Chinese arid zone and desert are the result of rising of the Tibetan Plateau and increasing of contrast of land and sea. Dusts are generated in these arid-desert zones and transported by winds outside the zones to their surrounding areas such as the Chinese Loess Plateau and even far East area. Thus, changing and enhancing of air circulation / winds and climate by the rising of the Tibetan Plateau would cause formation of or enhancing dry condition and desert expansion in Asian inland, increasing dust productivity, changing dust-carrying paths and thickening loess deposition. Knowledge of the age and property of loess sequences would bear the chance to understand the past changes of the Asian circulation and climate in relation to the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau.

Eight thickest loess sequences situated on high river terraces on and near the eastern and western Tibetan Plateau have been chosen to represent the beginning of loess, thus the circulation change in those areas, because these loesses have coarser grain size composition than that in the Loess Plateau and are believed to be formed directly under a new circulation system. Paleomagnetic, rock magnetic and soil studies of those sections demonstrate that the loess on the Tibetan Plateau and its immediate adjacent areas began to appear at ca. 1.15-0.9 Ma, and increases its grain size subsequently. These indicate that there was a big air circulation shift around the Mid-Pleistocene which has caused the occurrence of loess in the eastern Tibetan Plateau and West Qinling Mountains and the loess in the northern slope of West Kunlun Mountains. The later has further suggested that the linked dust-supplying area, the Taklimakan desert was probably formed also at the Mid-Pleistocene. Thus, we estimate that the Tibetan Plateau was uplifted to an average elevation of ~3000 m because this height is a theoretical threshold to cause the divergence of the over-flowing westerlies and glaciation of the Plateau which would have resulted in global cooling, very dry condition in Asian inland and the expansion of desert-gobi and its accompanied loess. The continuant rising of the Tibetan Plateau would intensify the above circulation and the feedback system, thus increasing the grain size composition and thickening of the loess.