Yunnan -- Guizhou Plateau - wikipedia Yunnan -- Guizhou Plateau Yunnan - Guizhou Plateau ( 云贵 高原 ) Yungui Plateau Region Karst geography on the Yungui Plateau near Guiyang Country China Provinces Yunnan, Guizhou Region Southwest China Average elevation 500 m ( 1,600 ft ) to 2,500 m ( 8,200 ft ) Coordinates 26 ° N 105 ° E ﻿ / ﻿ 26 ° N 105 ° E ﻿ / 26 ; 105 Coordinates : 26 ° N 105 ° E ﻿ / ﻿ 26 ° N 105 ° E ﻿ / 26 ; 105 Topographic map of East Asia with Yungui Plateau highlighted Yunnan -- Guizhou Plateau Traditional Chinese 雲貴 高原 Simplified Chinese 云贵 高原 Postal Yunnan -- Kweichow Plateau show Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yúnguì Gāoyuán Wade -- Giles Yün - kuei Kao - yüan Yungui Plateau Traditional Chinese 雲貴 高原 Simplified Chinese 云贵 高原 Postal Yunkwei Plateau show Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yúnguì Gāoyuán Wade -- Giles Yün - kuei Kao - yüan Using a wider definition, the Yunnan -- Guizhou Highlands make up the light green area on the lower part of this map The Yunnan -- Guizhou Plateau or Yungui Plateau ( simplified Chinese : 云贵 高原 ; traditional Chinese : 雲貴 高原 ; pinyin : Yúnguì Gāoyuán ) is a highland region located in southwest China. The region is primarily spread over the provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou. In the southwest, the Yungui is a true plateau with relatively flatter highland areas, while in the northeast, the Yungui is a generally mountainous area of rolling hills, gorges, and karst topography. Contents 1 Geography 1.1 Definition 1.2 Human geography 1.3 Physical geography 2 Climate and ecology 3 Footnotes 4 External links Geography Definition Under the most strict definition, the Yungui Plateau stretches from the Red River Fault in Yunnan in the southwest to the Wuling Mountains in Hunan in the northeast. This plateau region includes most of eastern Yunnan and most of Guizhou. It is common, however, for much of the rest of Yunnan and surrounding highland areas to be referred to as part of the Yunnan -- Guizhou Plateau even where there are no pleateau - like characteristics. Under the broader definition of the Yungui Plateau, the provinces would include not only Yunnan and Guizhou but also Gulin County and the southernmost extremes of Sichuan, eastern Chongqing, southwestern Hubei, western Hunan, and northwestern Guangxi. Human Geography Located in Southwest China, the Yungui Plateau separates the Sichuan Basin from South China. The area has long been considered a backwater region of China. Historically, the plateau has been home to many minority peoples who have traditionally engaged in intensive agriculture along hills and in valleys. Today, the Yungui region is one of the most economically depressed areas of China and both Guizhou and Yunnan provinces are in the bottom three in rankings for the Human Development Index in China. Many residents on the Yungui Plateau live in a traditional fashion in rural villages. Major cities on the Yungui Plateau include Kunming, Guiyang, and Zunyi. The Yungui Plateau is home to many extreme engineering feats where railways and expressways have been built to traverse the challenging terrain. The world 's highest bridge, the Beipanjiang Bridge, is located on the Yunnan - Guizhou border in the heart of the plateau. Physical Geography The Yungui Plateau is a large mountainous region with rugged terrain including steep karst peaks and deep gorges. The plateau is buttressed by the large Hengduan Mountains to the northwest and by lowland regions to the north, east, and southeast. Other major mountain ranges cross or surround portions of the Yungui Plateau. The Wumeng Mountains and Wulian Feng form a barrier through north - central Yungui along the Jinsha ( Upper Yangtze ) River. To the north, the Dalou Mountains run along the Yungui 's edge with the Sichuan Basin. The Wuling Mountains in the northeast form a transitional terrain between the plateau and the Yangtze Plain. In the south, the Miao Range steps down to the karst hills of South China. Across the Red River to the southwest, the Ailao Mountains form a definitive barrier. The high mountain peaks of Eastern Tibet are the source of many of Asia 's great rivers, which flow