Geographically, China can be divided into several regions - the snowy wastelands of the Tibetan highlands; the harsh deserts of the Xinjiang-Mongolian uplands; the vast Mongolian steppes; the hilly forests of the eastern highlands; the fertile plains of the eastern lowlands; the central uplands, the Sichuan basin; and the mountainous southern uplands.
 

Land	Peoples	Climate
Yu Zhou
North China Plain, and Yellow River Basin	Han	Unreliable Rainfall, Moderate Temperatures
Xu Zhou
Jiang-Huai Plain	Han	Decent Rainfall, Moderate Temperatures
Hills of Southern Shandong	Han	Unreliable Rainfall, Moderate Temperatures
Lower Huai River Basin	Han	Unreliable Rainfall, Moderate Temperatures
Yang Zhou
Eastern China, and Lower Yangzi Basin	Han	Heavy Rainfall, Warm and Humid
Qing Zhou
Hilly Shandong Peninsula	Han	Unreliable Rainfall, Moderate Temperatures
Yan Zhou
North China Plain and Ji River Basin	Han	Unreliable Rainfall, Moderate Temperatures
Jing Zhou
Middle Yangzi Basin	Han	Good Rainfall, Warm and Humid
Northern Hunan	Tibetan, Burmese	Decent Rainfall, Warm and Humid
Hill Country of Jiangxi and Zhejiang	Miao, Yao	Decent Rainfall, Warm and Humid
Southern China	Li	Heavy Rainfall, Hot and Humid
Valleys of the Lancang and Mekong Rivers	Mon-Khmer, Tai	Heavy Rainfall, Hot and Humid
Liang Zhou
Yunnan	Han, Mon-Khmer	Decent Rainfall, Moderate Temperatures
Broken Mountain and Valley Country	Han, Tibetan, Tai, Miao, Yi, Hani, Mon-Khmer	Heavy Rainfall, Tropical Temperatures
Southwest China	Mon-Khmer	Decent Rainfall, Warm to Moderate Temperatures
Southern Uplands	Yi, Hani	Decent Rainfall, Warm to Moderate Temperatures
High Plateaus of the Southwest	Tibetan	Decent Rainfall, Moderate Temperatures
Xizang (Tibet)	Tibetan	Moderate to Poor Rainfall, Cool Temperatures
Ji Zhou
Steppelands of the North	Turkic, Mongol, Tungus	Poor Rainfall, Cool Temperatures
Yong Zhou
Northern Grasslands	Mongol, Uighur, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Uzbek	Poor Rainfall, Cool Temperatures
Qinghai	Tibetan	Poor Rainfall, Desert Conditions
Xinjiang	Turkic	Poor Rainfall, Desert Conditions
Northwest Desert	Kazakh, Uighur	Poor Rainfall, Desert Conditions

The Extension of Han Influence and Power
In the Northwest, conditions were unfavorable to intensive agriculture, thus Han settlement was only on a small scale and the Chinese contented themselves with establishing political control over the non-Chinese peoples of these regions. In the subtropical and tropical South, there was massive Chinese settlement in the valleys and lowlands, resulting in large-scale displacement of the pre-Chinese inhabitants.