The Northeast China Plain (), commonly known as

Song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetiti ...

liao Plain or the Manchurian Plain or just the Northeast Plain, is located in

Northeast China Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of ...

, historically also known as

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

. It lies between the Greater and

Lesser Khingan Lesser Khingan (; russian: Малый Хинган, ''Maly Khingan'') is a mountain range in China's Heilongjiang province and the adjacent parts of Russia's Amur Oblast and Jewish Autonomous Oblast.

and

Changbai mountains The Changbai Mountains ( simplified Chinese:长白山; traditional Chinese:長白山) are a major mountain range in Northeast Asia that extends from the Northeast Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, across the border bet ...

, ending at the coast at

Liaodong Bay Liaodong Bay () is largest and longest of the three main bays (along with Laizhou Bay to the south and the Bohai Bay to the southwest) of the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea. Although named after the Liaodong Peninsula (which ...

in the

Bohai Sea The Bohai Sea () is a marginal sea approximately in area on the east coast of Mainland China. It is the northwestern and innermost extension of the Yellow Sea, to which it connects to the east via the Bohai Strait. It has a mean depth of ...

. Covering 350,000 km², it is China's largest

plain In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands ...

, with an elevation of lower than 200 meters, and less than 100 meters to the southwest. The Songhua, Nen, and Liao rivers run through it. The Manchurian Plain of Asia is the other name of the

Amur The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China (Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long ...

valley.Encyclopedia Britannica
''Northeast Plain''
Retrieved 12-5-2019. The Northeast Plain includes

Songnen Plain The Songnen Plain () in Northeast China is named after the Songhua and Nenjiang Rivers and is connected to the Sanjiang Plain through the Songhua River The Songhua or Sunghwa River (also Haixi or Xingal, russian: Сунгари ''Sungari'' ...

in the north,

Liaohe Plain The Liaohe Plain is a paddy plain located in the southern tip of Northeast China, apart of a greater Northeast China Plain. The Liaohe Plain is one of the most important industrial zones in Liaoning Province of China, and, with a cultivated land ...

in the south, and

Sanjiang Plain The Sanjiang Plain includes the Amur River (also known as the Heilong, or literally, "Black Dragon" or River), Songhua and Ussuri (also known as the Wusuli) rivers and covers 23 counties in Heilongjiang Province, China encompassing about 109,000&nb ...

in the northeast. The Songnen plain was formed by the Songhua and alluvial soils from the Nen. The Liaohe plain, located in the hilly areas near

Changchun Changchun (, ; ), also romanized as Ch'angch'un, is the capital and largest city of Jilin Province, People's Republic of China. Lying in the center of the Songliao Plain, Changchun is administered as a , comprising 7 districts, 1 county and 3 ...

, was created by the separation of watersheds of the Songhua and Liaohe, which are collectively known as the Liaohe plain. The Sanjiang plain, at the confluence of the

Sungari The Songhua or Sunghwa River (also Haixi or Xingal, russian: Сунгари ''Sungari'') is one of the primary rivers of China, and the longest tributary of the Amur. It flows about from the Changbai Mountains on the China–North Korea bor ...

, and

Ussuri The Ussuri or Wusuli (russian: Уссури; ) is a river that runs through Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais, Russia and the southeast region of Northeast China. It rises in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range, flowing north and forming part of the ...

rivers, was originally a swamp known as the "Great Northern Wilderness", becoming a food-producing area after reclamation. The original wetland area of the Sanjiang plain has been greatly reduced.

History

The Northeast Plain was inhabited by

Sushen Sushen is the modern Chinese name for an ancient ethnic group of people who lived in the northeastern part of China (in the area of modern Jilin and Heilongjiang) and what is in modern times the Russian Maritime Province and some other Siberi ...

ethnic groups since the Zhou Dynastic period, up to and including the

Jurchen people Jurchen (Manchu: ''Jušen'', ; zh, 女真, ''Nǚzhēn'', ) is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian Tungusic-speaking peoples, descended from the Donghu people. They lived in the northeast of China, later known as Manchu ...

, who were semi-nomadic. Large scale Han migration occurred during the Qing dynasty, in a process called

Chuang Guandong ''Chuang Guandong'' (; IPA: ; literally "Crashing into Guandong" with ''Guandong'' being an older name for Manchuria) is descriptive of the rush of Han people into Manchuria, mainly from the Shandong Peninsula and Zhili, during the hundred-year ...

, intensifying during the reign of

Guangxu Emperor The Guangxu Emperor (14 August 1871 – 14 November 1908), personal name Zaitian, was the tenth Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign lasted from 1875 to 1908, but in practice he ruled, w ...

in the late 18th century, and bringing with them large scale agriculture.

Agriculture

It is suitable for mechanized farming, with thick and fertile soil and extensive amounts of arable land. The plain is a major

Chernozem Chernozem (from rus, чернозём, p=tɕɪrnɐˈzʲɵm, r=chernozyom; "black ground"), also called black soil, is a black-colored soil containing a high percentage of humus (4% to 16%) and high percentages of phosphorus and ammonia compou ...

-producing region of the world. Huge areas are planted with wheat, corn, soybeans, rice, sugar beets, sunflowers, sorghum, and flax. The landscape is rich in resources such as iron ore, coal, and oil. After 1949, land reclamation began on the plain and state farms were established. There are very few trees on this landscape that have not been planted, typically poplars in long rows along roads, or on either side of the train tracks. There are not many fences on the landscape, no long running fences, though there are many wooden or stone fences adjacent to the houses. There is also much

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (Anoxic waters, anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in t ...

, vast

marshes A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...

, and many areas that are subject to flooding.Istituto Geografico De Agostini. ''Il Milione'', vol. VIII (Chinese region - Indochinese region), pp. 25-62. Novara, 1962.

References

External links

ISEE Newsletter, Vol.9, No. 4

Plains of China Geography of Northeast China Manchuria Inner Asia Regions of China {{-