Ordos Plateau

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(Redirected from
Ordos Loop
)
Ordos Plateau
Chinese name
Mongolian Cyrillic
ᠣᠷᠳᠣᠰ
Ordos
Provincial boundaries. The Loess Plateau is shaded. The Yellow River is colored blue. The yellow area is Inner Mongolia and Ningxia.

The Ordos Plateau, also known as the Ordos Basin or simply the Ordos, is a highland sedimentary basin in parts of most Northern China with an elevation of 1,000–1,600 m (3,300–5,200 ft), and consisting mostly of land enclosed by the Ordos Loop, a large northerly rectangular bend of the Yellow River. It is China's second largest sedimentary basin (after the Tarim Basin) with a total area of 370,000 km2 (140,000 sq mi), and includes territories from five provinces, namely Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and a thin fringe of Shanxi (western border counties of Xinzhou, Lüliang and Linfen), but is demographically dominated by the former three, hence is also called the Shaan-Gan-Ning Basin. The basin is bounded in the east by the Lüliang Mountains, north by the Yin Mountains, west by the Helan Mountains, and south by the Huanglong Mountains, Meridian Ridge and Liupan Mountains.

The name "Ordos" (Mongolian: ᠣᠷᠳᠤᠰ) comes from the orda,[1] which originally means "palaces" or "court" in Old Turkic.[2][3][4] The seventh largest prefecture of Inner Mongolia, Ordos City, is similarly named due to its location within the Ordos Loop.

The

Rouran (Northern Wei), Eastern Göktürk (Sui and Tang dynasty) and Mongols (Ming dynasty
).

The more populous south Ordos is traversed by the upper reaches of

capital of China in more than a dozen ancient dynasties
.

The area is of high archaeological interest. Skeletal remains and artifacts show the Ordosian culture occupied the area in the Upper Paleolithic. The late Neolithic saw the development or introduction of the Zhukaigou culture, which was followed by the iron-wielding Ordos culture.

Geography

The

Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve on the Tibetan Plateau in a roughly eastern course before turning northwest after its confluence with the Bai He ("White River") in Maqu County, Gansu. After reversing course back towards the east, it begins the massive Ordos Loop by turning northwards at Zhongning County in Ningxia. It runs northwards about 640 kilometers (398 mi), leaving the Loess Plateau—whose eroded silt produces the river's yellow color—for the Ordos proper before turning east in Inner Mongolia. It continues this course for about 320 kilometers (199 mi) before Shaanxi's Lüliang Mountains force it sharply southwards. The eastern side of the loop runs about 600 kilometers (373 mi), re-entering the Loess Plateau before reaching its confluence with the Wei River at Tongguan in Shaanxi and again turning sharply eastward. It then flows through Henan's Hangu Pass to enter the North China Plain
.

The

Han River, which flows south to a confluence with the Yangtze at Wuhan
.

Underlying the loess plateau is one of the largest coal beds in China.

Climate

Rainfall and therefore population decreases rapidly as one moves north. The Wei River valley on the south is densely populated and is one of the ancient centers of Chinese civilization. The north is grassland and desert (

Ordos desert) and is part of Inner Mongolia
. Because of its low and variable rainfall the region was once notorious for drought and famine.

Along the two rivers

At the southwest corner near where the Yellow River emerges from the Tibetan Plateau is

Qin Mountains with Mount Hua on the south past Weinan to Xi'an, a former capital of China and now a large city. West of Xi'an is Xianyang, the Qin dynasty capital. The river exits the mountains west of Baoji. There is a dam, the river narrows and becomes yellow and the railroad needs many bridges and tunnels all the way to Tianshui
. Upstream various tributaries extend in the direction of Lanzhou.

History

Approximate area of Chinese civilization during the Spring and Autumn period. Note the extension up the Wei valley

Although this rectangular area is obvious on a map, the north and south of the area are so different that the region cannot be said to have a common history.

The south and east of the plateau belong historically and culturally to China, for which see

Prehistory and History of China
.

