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The loess-paleosol sequences of north-central China are well known for their nearly complete sedimentary record for the past 2.5 million years. The Lijia Yuan and Dingbian sections, representing the last interglacial-glacial cycle, were sampled at 2 cm spacing providing high resolution magnetic susceptibility and grain size records. Variations in these parameters allowed us to identify three soils of the last interglaciation (isotope Stage 5) and the Holocene soil (isotope Stage 1), as well as to identify weak soil development in isotope Stage 3. These data are correlatable with SPECMAP d(18)O isotope and GISP2 d(18)O ice core data. In addition, our records indicate that most of the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles identified from the Greenland ice core data can be correlated to equivalents in the East-Asian monsoon-desert system. Also, the records indicate that the millennial timescale oscillations of the monsoon-desert system can be superimposed on the time dependent evaluation of global ice volume. Moreover, the Eemian interglaciation was characterized by stable climate with reduced winter monsoon winds and increased summer monsoon rainfall.