The Qilian Mountains along and near the Qinghai-Gansu border exceed 6000 meters. Gansu possesses two exceptions to an otherwise mountainous pattern. In the west is a narrow lower corridor between the mountains, rising to the west, and in the east loess (wind deposited soil). The Yellow or Huang River crosses the province.
Ningxia, on the other hand, is mostly flat. There are some mountains in the northwest--marking the end of the Pacific waters--and in the southeast, and a range cuts across the plains in the center cutting a famous gorge for the Yellow River which crosses the northwest of the province.. The plains themselves are mostly flat loess, but erosion has produced some badlands.
The provinces are culturally grouped with central_and_northeastern China. The majority of the more than 32 million people living here speak Putonghua Chinese and--to the extent they are observant--practice a mix of Buddhism, Confuciansim, Taoism and folk ways, though there is a substantial Moslem minority. There is a substantial minority of Mongolians in Ningxia. This linguistic minority also tends to belong to a religious one: Lamist Buddhism.
Gansu boasts Lanzhou for its capital. There are 13 other cities with a million or more residents in the bounds of the shi (city).
Before the 3rd century B.C.E., when the Chinese began writing about Gansu, the Tocharians(7) lived there. They were conquered by the Hsiung-Nu coming from the northeast and, in response, many Tocharians fled westward out of the area. The rest became absorbed into other populations.
north of northwest Gansu
north
east
south
southwest
west
northwest of Gansu
(1) Zhongguo in Pinyin transliteration and Chung-hua in Wade-Giles transliteration; translates literally as the Middle Land or Middle Kingdom.
(2) Kan-su in Wade-Giles transliteration; translates literally as Pleasant Respect.
(3) Sheng in Wade-Giles transliteration.
(4) Ning-hsia in Wade-Giles transliteration; translates literally as Peaceful Summer.
(5) Hui means Chinese-speaking Moslims.
(6) Tzu-chih-ch'u in Wade-Giles transliteration.
(7) Their name for their language was Arshi-kantu. They were called the Yueh-Chih by the Chinese. Not all scholars agree that the Yueh-Chih spoke Tocharian. Tokharian is an Indo-European language. Whether they arrived here from the west, where other Indo-Europeans lived, is speculative.