A limestone plateau dominates the west and central parts of the province--part of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. So karst formations, caverns and underground waterways are common. But there are also arrable basins within the plateau. The land falls off from the center to the north, east and south. The Miao Ling mountains in the south center establish the watershed boundaries between the Pearl (Zhu) and Yangtze (Chiang) rivers (jiang). The most important river is a tributary of the Chiang, the Wu, flowing from a lake in the northwest, across the north to exit in the northeast into Szechuan(3). The most important local member of the Zhu system is the Nanpan which forms part of the southwest border with Guangxi(4). Off one of the minor feeds of its chief tributary, the Beipan, is the scenic Huangguoshu Waterfall area.
The capital of Guizhou Province, part of central_and_northeastern China is Guiyang. Liupanshui, Zunyi, Anshun, Bijie and Tongren also have more than a million residents in the city (shi).
(1) Kuei-chou in Wade-Giles transliteration; also called Kweichow; translates literally as Honorable District.
(2) Sheng in Wade-Giles transliteration.
(3) Sichuan or Ssu-ch'uan in transliteration from Chinese. It translates as Four Rivers.
(4) Also transliterated as Kuang-hsi. Also known as Kwangsi. It translates as Wide West.