Ordos Loop in the context of "Hexi Corridor"

The Lüliang Mountains are a mountain range in central China, dividing Shanxi's Fen River valley from the Yellow River. The range forces the Yellow River southwards on the eastern side of the Ordos Loop but tapers off to the south, where the Fen turns west to join the Yellow River before the Qin Mountains turn the combined river sharply eastward at its confluence with the Wei at Tongguan in Shaanxi.

The Helan Mountains, frequently called Alashan Mountains in older sources, are an isolated desert mountain range forming the border of Inner Mongolia's Alxa League and Ningxia. They run north-south parallel to the north-flowing Yellow River in the Ordos Loop section. The river is mostly east of the mountains, but in the north it crosses without making a significant gorge and flows on the west side. To the west lies the extremely arid Tengger Desert, while to the east is an irrigated area beside the Yellow River, in which lie the cities of Yinchuan and Shizuishan - a little further east of which lies the Mu Us portion of the Ordos Desert. To the north lies the Inner Mongolian city of Wuhai.

They are about 200 kilometres (120 mi) from north to south, from 15 to 50 kilometres (9.3 to 31.1 mi) wide and average about 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) in altitude (the Yellow River here is about 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) above sea level). Their highest peak is 3,556 metres (11,667 ft).

The Ordos culture (simplified Chinese: 鄂尔多斯文化; traditional Chinese: 鄂爾多斯文化; pinyin: È'ěrduōsī Wénhuà) was a material culture occupying a region centered on the Ordos Loop (corresponding to the region of Suiyuan, including Baotou to the north, all located in modern Inner Mongolia, China) during the Bronze and early Iron Age from c. 800 BCE to 150 BCE. The Ordos culture is known for significant finds of Scythian art and may represent the easternmost extension of Indo-European Eurasian nomads, such as the Saka, or may be linkable to Palaeo-Siberians or Yeniseians. Under the Qin and Han dynasties, the area came under the control of contemporaneous Chinese states.

Tongguan County (alternately romanized as Tungkwan) is a county in the east of Shaanxi province, China, administered as part of the prefecture-level city of Weinan. It is named after the Tong Pass, a historical fortress located south of the confluence of the Wei and Yellow Rivers. It is the southeastern corner of the Ordos Loop, the point at which the Qin Mountains turn the Yellow River sharply eastward, forcing it into the North China Plain, and borders the provinces of Shanxi to the north and Henan to the east.

The Di or Beidi (Northern Di) were various ethnic groups who lived north of the Chinese (Huaxia) realms during the Zhou dynasty. Although initially described as nomadic, they seem to have practiced a mixed pastoral, agricultural, and hunting economy and were distinguished from the nomads of the Eurasian steppe who lived to their north. Chinese historical accounts describe the Di inhabiting the upper Ordos Loop and gradually migrating eastward to northern Shanxi and northern Hebei, where they eventually created their own states like Zhongshan and Dai. Other groups of Di seem to have lived interspersed between the Chinese states before their eventual conquest or sinicization.

Hangu Pass or Hanguguan was a fortified gateway that commanded the strategic mountain pass between the Yellow River and Qinling Mountains, forming the main choke point on the only land corridor between the Central Plain and the Guanzhong region. The pass restricted access into the lower Wei River valleys, where the heartland of the state of Qin and the unified Qin dynasty were located, as well as the subsequent dynasties of Han, Sui and Tang.

The Hangu Pass lies on the south (right) bank of the Yellow River, 60 km (37 mi) downstream of its eastward bend out of the Ordos Loop. It was built by the state of Qin in 330 BC and had been the site of many sieges and field battles during the Warring States period and early imperial eras. Due to terrain changes from bank erosions and alluvial deposition of the Yellow River over the centuries, the Hangu Pass eventually fell to ruins after losing its defensive values to the newer Tong Pass to its west, which was built near the mouth of the Wei River in 196 AD by the warlord Cao Cao.

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.

Shizuishan, formerly Shizuizi, is a prefecture-level city in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. It is the northernmost prefecture in Ningxia and the second most populous, after the regional capital Yinchuan, bordered by Inner Mongolia to all directions except the south. Shizuishan sits on the western bank of the Yellow River on the western side of the Ordos Loop. It was formerly a center for caravans traveling the northern routes to and from Beijing across the Ordos Desert.