The Topography in China
2 min readThe topography of China is characterized by high west part and low east part, gradually descending in elevation from the west towards the east to form three steps. The highest step is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with the elevation being generally more than 4,500 meters above sea level, hence known as “the roof of the world”. To the east of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateauis the second step with much lower elevations, ranging between 1,000 meters and 2,000 meters and alternating with huge basins. The third step stretches from the line in the west composed of the Greater Hinggan Mountains, Taihang Mountain, Wu Mountain and the eastern rim of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateauto the coast in the east, and embraces alternating hills and plains, and there are large areas of low mountains and hills at elevations of less than 500 meters above sea level with only a few peaks being at 2,000 meters, and the elevation of plains is all less than 200 meters.
The plains are the important industrial and agricultural bases and economic centers of China. They are distributed in the north to south direction, including Northeast Plain, North China Plain, Middle to Lower Yangtze Plain and Pearl River Delta Plain. According to the types of topography, mountains in China account for 33.3% of the national land area, plateaus 26.0%, basins 18.8%, hills 9.9% and plains 12.0%.
Most rivers in China flow west to east into the Pacific Ocean except a few in the Southwest that flow to the South. The Yangtze River,6,300 kilometers long, is the largest river in China, which originates from the Tanggula Mountain on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and flows to the East China Sea. It is the third longest river after the Nile and the Amazon. The Yellow River is 5,500 kilometers long, the second longest river in China, flowing to the Bohai Sea. Both rivers are the birthplaces of ancient Chinese civilization with a wealth of historical sites and relics.
