Helan Mountains in the context of "Yinchuan"

The Ordos Plateau, also known as the Ordos Basin, the Ordos, or the Shaan-Gan-Ning Basin, is a highland sedimentary basin in parts of northernmost China with an elevation of 1,000–1,600 m (3,300–5,200 ft), and consisting mostly of land enclosed by the "Ordos Loop", a northerly rectangular bend of the Yellow River. It is China's second largest sedimentary basin (after the Tarim Basin) with a total area of 370,000 km (140,000 sq mi). The Ordos includes territories from five provinces: Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, and a thin fringe of Shanxi (western border counties of Xinzhou, Lüliang and Linfen), but is demographically dominated by the former three, hence the area is sometimes also called the "Shaan-Gan-Ning Basin". The basin is bounded in the east by the Lüliang Mountains, north by the Yin Mountains, west by the Helan Mountains, and south by the Huanglong Mountains, Meridian Ridge and Liupan Mountains.

The name "Ordos" (Mongolian: ) comes from the orda, which originally means "palaces" or "court" in Old Turkic. The seventh largest prefecture of Inner Mongolia, Ordos City, is similarly named due to its location within the Ordos Loop.

Hetao (Chinese: 河套; pinyin: Hétào; lit. 'river loop') is a C-shaped region in northwestern China consisting of a collection of flood plains stretching from the banks of the northern half of the Ordos Loop, a large northerly rectangular bend of the Yellow River, that forms the river's entire middle section. The region makes up the northern margin of the Ordos Basin, bounded in the west by the Helan Mountains, the north by the Yin Mountains, the east by the northern portion of Lüliang Mountains, and the south by the Ordos Desert and the Loess Plateau (separated by the course of the Ming Great Wall).

The Hetao region is divided into two main sections — the "West Loop" (Chinese: 西套; pinyin: Xītào) in Ningxia, and the "East Loop" (Chinese: 东套; pinyin: Dōngtào) in Inner Mongolia. The west section includes the alluvial Yinchuan Plain (Chinese: 银川平原, a.k.a. Ningxia Plain) around Shizuishan, Yinchuan, and Wuzhong, and the Weining Plain (Chinese: 卫宁平原) around Zhongwei. The east section is further divided into two parts — the western "Back Loop" (Chinese: 后套; pinyin: Hòutào), which includes the Bayannur Plain (Chinese: 巴彦淖尔平原) around Bayannur and Wuhai; and the eastern "Front Loop" Chinese: 前套; pinyin: Qiántào), which includes the Tumochuan Plain (Chinese: 土默川平原) around Baotou and Hohhot.