The eastern half of the province is part of the North China Plain, locally known by various names, and centered on the Yellow (Huang) and Huai Rivers (he). It is extremely flat and subject to flooding--the Yellow River is higher than the plain and has to be walled off with dikes. The edges of the province--except the east--are mountainous. The Taihang mountains are in the north, running north to south along the border with Shanxi. In the west are extensions of the Qinling Mountains, which surround the Nanyang Plain. Where the Yellow River--following the Shanxi boundary--flows through these mountains, it cuts the Sanmenxia Gorge. One of the western mountains is Song Mountain (shan), one of the Five Sacred Mountains of China. The western mountains separate the Yellow and the Yangtze (Chiang) River basins. In the south, along the borders are the Tongbai and the beginnings of the Dabie Mountains. These separate the Huai and the Yangtze basins.
The capital of Henan Province in central_and_northeastern China is Zhengzhou, which lies between two former imperial capitals. One of them is Luoyang, one of 15 other cities (shi) with a million or more residents.
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(1) Ho-nan in Wade-Giles transliteration; translates as South of the River.
(2) Sheng in Wade-Giles transliteration.
(3) Zhuongguo or Chung-hua in transliterations from the Chinese. It translates as Middle Kingdome or Middle Land.