With an area of about 400,000 square km and an average altitude of 1,000 - 2,000 m, Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau is located in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces and is the fourth largest plateau in China.

A great number of rivers have scoured out many deep and steep valleys on Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau as it descends from west to east. The plateau terrian in Yunnan province is comparatively complete, mostly in the form of of small basins among the mountains. The plateau in Guizhou province, however, is bumpy and irregular, hence goes the saying that, "in Guizhou there is no flat ground over three mils".

The basins have deep and fertile soil where agriculture is well developed and towns are concentrated there.

Karst topography is widely distributed on Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Karst forms gradually when limestone is dissolved and eroded by water over a long period by water over a long period of time under high temperature and plentiful rain. There are many caves, underground rivers, stone shoots, stalagmits and other karst topography. Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau is one of the areas where the karst topography has developed most completely and typically in the world.