Loess Plateau

The Loess Plateau, Loess Highlands ( Huangtu Gaoyuan黄土高原, see figure) or loess hill country in northern China, is a high- country level, which represents the transition from the North China lowlands to the highlands of the ( Inner ) Mongolia in the north and the highlands of Tibet in the West. The basin is characterized by the marked also by loess areas in the river valley of the Huang He and its most important tributary, the Wei He, above which stands in the south of the rocky mountain ranges of the Qin Ling. The Loess Plateau expands in northern China for a distance of approximately 1000 km east-west and 700 km north-south and comprises the provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi more or less complete and partial regions of the provinces of Hebei, Henan, Gansu, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia. The loess in particular in the mountains of the provinces of Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Gansu are up to 300 m thick.

Traditionally, the residents of these areas have worked their dwellings common in the loess into it. These so-called Lösswohnungen are characterized by a very pleasant and balanced room climate that can better mitigate the temperature extremes of the cold winter and hot summer do than modern buildings.

The loess is as aeolian sediment, which consists mainly of silt, in northern China, a blown out from the intra-Asian deserts and steppes of fine material that was brought carried and deposited by the wind. The solidified fly ash from intra-Asian steppes is yellow-brown and highly nutritious. Here in the East Asian Lössbergland are accordingly the most powerful Lössdecken the earth, nowhere else in the world, loess has been deposited in such large quantities.

Along the Huang He (Chinese Yellow River ), which takes its name from the transported sediments, it is available in blankets of up to 400 m. Worldwide, no flow over a greater sediment load, there are nearly 40 kilograms per cubic meter of water. The entrained sludge is deposited in the river bed. Due to this increased sedimentation of the Yellow River his bed in the lowlands and must be curbed by higher and higher dikes. In Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, the water table is already ten meters above the surrounding countryside.