Most of the Pearl River Basin is mountainous and hilly, accounting for 94.5% of the total area, while the plain area is small and scattered, accounting for only 55%. The general terrain is high in the northwest and low in the southeast. The northwest is Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, with an average elevation of1000 ~ 2000m. There are basins and lakes on the plateau. There are many rapids waterfalls on the edge of the plateau, among which Huangguoshu Waterfall on Baishui River at the source of Beipanjiang Dabang is the most famous. To the east of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, there is a low hill with an altitude of about 500 meters, which is called Guangdong-Guangxi Hill. There are also many mountains above 1000 meters above sea level between the low mountains and hills, as well as many basins and valleys. Limestone is widely distributed in Guangxi and the eastern Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Strange stone forests, deep caves and underground rivers can be seen everywhere, especially in Yunnan and Guilin. The alluvial plain in the lower reaches of the Pearl River is a famous Pearl River Delta, where rivers and seas meet, the river network is vertical and horizontal, the plain is green, beautiful and rich, and it has a unique southern water town style.
Guangdong and Guangxi are hilly along the coast, with high in the north and low in the south. There are a series of middle and low mountains along the coast, which become the watershed between coastal rivers and the Pearl River system. There are alluvial plains or deltas of different sizes in the estuaries of coastal rivers, among which the Hanjiang Delta has a larger area. Coastal platforms are mainly distributed in Leizhou Peninsula, East Guangdong Sea Lufeng and West Huilai. Hainan Island, the second largest island in China, covers an area of 33,900 square kilometers. Facing Leizhou Peninsula, the center is high and the surrounding terrain is low. Platforms and plains account for 65% of the total area, while mountains and hills account for 35%. Basalt is widely distributed in the north, and the crater is still intact. land resources
The Pearl River Basin covers a total area of 796,300 square kilometers, with a total area of 95.6 million mu of cultivated land and 60.4 million mu of paddy fields. The total area of cultivated land accounts for 654.38+065.438+0% of the total area of the whole region. Among them, the Pearl River Basin has 663 million mu of land resources, 72 million mu of cultivated land, 39.6 million mu of paddy field and 0/890,000 mu of woodland. The cultivated land rate is lower than the national average, and the per capita land in the basin is only 93 100 mu, which is about 3/5 of the national per capita land.
water resource
The total amount of water resources in the Pearl River Basin is 5 182 billion cubic meters, of which the total amount of water resources in the Pearl River Basin is 336.7 billion cubic meters, ranking second among the seven major rivers in China, second only to the Yangtze River. According to the population in 2000, the per capita water resources in the basin is 3093 cubic meters per person, which is higher than the national average. However, because about 80% of the rainfall is concentrated in the flood season, the surface runoff is unevenly distributed during the year, and the runoff in the dry season only accounts for about 20% of the whole year. Affected by topography and monsoon activities, there are obvious high-value and low-value areas of runoff in the basin. High-value areas, such as the upper and middle reaches of Guangxi, Liuzhou and Hejiang, the southeast of Hainan, and the middle and lower reaches of Beijiang River, have an average runoff depth of 1000 ~ 1600 mm for many years. Low-value areas, such as southeast Yunnan, upper reaches of Nanpanjiang River, upper reaches of Red River and valley areas, are only 50 ~ 300mm. Due to the uneven distribution of water resources in time and space, floods and droughts occur frequently in the basin, and the allocation of water resources is difficult.
The Pearl River is rich in rivers and hydropower resources. The exploitable installed capacity of hydropower in the whole basin is about 2510.2 million kilowatts, and the annual power generation can reach10.65438+0.68 billion kwh. Among them, Xijiang Hongshui River is known as the "rich mine" of hydraulic resources because of its concentrated drop, large discharge and superior development conditions.
The rivers in the basin are rich in water, stable in river regime and good in shipping conditions. There are 1088 navigable rivers, with a total navigable mileage of 14 156 km, accounting for 13% of the national navigable mileage, and the annual freight volume ranks second only to the Yangtze River.
mineral resources
There are 58 kinds of proven mineral resources in the Pearl River Basin, including 25 kinds of coal, iron, sulfur, tin, tungsten, aluminum and manganese, with ore reserves exceeding 100 million tons, as well as precious minerals such as gold, uranium, titanium, niobium and tantalum. Famous mining areas include Liupanshui Coal Mine in Guizhou, Nandan Dachang Mine in Guangxi, Pingguo Aluminum Mine, Daxinxialei Manganese Mine, Xiangzhou Barite Mine, Southeast Wuzhou Gold Mine, Cenxi ilmenite Mine, Yunfu Pyrite Mine in Guangdong and Gejiu Tin Mine in Yunnan. In addition, the South China Sea outside the Pearl River Estuary is rich in oil and natural gas. The Pearl River Basin has a total population of 89.8 million, and there are many ethnic groups in the basin, with more than 50 ethnic groups. The main ethnic groups are Han nationality, Zhuang nationality, Miao nationality, Buyi nationality and Maonan nationality, among which Han nationality is the most, followed by Zhuang nationality.
According to the statistics in 2000, the total population of the Pearl River Basin is 654.38+680 million (excluding Hong Kong and Macao), and the GDP reaches 654.38+330 million yuan. The distribution of river basin industries is dominated by secondary industry and tertiary industry. Judging from the composition of GDP in 2003, the primary industry only accounted for 13%, while the secondary industry and the tertiary industry accounted for 46% and 4 1% respectively.
Due to the limitation of geographical location, resource environment and historical reasons, the regional economic development in the basin is extremely unbalanced and the gap between the rich and the poor is wide. Guangdong Province, located downstream, seized the favorable opportunity of reform and opening up by virtue of its geographical advantages and resource advantages adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, and developed a characteristic economy dominated by light manufacturing and high-tech industries, with a GDP of 966.2 billion yuan, accounting for 73% of the total GDP of the basin. According to the per capita level, in 2000, the per capita GDP of Guangdong, the highest in all provinces (autonomous regions) in the basin, was more than 7 times that of Guizhou, the lowest, with a huge gap, while the per capita GDP of the Pearl River Delta region was as high as 15 times that of the upper reaches of the basin. The Pearl River Estuary uses less than 0.3% of the country's land and 1.5% of the population, creating 7.5% of GDP and 33% of total foreign trade exports. Per capita GDP exceeded 30,000 yuan, ranking first in the country.