hours), using Beijing as the base. China does not employ a daylight savings time system.

Main Geographical Features of China

The territory occupied by modern China is characterized by dramatic geographical diversity. Topographically, it is low in the east and high in the west. The land surface ascends in roughly three steps. The plains and lowlands in the east and southeast constitute the first step, occupying about 12 percent of the land. Two-thirds of the country, the two higher steps, are mostly mountains and high plateaus. The principal lowlands are 1) the Manchurian (Dongbei) Plain, drained by the Songhua (Sungari) River, a tributary of the Amur (Heilongjiang), and by the Liao River, which flows to the Yellow Sea; 2) the North China Plain, traversed by the lower course of the Yellow (Huang He) River; 3) the valley and delta of the Yangtze (Chang Jiang) River; and 4) the delta of the Pearl (Zhu) River surrounding Guangzhou (Canton). [Source: Cities of the World, Gale Group Inc., 2002, adapted from a December 1996 U.S. State Department report; Patricia Buckley Ebrey of the University of Washington]

Satellite image of China West of these lowlands, the country's topography rises to plateaus of 1,200–1,500 meters (about 4,000–5,000 feet): the Shanxi and Shaanxi loess plateaus, in central China, and the Mongolian Plateau, in the north. Beyond lie the high plateaus of Tibet, with an average elevation of 4,600 meters (15,000 feet), and the great mountain ranges. The highest mountains are the Kunluns and the Himalayas. North of Tibet are two plateau basins of Central Asia, the Tarim and the Junggar, which are separated from each other by the Tian Mountains. The Chinese portion of the Tian range, which also extends into the former USSR, rises above 7,000 meters (23,000 feet).

The Qinling or Qin Mountains, formerly known as the Nanshan ("Southern Mountains"), are a major east–west mountain range in southern Shaanxi Province, China. The mountains mark the divide between the drainage basins of the Yangtze and Yellow River systems, providing a natural boundary between North and South China and support a huge variety of plant and wildlife, some of which is found nowhere else on earth. The Qinling divide the densely populated and highly developed areas of the lower and middle plains of the Chang Jiang and, on its upper reaches, the Sichuan Basin, an area encircled by a high barrier of mountain ranges. Second only to the Qinling as an internal boundary is the Nan Ling, the southernmost of the east-west mountain ranges. The Nan Ling overlooks the part of China where a tropical climate permits two crops of rice to be grown each year. Southeast of the mountains lies a coastal, hilly region of small deltas and narrow valley plains; the drainage area of the Zhu Jiang (Pearl River) and its associated network of rivers occupies much of the region to the south. West of the Nan Ling, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau rises in two steps, averaging 1,200 and 1,800 meters in elevation, respectively, toward the precipitous mountain regions of the eastern Tibetan Plateau.*

The largest cave chamber in the world is the Miao Room, in the Gebihe cave system at China's Ziyun Getu He Chuandong National Park, which encloses about 10.78 million cubic meters (380.7 million cubic feet). The world's largest sinkhole is the Xiaoxhai Tiankeng sinkhole in Chongqing Municipality, which is 660 meters deep (2,165 feet), with a volume of 130 million cubic meters (4.59 billion cubic feet). [Source: CIA World Factbook]

The Turpan Depression is the second lowest place in the world after the Dead Sea. Also known as Turpan Pendi, it is 140 kilometers southeast of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and is 154 meters (505 feet) below sea level. With temperatures that have reached 49.6 C, it also ranks as one the hottest places in China. The highest point in China is Mount Everest at 8,849 meters (29,031 feet).

Populated Areas of China

Ninety percent of China's people live on one-sixth of the land. Most of China's population lives in the relatively flat and fertile eastern and southeastern third of the country, the traditional China Proper. This region includes the coastal plains, deltas and the fertile valleys of the Yellow (Huang He) River and Yangtze River, Asia's longest river, at 6380 kilometers (3960 miles). Many are peasants living, as did their forebears, in the low-lying hills and central plains that stretch from the highlands eastward and southward to the sea. Agriculture predominates in this vast area, generally favored by a temperate or subtropical climate. The meticulously tilled fields are evidence in part of the government's continuing concern over farm output and the food supply.

population density map of provinces and territories in China (purplish red is the most densely populated followed by red in decreasing shades); The eastern, coastal provinces are much more densely populated than the western interior mainly due to historical access to water.

