That is all out west, where water resources are limited and altitude is very, very, very high. You can&#x27;t grow much at 3000+ meters, even if you had all the water in the world!<p>I absolutely got tired of eating meat in north Xinjiang since they couldn&#x27;t grow anything out there.<p>So here is China&#x27;s topography. East China is mostly mountains. You can grow things in the occasional valley and plains. Or you can terrace the mountains (done in Japan also). West China is more higher mountains (but not so scrunched together as in east China), and very high plains (Litang is a city in Sichuan at 5000 meters). The occasional agriculture still happens (e.g. central Xinjiang), but its mostly desolate.