southerly towards the Yunnan -- Guizhou Plateau. The rivers split around the plateau, with the Salween and Mekong keeping south and the Yangtze turning northeast. Most of the western Yungui Plateau is drained by the Nanpan and Beipan Rivers, both headwaters of the Pearl River. The eastern Yungui Plateau is largely drained by the Wu River, a tributary of the Yangtze. Major lakes have formed in the Yunnan portions of the Yungui Plateau, including Dian Chi and Fuxian Lake. Erhai Lake is located on the plateau 's western edge at the southern base of the Hengduan Mountains. Climate and ecology The climate gradually transitions from drier in the southwest to rainier in the northeast. In east - central Yunnan, parts of the Yungui Plateau experience a semi-arid climate. In most of Guizhou, the climate is classified as humid subtropical. The Yungui Plateau is covered by subtropical evergreen forests for much of its Yunnan portions and by mixed broadleaf forests for the Guizhou portions. Footnotes ^ Jump up to : Atlas of China. Beijing, China : SinoMaps Press. 2006. ISBN 9787503141782. Jump up ^ `` Yunnan - Guizhou Plateau ''. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2007 - 08 - 06. Jump up ^ China 's Southwest. Lonely Planet. 2007. ISBN 9781741041859. Jump up ^ `` China National Human Development Report 2016 Social Innovation for Inclusive Human Development '' ( PDF ). China Publishing Group Corporation China Translation & Publishing House. 2016. Jump up ^ `` Chinese History and Statistics - Yunnan - Guizhou Plateau Upland ''. Retrieved 2007 - 08 - 06. Jump up ^ Suettinger, Robert Lee ; Kuo, Ping - chia. `` Yunnan ''. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 31 August 2017. Jump up ^ Yang Qinye. Tibetan Geography -- Long Rivers with Distant Sources. Retrieved 2007 - 12 - 02. Jump up ^ `` Yunnan Plateau subtropical evergreen forests ''. Global Species. Myers Enterprises II. Retrieved 31 July 2017. Jump up ^ `` Guizhou Plateau broadleaf and mixed forests ''. Global Species. Myers Enterprises II. Retrieved 31 July 2017. External links Expansion of the Chinese Paddy Rice to the Yannan - Guizhou Plateau Yunnan topics Kunming ( capital ) General History Politics Economy Geography Cities Yunnan - Guizhou Plateau Diqing Plateau Honghe River Dianchi Lake Fuxian Lake Erhai Lake Lugu Lake Yangzong Lake Yilong Lake Xi River Yuan River Pearl River Red River Pudacuo National Park Education Yunnan University Yunnan Agricultural University Culture Music Eighteen Oddities Cuisine Barbeque Pineapple rice Erkuai Ferns Crossing the bridge noodles Honey Hot pot Jidou liangfen Lufu Mi gan Mi xian Mushrooms Pu'er tea Steam pot chicken Rubing Rushan Sichuan pepper Shiping tofu Xuanwei ham Zhe'ergen Visitor attractions Old Town of Lijiang Dali Old Town Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas South China Karst Category Commons Guizhou topics Guiyang ( capital ) General History Politics Economy Geography Cities Yunnan - Guizhou Plateau Education Guizhou University Guizhou Normal University Zunyi Medical College Guiyang Medical University Culture Music Mak language Cuisine Visitor attractions Huangguoshu Waterfall Category Commons Plateaus of China Loess Plateau Hetao Wuzhang Plains Mongolian Plateau Bashang Plateau Tibetan Plateau Yunnan - Guizhou Plateau Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yunnan -- Guizhou_Plateau&oldid = 798667022 '' Categories : Plateaus of China Landforms of Yunnan Landforms of Guizhou Hidden categories : Coordinates on Wikidata Geobox usage tracking for region type Articles containing Chinese - language text Articles containing simplified Chinese - language text Articles containing traditional Chinese - language text Talk Contents About Wikipedia Asturianu Башҡортса Беларуская Čeština Deutsch Español Euskara فارسی Français 한국어 Հայերեն Italiano Lietuvių Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Русский Татарча / tatarça Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 粵語 中文 16 more Edit links This page was last edited on 3 September 2017, at 06 : 17 ( UTC ). 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Question: where is the yunnan plateau located on a map
Answer: southwest China