The high elevations, cold temperatures and generally arid conditions of the western portions of China, which make up more than half of the overall territory, have prevented the development of agriculture. Thus, the western region is more isolated and much more sparsely populated than the east. The coastal areas of China are the most densely populated regions, with a density of more than 400 people per square kilometer (1,036 people per square mile). Among the bustling port cities in this area are Shanghai near the Yangtze delta and Guangzhou in the Pearl River delta). Commercial development and high population density are also features of regions around the mouths of the major rivers, including the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers). The central regions have an average population density of 200 people per square kilometer (518 people per square mile). The western plateaus are sparsely populated, with densities averaging less than 10 people per square kilometer (26 people per square mile). [Source: Geo-Data: The World Geographical Encyclopedia, Gale Group Inc., 2003]

Only 15 percent of the country is good for agriculture (compared to 21 percent in the U.S.) and most of this land is on the central eastern coast and along around the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys. About 34 percent of China is covered by pastures, and 14 percent by forests. Mountains cover 58 percent of China. Deserts cover 28 percent. Plains and basins cover around 35 percent. Based on 2005 estimates, 14.86 percent (about 1.4 million square kilometers) of China’s land is arable. About 1.3 percent (some 116,580 square kilometers) is planted to permanent crops. With comparatively little land planted to permanent crops, intensive agricultural techniques are used to reap harvests that are sufficient to feed the world’s largest population and still have surplus for export. An estimated 544,784 square kilometers of land were irrigated in 2004.

Lower Yangtze and Maritime South

The Lower Yangtze and South Central China is dominated by Wuhan and Shanghai, major industrial and commercial cities. Norma Diamond wrote in the “Encyclopedia of World Cultures”: “This area had important urban centers as well as an affluent and productive agricultural sector even before the nineteenth-century rise of the treaty ports. It includes suburban Shanghai Municipality, the provinces ofJiangsu, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, and parts of Anhui and Zhejiang provinces. With its lakes and numerous navigable waterways, it is one of the richest and most densely populated areas of inner China.

Topographic map of China

The climate is mild, with 240 frost-free days, and rainfall is ample. Double cropping is common, with alternation of winter wheat and summer rice. Cotton, silk, pigs and poultry, vegetable farming, ocean and freshwater fisheries, and rural industries have for generations supplemented peasant income. In recent years the expansion of towns and cities, exploitation of rich natural resources, and a thriving free market system have made this the leading area in industrial and agricultural output. [Source: “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 6: Russia-Eurasia/China” edited by Paul Friedrich and Norma Diamond, 1994]

The Maritime South is a large region that includes southern Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, and Guangxi provinces, and it probably should be extended to cover Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. It is linguistically very diverse, and in some sections there are large minority populations particularly in Guangxi, where minority peoples account for almost 40 percent of the total. Some scholars would divide the region into a northern tea-and-rice area and a southern double-cropping rice area. However, cropping, population density, urbanization, and communications depend on altitude: much of the region is mountainous, and temperatures and soil quality vary.

Around the Pearl River Delta, near Guangzhou, which enjoys one of the highest living standards in China, population density reaches 2,000 persons per square kilometer, whereas in the uplands it is closer to 200 persons per square kilometer. Yao, She, Li, and Zhuang generally live in uplands areas unsuitable for Han methods of farming. It is regarded as one of China's richest regions today: along the coast Special Economic Zones and overseas investments have revitalized the modern sector of the economy and led to dramatic changes in living standards and life-styles.

North China Plain

The North China Plain of inner China includes the provinces of Henan, Hebei, Shandong, and the northern parts Jiangsu and Anhui. The historic center of Chinese expansion and influence, the region is nourished by the Huang He (Yellow River) and its tributaries. Flowing from its source in the Tibetan highlands, the Huang He courses toward the sea. The Han people have farmed the rich alluvial soils of the plain since ancient times, constructing the Grand Canal for north-south transport. The plain itself is actually a continuation of the Dongbei (Manchurian) Plain to the northeast but is separated from it by the Bo Hai Gulf, an extension of the Huang Hai (Yellow Sea). [Source: Library of Congress, 1987]

Northern China image from Envisat’s MERIS instrument February 8, 2012; The North China Plain dominates the image, bordered on the north and west by mountains, with the Yellow Sea to the east; flowing northeast across the Plain we can see the Yellow River — China’s second longest — before it empties into the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea; In the upper left portionis Beijing, which looks like a shaded circle

The Qinling mountain range, a continuation of the Kunlun Mountains, divides the North China Plain from the Chang Jiang Delta and is the major physiographic boundary between the two great parts of China Proper . It is in a sense a cultural boundary as well, influencing the distribution of custom and language. South of the Qinling divide are the densely populated and highly developed areas of the lower and middle plains of the Chang Jiang and, on its upper reaches, the Sichuan Basin, an area encircled by a high barrier of mountain ranges.*

The Loess Plateau, the North China Plain and central Manchurian Plain overlap and can be considered one entity. The Han people, China's largest ethnic group, have farmed the rich alluvial soils of the plain since ancient times, constructing the Grand Canal (Dayun He) for north-south transport. Like other densely populated areas of China, the plain is subject not only to floods but to earthquakes. For example, the mining and industrial center of Tangshan, about 165 kilometers east of Beijing, was leveled by an earthquake in July 1976 that reportedly also killed 242,000 people and injured 164,000.