The north and west, the grassland and desert, belongs historically and culturally to nomads. The region had been occupied by humans since at least

Levalloisian" element. They seemed to have a masterful knowledge of Upper Palaeolithic technology, producing blades as much as fifteen centimeters long.[8]

By about 1000 BC Chinese civilization was centered on the west side of the North China Plain with an extension up the Wei valley and a northern extension up the Fen River. The lower Wei valley is still one of the most densely populated areas in China. Rulers based in the Wei valley had an advantage since the mountains to the east made a natural fortification and war horses were readily available from the northern grasslands. The Zhou dynasty and the Qin dynasty started in the Wei valley. Xi'an on the lower Wei was several times the capital of China. By the Tang dynasty the economic center of China had shifted to the Yangzi valley and the Wei region became partly dependent of food imported up the Grand Canal.

The Ordosian culture was followed by the

Maoqinggou and Yinniugou dated to around the 7th century BC, amounting to a total of 117 burials.[16] Many bronze weapons of these cultures are similar to those of Chinese style.[17] Depictions of the Ordos people tend to show straight hair. This is especially true of archaeological finds from Baotou (M63:22, M63:23, M84:5), Etuoke (M1, M6), Xihaokou (M3), lower Woertuhao (M3:1), and Mengjialiang.[18]

Horse nomads occupied the area of the Ordos Plateau previously settled by the

Asian steppe.[19]

Europoid features.[20]

The Ordos are mainly known from their skeletal remains and artifacts. The Ordos culture of about 500 BC to AD 100 is known for its "Ordos bronzes", blade weapons,

Sakas.[26]

The Ordos were in contact and often at war with the pre-Han and

Eastern Hu (東胡; Donghu), who shared a similar "art of the steppes," but appear to have been Mongoloids.[27] They may also have been related to the Di
people of Chinese annals.

In Chinese accounts, the Xiongnu first appear at Ordos in the

Shuofang commandery in 127 BC. Prior to the campaign, there were already commanderies established earlier by Qin and Zhao until they were overrun by the Xiongnu in 209 BC.[30]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ 市情概况. Archived from the original on 2009-11-22. Retrieved 2009-11-13.
  2. ISBN 978-1-85043-961-5
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1-74104-578-9
    . Retrieved 17 January 2011.
  4. ISBN 9780524015322
    .
  5. ^ "China Population (2020)". PopulationStat. Retrieved 2020-02-28.
  6. ISBN 9780199735785
    – via Google Books.
  7. ISBN 9781598744583
    – via Google Books.
  8. Harper and Row
    . p. 172.
  9. ^ Ma 2005, p. 196-197
  10. ^ Lebedynsky, p131
  11. ISSN 1671-587X
    .
  12. ^ Ma 2005, p. 298-299
  13. ^ Ma 2005, p. 231
  14. ^ Wuen, Taohongbala Tombs. Encyclopedia of China, 1st ed.
  15. ^ Ma 2005, p. 230-231
  16. ^ Ma 2005, p. 232-233, 278-279
  17. ^ Ma 2005, p. 282-290
  18. ^ Ma 2005, p. 188-189
  19. ^ Beckwith 2009, p. 71
  20. ISBN 978-0-520-01596-8
    .
  21. ^ Compare this and this account, both from the 1970s. Bunker, 200, sees them as the same, or rather the Ordos people as a subgroup of the Xiongnu.
  22. ^ Bunker, 200
  23. ^ Lebedynsky 2007, p. 125 "The Mongoloid types of the Transbaikal area and Central and Eastern Mongolia are strongly contrasted with the Europoid type displayed at the same time by the Scythian nomads occupying Western Mongolia and their predecessors of the Bronze age."
  24. ISBN 978-0-520-01596-8
    .
  25. ^ "Europoid faces in some depictions of the Ordos, which should be attributed to a Scythian affinity", Iaroslav Lebedynsky, p125
  26. ^ Lebedynsky 2007, p. 127
  27. ^ Lebedynsky, p.124
  28. ^ Ma 2005, p. 220-225
  29. ^ Lebedymsky p131
  30. ^ Ma 2005, p. 224

Sources

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