Editing Mount Song (section)

==Geography==
===The Qin-Huai Line===
The Yellow River (Huang He) is the second-largest of China, the first being the [[Yangtze]], which reaches into east Tibet (as does the Yellow). Its numerous tributaries on the way to the [[East China Sea]] just above [[Shanghai]] water a broad {{nowrap|E-W}} swathe called the [[Yangtze Delta]]. Its low-altitude matrix of streams supports the great mass of Chinese people, the most numerous on Earth.

The Yellow River creates a second swathe just north of the Yangtze Delta. It is sometimes said to be in the Delta, but the Yangtze Valley and the Yellow River Valley, both running roughly E-W, are separated from each other by a divide. If it should be breached at any point then one river would capture the other upstream from the breach. Instead they are totally distinct. The Yellow exits into the [[Bohai Sea]] some {{convert|744|km|mi|abbr=on}} north of Shanghai.<ref name=discl>The distances given in this article are straight-line distances obtained from Google Maps with the Distance-measurement tool.</ref>

[[File:Yellow River - panoramio.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Yellow River, Huang He]]
The Yellow River descends from [[Gyaring Lake]] in the high plains of [[Tibet]] at an altitude of {{convert|4293|m|ft|abbr=on}}. The distance from the river mouth is {{convert|1965|km|mi|abbr=on}}. Lowland visitors run the risk of [[altitude sickness]]. The shallow lake collects muddy waters from the surrounding grassy plateau made of thick deposits of [[loess]], a fine dust deposited by glacial winds in the remote past. Suspended loess stays in the water, imparting to the river the yellow color after which it is named. Deposition of this dust fills up the riverbed, resulting in course changes and extensive flooding. Frequent dams and reservoirs help control this formerly disastrous problem.

[[File:蓝田 安村镇纺九路旁的公园以及向塬下看的蓝田县城 06.jpg|thumb|200px|View into the Yellow River Valley west of Mount Song from the edge of the Qinling divide. The settlement is Lantian county.]]
The upper divide is the [[Qinling]] Range, a series of ridges trending roughly W-E, more exactly ESE, to the vicinity of Mount Song, which is considered to be in the range.<ref name=dengfeng/> Some consider Mount Song to be in the [[Funiu Mountains]], another subrange of the Qinling, strictly speaking to the south of Mount Song.<ref>{{harvnb|Junna|2018|p=4|loc=Figure 2}}</ref>  The distance of a N-S line drawn from the Yellow River at {{coord|34.83161|112.97044|format=dms|display=inline}} through [[Shaolin Monastery]] to the [[Yangtze River]] at its exit from Dongdongting Lake is about {{convert|608|km|mi|abbr=on}}. The line enters the Yangtze River Valley at Nanyang, {{coord|33.25682|113.00890|format=dms|display=inline}}. The distance across the divide on that line is therefore {{convert|164|km|mi|abbr=on}}. Songshan is on the northern slope of the divide, its south edge being higher than the north. The monastic communities are on its south slopes.

East of Mount Song the divide is not as severe. Through it flows the [[Huai River]] (Huai he), which begins about {{coord|32.443119|113.325352|format=dms|display=inline}} and flows a widely maeandering course to the East China Sea north of Shanghai. Its lower course is totally controlled in long straight lines; in fact, very little of the topography there is natural. The median line of the divide is thus called the Qin-Huai Line, which has more than a geographical significance. As it turns out, the divide is a climate barrier. North of it the climate is temperate and dry; south, subtropical and wet. The two regions have been dubbed "North China" and "South China." Songshan has the North China climate.

===The Songshan range===
The [[landform]] (or geoform) that is referenced as Mount Song, or on which Mount Song is defined arbitrarily to be, is a range of irregular shape, more E-W than N-S, generally not located any more precisely than "between the cities of [[Luoyang]] and [[Zhengzhou]],"<ref>{{harvnb|ICOMOS|2008|p=14}}</ref> or "in [[Dengfeng]] 登封 district ([[Henan Province|Henan]]), not far from Luoyang."<ref>{{harvnb|Goossaert|2008|p=917}}</ref> Except for a few islands on the west, the whole landform is prominent and continuous. The professionals - geographers, geologists, archaeologists - refer to the whole thing in English as "the Songshan Mountains."<ref>{{harvnb|Hong|2005|p=19|loc=Fig. 1}}</ref> The length from end to end, wherever the topographical map shows a prominence, taking into account the changes of direction, is about {{convert|104|km|mi|abbr=on}} from city-edge to city-edge.{{efn-lr|group=note|The websites, however, often list half that length, meaning the length of the scenic area defined by the government in that range. Parks must have borders, and those borders limit the acreage for which the nation is to take responsibility.}} The width varies considerably. One source gives an average of {{convert|60|km|mi|abbr=on}}, with a length rounded off to {{convert|100|km|mi|abbr=on}}.<ref name=lenwid>{{harvnb|Dongping|2009|loc=Section 1.1}}</ref> Since the global geopark covers the entire area, its estimated area may be taken as the range's area; that is, {{convert|450|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}}.<ref name=area>{{harvnb|Dongping|2009|loc=Abstract}}</ref>

The eastern, or "Taishi" part of the landform extends from the valley to the outskirts of metropolitan [[Zhengzhou]], say to Highway G3001. An axis connecting the two points would head NE and be {{convert|55|km|mi|abbr=on}}. A perpendicular axis running from a point on Route S85 to the south to the Yellow River would be {{convert|115|km|mi|abbr=on}}. The western, or "Shaoshi" part of the landform, is geomorphologically different. A scimitar-like series of parallel ridges with the convex side facing south extends E-W between the central valley and the city of [[Luoyang]] for about {{convert|46|km|mi|abbr=on}}. The N-S width on the east is as much as {{convert|10|km|mi|abbr=on}}, but at Luoyang it is only a band of hills about {{convert|4|km|mi|abbr=on}} N-S in the order of {{convert|300|m|ft|abbr=on}} high, with prominences much less. The western extension has another name, Wan'anshan, which is considered a branch of Songshan.<ref name=xu70>{{harvnb|Xu|2022|p=70}}</ref>

Eastern Mount Song is on the right bank of the Yellow River, but not western. At about {{coord|34.835604|113.066483|format=dms|display=inline}} the Yellow River merges with a right-bank tributary, the Yi Luo. At about {{coord|34.681599|112.800579|format=dms|display=inline}} the Yi he ("Yi River") to the south and the Luo he ("Luo River") join to form the Yi Luo he. Western Songshan is on the continuous right bank of the Yi and Yiluo, but not directly. A plain separates them through which the streams from Wan'anshan pass in their northward courses.<ref name=geofigures>{{harvnb|Webb|2007|p=77|loc=Figure 1}}</ref>

An observer at the confluence of the Yi and the Luo looking south to the Wan'anshan would perceive its general prominence over the plain. The confluence has an elevation of about {{convert|110|m|ft|abbr=on}}. The terrain of the mountain due south has an elevation of about {{convert|556|m|ft|abbr=on}} at {{convert|16|km|mi|abbr=on}} away. The elevation at its foot is about {{convert|240|m|ft|abbr=on}}. The observer therefore would see a mountain wall above the horizon rising to {{convert|446|m|ft|abbr=on}} over the plain. The slope of the plain would be 130/16 m/km or 0.8125%, scarcely different from flat. Once agricultural, the land is suburban Luoyang today.