According to the “Encyclopedia of World Cultures”: “ Moving north to south, the area has from 190 to 250 frost-free days, light snowfall, and hot (30° C), rainy summers. Rich deposits from the Huang He (Yellow River) and its tributaries have enriched and built up the soils in many areas. Flooding and drought continue to be problems because of erratic rainfall. Agriculture is intensive: forests and grasslands have long since given way to the plow and some 40 percent of the total area is under cultivation. About 30 percent of the Chinese population live here, most engaged in agriculture. Average population density is 400 persons per square kilometer (in the 1990s), mainly concentrated in nucleated villages of fifty to several hundred households, surrounded by the fields. The main staple crops are spring wheat, corn, millet, and sweet potatoes harvested in the late summer and autumn. Tobacco and cotton are important cash crops. Some of the surplus rural labor has been absorbed into the industrial and commercial growth of major cities-such as Beijing, Jinan, Loyang, Shijiazhuang, and Tianjin-or industrial centers such as Shandong's Shengli oil fields and the coastal development zones. [Source: “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 6: Russia-Eurasia/China” edited by Paul Friedrich and Norma Diamond, 1994]

Deserts and Plateaus in China

The Gobi Desert is separated from the Manchurian Plain by the Great Khingan Mountains, which occupy a northeastern region of China straddling the China-Mongolia border. The Badanjilin Shamo forms the southern limit of the Gobi. Much of the Gobi is mountainous, stark terrain. The Ordos (or Mu Us) Desert is the extension of the Gobi that lies along the southern edge of Inner Mongolia (Nei Mongol). To the southeast, is the Loess Plateau.

20080317-sand cnto.jpg
Sand dunes in Xinjiang The Taklamakan Desert, also spelled Taklimakan and Teklimakan, is a desert in southwestern Xinjiang in Northwest China. It is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, the Pamir Mountains to the west, the Tian Shan range to the north, and the Gobi Desert to the east. Desertification is a problem in China. Currently, desert covers more than 2.6 million square kilometers (1 million square miles), or about 30 percent of the country's total land area. The Tarim Basin is located between two east-west mountain ranges in the Taklimakan Desert. This area is known for its sandstorms, arid conditions, extreme temperatures. The largest inland basin in China, the Tarim Basin measures 1,500 kilometers from east to west and 600 kilometers from north to south at its widest parts. [Source: Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of Physical Geography, Gale Group, Inc., 2003]

About 25 percent of China's total area is classified as plateau. The Tibetan Plateau, enclosed by the Himalayas and the Kunlun Shan, is the highest and largest plateau in the world, covering some 2.3 million square kilometers (888,000 square miles) with elevations that average more than 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) above sea level. The land here continues to rise, gaining an average of 10 millimeters (0.04 inches) per year. North of Tibet rise two more plateaus: the Tarim Basin and the Junggar Basin. In these regions, the elevation averages 4,600 meters (15,000 feet). The Tian Shan range separates the two plateaus.

The Inner Mongolia (Nei Mongol) Plateau, China's second-largest plateau, lies in the northeast near the border with Mongolia. It covers an area of about 1,000,000 square kilometers (386,100 square miles), with 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) stretching from east to west and 500 kilometers (300 miles) from north to south. The elevation averages between 1,000 and 2,000 meters (3,300 to 6,600 feet). To the south is Loess Plateau, the third largest plateau in China, covering 600,000 square kilometers (308,881 square miles).“The last notable plateau in China is the Yunnan-Guizhou plateau in the southwest. The smallest plateau in China, it features unusual geology with dramatic stone outcroppings and overhangs.

