Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture

Qionglai Mountains () is a mountain range in the

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

Province of China. It runs in the general north-south direction, and is located mostly within the

Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, also known as Aba (; Qiang: ; ), is an autonomous prefecture of northwestern Sichuan, bordering Gansu to the north and northeast and Qinghai to the northwest. Its seat is in Barkam, and it has an ar ...

, in the north-central part of the province.

Geography

The Qionglai Range separates the basins of two major rivers of Sichuan: the

Dadu River The Dadu River (), known in Tibetan as the Gyelmo Ngul Chu, is a major river located primarily in Sichuan province, southwestern China. The Dadu flows from the eastern Tibetan Plateau into the Sichuan Basin where it joins with the Min River, a t ...

(to the west) and the Min River (to the east). Both rivers flow in the general southern direction, and are tributaries of the

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

. The highest point of the Qionglai Mountains is Mount Siguniang ( 四姑娘山, "Four Girls' Mountain"), 6250 m in elevation; it is located in the southern part of the range. Some of the

Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries The Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries () located in southwest Sichuan province of China, is the home to more than 30% of the world's giant pandas and is among the most important sites for the captive breeding of these pandas. It covers 9245 km2 ...

- in particular, the

Wolong Nature Reserve Wolong National Nature Reserve (), also known as Wolong Special Administrative Region (), is a protected area located in Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China. Established in 1963 with an initial size of about 20,000 hecta ...

and the Mt. Siguniang Scenic Park () are located nearby.

Ecology

The characteristic ecosystem of the Qionglai Mountains and the

Min Mountains Min Mountains or Minshan () are a mountain range in central China. It runs in the general north-south direction through northern Sichuan (the eastern part of the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture and adjacent areas of Mianyang Prefec ...

(a smaller mountain range which is located to the northeast of the Qionglai, separated from it by the Min River valley) has been described by the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

as the Qionglai-Minshan conifer forests.

References

External links

Earth Snapshot • Qionglai Range
{{Authority control Mountain ranges of Sichuan

Geography

Ecology

See also

References

External links