China Geography

From majestic snow-capped Himalayan peaks and lush Tarim Basin oases to Hainan lsland's tropical white-sand beaches and Yunnan's surreal Stone Forest, China's diverse geographic landscape offers travelers a wealth of unique destinations. While China may be edged out by Russia and Canada in terms of total landmass, it dominates East Asia, shaped like a rooster stepping into the Pacific. Mountains, plateaus, deserts, and foothills render 90% of Chirds land unsuitable for agriculture, but the remaining 10% supports one-fifth of humankind today.

The topography of the nation is a large-scale version of the traditional terraces of the Chinese countryside. Flanked by the towering Himalayan, Pamir, Kunlun, and Tianshan ranges in the west, the elevation gradually descends from west to east through successive stair-like mountain chains and basins. Mount Qomolangma (Everest), the highest peak in the world, stands 8848m above sea level, while Lake Aydingkol in the Turpan Depression is the second lowest point (-154m) on earth. Barren terrain covers much of the western frontier. The forbidding Gobi and Takiamakan deserts separate China from Central and North Asia. With an average elevation of over 5000m, the desolate Tibetan Plateau, also called the "Roof of the World," is the largest and highest on earth. It is the source of China's two great waterways, the Yangzi River (Chang Jiang, literally, "Long River") and the Yellow River (Huang He).

The Yangzi River (6300krn), the longest river in China and the third longest in the world after the Nile and the Amazon, winds through the scenic Three Gorges and the fertile, rice-producing Dongting-Boyang Lake region to the East China Sea. It is also China's most navigable river, serving the important industrial centers of Shanghai, Chongqing, Wuhan, Ningbo, and Nanjing. With no natural north-south waterways, central China relies on the 10OOkm Grand Canal, built between Beijing and Hangzhou in the 7th century, for water transport. Despite recent restorations, only a third of the canal is usable today.

At 5464km, the Yellow River is China's second longest, as well as the world's most heavily sedimented. Roaring through the Loess Plateau in northern China, the river c es away 1.6 billion tons of yellow, powdery soil into the Bohai Sea every year. Known as "China's Sorrow' for its catastrophic floods, the river has changed course at least a half dozen times in the past 3000 years. Nonetheless, the Yellow River valley is rich with historical sites and ancient capitals such as Anyang, Luoyang, and Xian and has long been regarded as the cradle of Chinese civilization.

The alluvial plains irrigated by these two river systems form China proper, the country's heartland and the traditional area of Chinese influence. Beyond China's historic northern boundary, the Great Wall, is a region formerly known as Manchuria but now simply referred to as Dongbel (the Northeast). Bordering Siberia, this subarctic region is covered with the forested ridges of Greater and Lesser Xingan to the north and the rolling Dongbei Plains to the south. The wam water harbors of Dalian and Lushun lie at the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula.

Perhaps the single most important clirnate-detemiining feature in central China, the Qinling Mountains near Xian shield the Eastern Plains from the dry air of the and northwest. To the south, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau separates the subtropical southwest from the temperate eastern seaboard. Sealed between the highlands of these two barriers is the flat and lush Sichuan Basin, a historically isolated but prosperous region.

Officially, China's main island is the "Treasure Island" of Taiwan across Taiwan Strait, but the largest off-shore possession actually controlled by the mainland is the island of Hainan further south. China's maritime territorial claims in the South China Sea also include hundreds of tiny uninhabitable rocks and reefs that extend all the way to the Zengmu Reefs off the coast of Malaysia, although these claims are challenged by Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Malaysia. The prospect of oil and natural gas deposits around the disputed Nansha (Spratly) Islands has added to political tension in the area.

China geography & GIS

China Geography

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