Geology

Four major geological units (Li, 1990)

1. High plains of the eastern and central Inner Mongolia Plateau, the Ordos Sandland Plateau, the Shaanxi-Gansu Loess Plateau, the western Alashan Plateau, eastern Xinjiang, and the Hashun Gobi.
2. Mountains: the Daxinganling, Yinshan, and Helanshan of Inner Mongolia; the Liupanshan of Ningxia and Gansu; the Qilian Mt on the northern edge of Qinghai; and the Altai, Tianshan, and Kunlun mountains in Xinjiang.
3. Desert basins—the Junggar, Turpan, and Tarim basins of Xinjiang; the Qaidam Basin of Qinghai; and the Hexi Corridor of Gansu.
4. The Qinghai-Tibet-Plateau, with the western boundary where Himalaya, Karakoram, Kunlun and Pamir Mountains meet; the eastern boundary formed by the highlands in Qinghai, western Gansu and Sichuan, northwestern Yunnan locate and the Kunlun;  the Arjin and Qilian Mountains form northern boundary and the main chains of the Himalaya demarcate the southern boundary.

Citations

Li, Bo 1990. The Steppe of China (Zhongguo de caoyuan). Beijing: Science Press. (in Chinese)