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 .
14-809: Under the strictest 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 plateau-like characteristics. Under
28-549: A brittle dextral strike-slip fault. This article about structural geology is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Yunnan Plateau subtropical evergreen forests The Yunnan Plateau subtropical evergreen forests is an endangered ecoregion in southwestern China . These forests once covered the western parts of the Yungui Plateau but have been significantly reduced and replaced with agricultural land uses. The Yunnan evergreen forests and
42-570: 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
56-512: Is covered by subtropical evergreen forests for much of its Yunnan portions and by mixed broadleaf forests for the Guizhou portions. Red River Fault The Red River Fault or Song Hong Fault ( Vietnamese : Đới Đứt Gãy Sông Hồng ) is a major fault in Yunnan , China and Vietnam which accommodates continental China's ( Yangtze plate ) southward movement. It is coupled with that of
70-764: Is not prevalent. Significant remaining tracts of the evergreen forests include Qinglongxia Scenic Area, the Cang Mountains , Mount Jizu , the Western Hills Forest Reserve , and the Ailao Mountain Nature Reserve . In other places in the ecoregion, the evergreen forests have been replaced by strands of dominating Yunnan pine . It is unclear to what extent Yunnan pine coexisted in the Yunnan Plateau subtropical evergreen forests prior to agricultural development in
84-537: Is relatively flatter here and human agricultural development has greatly reduced the extent of the Yunnan Plateau evergreen forests. In some areas of the ecoregion, rice production has reached altitudes of nearly 3,000 m (9,800 ft), the highest anywhere in the world. This region experiences a mild climate as the high altitude and low latitude negate many of the extreme effects of either climatic feature. Today, forest remnants are isolated along mountain ridges, karst hills, and steeper valleys where agriculture
98-647: The Sagaing Fault in Burma , which accommodates the Indian plate 's northward movement, with the land (Indochina) in between faulted and twisted clockwise. It was responsible for the 1970 Tonghai earthquake . It is named after the Red River which runs through the valley eroded along the fault trace. The Red River Fault was a sinistral strike-slip shear zone until Miocene times when it became reactivated as
112-671: 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
126-594: 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. The Yungui Plateau is a large mountainous region with rugged terrain including steep karst peaks and deep gorges. The plateau
140-501: 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. 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
154-744: 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
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#1732765058454168-616: 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 . 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,
182-544: The neighbouring Guizhou Plateau broadleaf and mixed forests are the only two ecoregions in the Palearctic realm to be classified as part of tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome . Territory that was once covered by the Yunnan Plateau subtropical evergreen forests includes most of the western Yungui Plateau which makes up the eastern half of Yunnan as well as parts of southern Sichuan , western Guizhou , and northwestern Guangxi . The Yungui Plateau
196-569: 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
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