Stretching 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) from east to west and 3,400 miles (5,500 kilometers) from north to south, China is a large country with widely varying landscapes. Its territory includes mountains, high plateaus, sandy deserts, and dense forests. One-third of China's land area is made up of mountains. The tallest mountain on Earth, Mount Everest, sits on the border between China and Nepal. China has thousands of rivers. The Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers are the most important. At 3,915 miles (6,300 kilometers) long, the Yangtze is the world's third largest river.

Source: Kidport

China is a very diverse land including deserts, mountains and fertile river basins.
Much of western China is mountains with the Himalaya, Tian and Pamir ranges. Western China also has a large desert. Central …show more content…
The proportion of various landforms is as follows: Mountains, 33%; plateaus, 26%; basins, 19%; plains, 12%; and hills, 10%.

China has a terraced terrain, which gradually descends from the west to the east step by step. The first, or the highest, terrace is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with an average elevation of more than 4,000 meters and known as "the roof of the world". The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is composed of rows of snow-capped peaks and glaciers. The major mountain ranges are the Kunlun, Gangdise and Himalayas.

The second step consists of the Inner Mongolia, Loess and Yunnan-Guizhou plateaus, and the Tarim, Junggar and Sichuan basins, on an altitude of 1,000-2,000 meters.
The third step, about 500-1,000 meters in elevation, begins at the line from the Greater Hinggan, Taihang, Wushan and Xuefeng mountain ranges eastward to the seacoast. Here, running from north to south are the Northeast Plain, the North China Plain, and the Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain. Interspersed amongst the plains are hills and