Editing Geography of China (section)

=== Generalities ===
[[File:China topography full res.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Topographic map of China]]
The [[topography]] of China has been divided by the Chinese government into five homogeneous physical macro-regions, namely Eastern China (subdivided into the northeast plain, north plain, and southern hills), Xinjiang-Mongolia, and the Tibetan highlands.<ref>{{citation|title=Communist China Map Folio|author=CIA|publisher=U.S. Central Intelligence Agency |date=October 1967 |url=http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/china_map_folio/txu-oclc-588534-54922-10-67-text.jpg}}</ref> It is diverse with snow-capped mountains, deep river valleys, broad basins, high plateaus, rolling plains, terraced hills, sandy dunes with many other geographic features and other landforms present in myriad variations. In general, the land is high in the west and descends to the east coast. Mountains (33 percent), plateaus (26 percent), and hills (10 percent) account for nearly 70 percent of the country's land surface.  Most of the country's arable land and population are based in lowland plains (12 percent) and [[structural basin|basins]] (19 percent), though some of the greatest basins are filled with deserts. The country's rugged terrain presents problems for the construction of [[Transportation in the People's Republic of China|overland transportation infrastructure]] and requires extensive terracing to sustain [[agriculture in China|agriculture]], but is conducive to the development of [[forestry]], [[mineral]] and [[hydropower]] resources, as well as [[tourism in China|tourism]] in the country.