page_title: Loess Plateau
hierarchical_section_title: Loess Plateau
caption_attribution_description: Mapa de la meseta de loes del río Amarillo (China)
context_page_description: The Loess Plateau, is a 640,000 km² plateau in north/northwest China with an elevation of 1,250–2,000 m, located around the southern half of the Yellow River's Ordos Loop and the valleys of its two largest tributaries, the Wei and Fen Rivers. The Loess Plateau covers almost all of the provinces of Shaanxi and Shanxi and extends into parts of Henan, Gansu, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. It was enormously important to Chinese history, as it formed one of the early cradles of Chinese civilization and its eroded silt is responsible for the great fertility of the North China Plain, along with the repeated and massively destructive floods of the Yellow River. Its soil has been called the "most highly erodible... on earth" and conservation efforts and land management are a major focus of modern Chinese agriculture.
context_section_description: The Loess Plateau, (Chinese: 黃土高原; pinyin: Huángtǔ Gāoyuán; lit.: 'Yellow Earth Plateau'), is a 640,000 km² (250,000 sq mi) plateau in north/northwest China with an elevation of 1,250–2,000 m (4,100–6,560 ft), located around the southern half of the Yellow River's Ordos Loop and the valleys of its two largest tributaries, the Wei and Fen Rivers.  The Loess Plateau covers almost all of the provinces of Shaanxi and Shanxi and extends into parts of Henan, Gansu, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia.  It was enormously important to Chinese history, as it formed one of the early cradles of Chinese civilization and its eroded silt is responsible for the great fertility of the North China Plain, along with the repeated and massively destructive floods of the Yellow River.  Its soil has been called the "most highly erodible... on earth" and conservation efforts and land management are a major focus of modern Chinese agriculture.
caption: The Loess Plateau (shaded)
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