Loess Plateau

20080317-loess plateau_photo.gif
Loess PlateauThe Loess Plateau, also known as the Chinese Loess Plateau or Shaanxi Loess Region, is the largest loess plateau in the world, covering Shaanxi Province, parts of eastern Gansu and Shanxi provinces, and some of Ningxia-Hui Autonomous Region. Loess is a yellowish soil blown in from the Nei Monggol deserts. The loose, loamy material travels easily in the wind, and through the centuries it has veneered the plateau and choked the Yellow River (Huang He) with silt. Loess soil is very fertile. The Loess Plateau produces a lot of crops and would be one of the breadbaskets of China of it weren’t for the fact that the region is so dry. Much of it only receives 25 centimeters (10 inches of rain a year). Web Site: Wikipedia Wikipedia

Located northwest of the North Central Plain, The Loess Plateau is a 600,000-square-kilometer (230,000-square-mile) region, south of the Nei Monggol Plateau,where everything is gritty yellow: the mountains, the cliffs and the houses where many people live. Even the air is yellow. Covering an about the size of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands combined, it gets its color from the yellow dust that gets kicked up by the strong winds that blow through from time to time. The dust in turn comes from a fine loosely packed soil called loess, which is found in other parts of the world but not in the concentrations that are found here.

The Loess Plateau is one of least inviting landscapes in China. It was once covered by forest but is now largely bare except in areas of agriculture. On some barren slopes, without a tree or bush in sight, are the slogans “Make the Green Mountain Even Greener” written in large characters. Occasionally there are serious problems In May 2005, a huge sink hole swallowed 11 houses in Jixian County in Shanxi Province. Sixteen people escaped the 80-meter-wide, 1250-meter-long hole created in loess soil.

Loess in the Loess Plateau

The loess layer ranges from 100 to 200 meters (330 to 660 feet) in depth and rises to elevations that range from 800 to 2,000 meters (2,640 to 6,600 feet). Charles C. Mann wrote in National Geographic, “For eon upon eon winds have swept across the deserts to the west, blowing grit and sand into central China. The millennia of dust fall have covered the region with vast heaps of packed silt. For centuries the silt piles have been washing away into the Yellow River — a natural process that has exacerbated", thanks to poor agricultural practices called the the Dazhai Way, "into arguably the worst soil erosion problem in the world. [Source: Charles C. Mann, National Geographic, September 2008]

Compacted loess can be easily carved, and many farmers in Loess Plateau live in caves carved out of the loess cliff sides. Some farmers even dig down in their fields and make their homes underground. It is not usual in some places to see fields with smoking chimneys rising out of them from houses set in the middle of them.

Loess is hard when dry but dissolves when wet. Rains wash away huge amounts of soil and leave behind gullies that can become canyons and may travel across the region difficult. Loess is also light and blows away very easily. In the spring, when the winds are strongest, yellow dust from the Loess Plateau is carried westward into Korea and Japan, where it forms a pollen-like film. Some even makes it way to North America. The soils that blew away in dust bowl region of Oklahoma were primarily loess.

People, Development and Environmental Issues of the Loess Plateau

The Loess Plateau is one of the places Chinese where civilization began andwas formerly a part of the Silk Road leading to Central Asia. Since 1949 mining and industry have become important. "A visitor to China’s Loess Plateau would rightly be puzzled that the region was once the cradle of Chinese civilization,”Paul Mozur wrote in the New York Times. “Through thousands of years of farming, much of the once fertile soil has been leached to the point of infertility. Massive dust storms pick up the loose soil and carry it as far as Tokyo and Taipei. During sunset, fumes from factories block out the sun well before it can be observed sinking below the horizon.

Norma Diamond wrote in the “Encyclopedia of World Cultures”: “The Loess Plateau remains overwhelmingly Han in ethnic composition. The heavy deposits of windblown less soils are fertile but fragile, prone to erosion, gullying, and landslides. Much of the land is not arable. Rainfall is unpredictable. Winter temperatures fall below freezing and the summers are hot. Agriculture is most successful along the Huang He (Yellow) and the Wei and Fen rivers. Wheat, millet, and maize are the main crops and some double cropping is possible. The rural areas support a lighter population density than the North China Plain, and the general standard of living is markedly lower except in the southeast sector. In the northwest and beyond the Great Wall, the desert begins."

The Loess Plateau has some of the world's highest erosion rates and embraces heavily industrialized eastern Gansu., Farming is difficult. Rain and irrigation water are in short supply. The edges of terraced fields routinely collapse down steep gullies. Many crops are coaxed from terraces or raised with irrigation water from the Yellow River and its tributaries. It is the last major area of arable land as one heads north. Many tree planting efforts in the Loess Plateau region have failed. In recent years entire hillsides have been covered with sink-wide, hand-formed basins made to held a single sapling and water so its survive and create a platform to prevent it from eroding away.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: CNTO, Library of Congress, CIA World Factbook. National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Encyclopedia.com, Live Science, The Conversation, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Google AI, Wikipedia, The Guardian and various websites, books and other publications.

Last updated July 2026