Why it looks like this

Nanyang sits in a wide basin ringed by hills, opening south toward the Han River valley — farm country that made it one of the great iron-working and trading cities of the Han dynasty two thousand years ago. Zhuge Liang, the legendary strategist of the Three Kingdoms era, is said to have farmed in seclusion near here.

The modern city spreads from the Bai River across the basin floor in broad blocks; the surrounding prefecture is one of China's most populous, and the South–North Water Transfer canal now begins its journey to Beijing from a reservoir in Nanyang's hills.