The part of the North China Plain around the banks of the middle and lower Yellow River is commonly referred to as theCentral Plain (pinyin:Zhōngyuán). This portion of the North China Plain formed thecradle ofChinese civilization, and is the region from which theHan Chinese people emerged.[1][2]
Beijing, the capital of China, is located on the northeast edge of the plain, withTianjin, an important industrial city and commercial port, near its northeast coast.Jinan (the capital ofShandong province) andZhengzhou (the capital ofHenan province) lie on the plain as well, along the banks of theYellow River. Additionally, the capitals of several Imperial Chinese dynasties were located on the plain, includingLuoyang (which at various points was the capital of theHan,Jin,Sui, andTang dynasties) andKaifeng (the capital of theNorthern Song dynasty).
The multipurposeXiaolangdi Dam marks the location of the Yellow River's last valley before its waters flow onto the North China Plain, a great delta created from silt deposited at the Yellow River's mouth over millennia. The North China Plain encompasses much ofHenan,Hebei, andShandong provinces, as well as the northern portions ofJiangsu andAnhui. Further south, the North China Plain merges with the similarly flatYangtze Delta.
The North China Plain is fertile, and it is one of the most densely populated regions in the world. The plain is one of China's most important agricultural regions, producingwheat,maize,sorghum,millet,peanuts,sesame seed,cotton, and variousvegetables. It is the main area ofsorghum,millet,maize, andcotton production in China. In the eastern part of the plain, Shandong'sShengli Oil Field serves as an important petroleum base. Due to its yellow soil, the North China Plain's nickname is "Land of the yellow earth". The plain covers an area of about 409,500 square kilometers (158,100 sq mi), most of which is less than 50 metres (160 ft) above sea level.
The geography of the North China Plain has had profound cultural and political implications. Unlike areas to the south of the Yangtze, the plain generally runs uninterrupted by mountains and has far fewer rivers. As a result, communication by horse is rapid within the plain, and the spoken language of the plain is relatively uniform, in contrast to the plethora of languages and dialects insouthern China. In addition the possibility of rapid communication has meant that the political center of China has tended to be located here.[3]
Because the fertile soil of the North China Plain gradually merges with thesteppes anddeserts ofDzungaria,Inner Mongolia, andNortheast China, the plain has been prone to invasion from nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes originating from those regions, prompting the construction of theGreat Wall of China. Although the soil of the North China Plain is fertile, the weather is unpredictable, being at the intersection of humid winds from the Pacific and dry winds from the interior of the Asian continent. This makes the plain prone to both floods and drought. Moreover, the flatness of the plain promotes massive flooding when river works are damaged. Many historians have proposed that these factors have encouraged the development of a centralized Chinese state to managegranaries, maintainhydraulic works, and administerfortifications against the steppe peoples. (The "hydraulic society" school holds that early states developed in the valleys of the Nile, Euphrates, Indus and Yellow Rivers due to the need to supervise large numbers of laborers to build irrigation canals and control floods.)
Philosophically, the North China Plain was also the birthplace ofConfucius, the traditional patriarch of East Asian philosophy. Confucius lived and taught in theState of Lu from 551 to 479BCE. His teachings, recorded inThe Analects, eventually became the school of thought known asConfucianism. Tied to theClassical Chinese writing system, Confucianism swept throughout China and ontoKorea,Japan, andVietnam, heavily influencing their respective political, legal, and educational bureaucracies.
The initial project of theGreat Leap Forward was accelerating the construction of waterworks on the North China Plain during the 1957–1958 winter.[4]: 82
This set of maps shows how the summerheat stress over the North China Plain would change between now at the end of the century underRCP4.5 and RCP8.5, the scenarios of "moderate" and intense climate change. It also shows how irrigation would exacerbate heat stress compared to acounterfactual where it is absent.[5]
Asclimate change increases the Earth's average temperature, and has a disproportionate effect on extreme temperatures, it will also increaseheat stress felt in areas that are already hot and/or with highhumidity. The North China Plain is expected to be highly affected, as the region's extensiveirrigation networks result in unusually moist air. In scenarios without aggressiveaction to stop climate change, the worstheatwaves are projected to become severe enough to cause mass mortality inagricultural labourers working outdoors. Under the most extreme climate change scenario, the warming reached by 2100 would be sufficient to cause such heatwaves across the North China Plain approximately once per decade.[5]
