Chinese History and Statistics -- Page 5

Tibetan Highland

The highest elevation step is the Tibetan highland. At the core of the region is the Tibetan Plateau, with an average elevation of more than 4,000 m (13,000 ft). The plateau is rimmed by mountain ranges with peaks that rise to more than 6,100 m (20,000 ft). Forming the northern edge of the plateau are the Kunlun Mountains and the Nan Shan range, which enclose the Qinghai, a lake. On the southern edge of the plateau are the Himalayas, which rise to the world's highest elevation (8,848 m/29,028 ft) in Mount Everest, on the Tibet-Nepal border. The Tibetan Plateau is bordered on the west by the Karakoram and Pamir mountain ranges. The eastern edge of the plateau is cut off from the rest of China by canyons and intervening rugged mountain ranges from which flow China's principal river, the Chang Jiang (Yangtze), and some of the major rivers of Southeast Asia, including the Ya-lu-tsang-pu, and Mekong rivers.

Xinjiang-Mongolian Uplands

The second elevation step lies between 1,000 and 2,000 m (3,300 and 6,600 ft) and consists of five sub-regions, which are, from north to south: the Xinjiang-Mongolian upland, the Mongolian border upland, the Qin Ling Mountains, the Sichuan Basin, and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau upland. The Xinjiang-Mongolian upland covers most of Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Xinjiang. A semi-desert region, it includes, in the west, the Junggar (Dzungarian) and Tarim basins of Xinjiang, the latter containing the Takli Makan Desert (Takla Makan). These basins are separated from each other by the TIAN SHAN range. The eastern portion of the upland lies mainly within the Gobi and Ordos deserts.