China
is a mountainous country. Hills, mountains and plateaus
cover two-third of the population. More than half of China’s
counties have mountainous areas.
With its vast mountainous regions--high in the west and
low in the east--China has a varied topography and diverse
physical features. Plains are mainly in the east; in the
southeast are mainly hills; plateaus and basins join the
other topographical forms scattered over wide areas or
intermingling with each other to provide favorable conditions
for developing a diversified economy of agriculture, forestry,
animal husbandry and mining. The proportion of plains,
hills, mountains, plateaus and basins in the country’s
total area is 12,10,33,26 and 19 percent respectively.
The
land surface of China slopes down from west to east in
a three-step staircase.
The
top of the staircase, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in southwestern
China, known as “ the roof of the world”,
is composed of high and super-high mountains and massive
highlands and averages 4,000 meters or more above sea
level. Mount Qomolangma, the world’s highest, is
situated on the southern rim of the plateau, on the Sino-Nepalese
border.
The
second step of the staircase Going north from the Qinghai-Tibet
plateau across the Kunlun and Qilan ranges and east across
the Hengduan Mountains, the land abruptly drops to plateaus,
mountains and basins on an altitude of 2,000 to 1,000
meters, forming the second step down the staircase, which
consists of the Yunnan-Guizhou, Loess and Inner Mongolia
plateaus and the Tarim , Junggar and Sichuan basins.
The
third step of the staircase The bulk of China’s
population lives in the third or lowest step down the
staircase, east of the line from the Greater Hinggan,
Taihang and Wushan ranges and eastern rim of the Yunnan-Guizhou
Plateau to the sea coast. Here are hills less than 1,00
meters and plains less than 200 meters in elevation. Lying
from north to south are the Northeast Plain, the North
China Plain, the Middle-Lower Changjiang (Yangtze River)
Plain and the hills and foothills south of the Yangtze
River. With superior geographical conditions and a large
concentration of big cities, these are the leading farming
and industrial areas of China.
To
the east of the thired step is the continental shelf formed
by the shallows, which are an extension of the land into
the ocean.
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