The Yan Mountains, also known by their

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

name Yanshan, are a major

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

to the north of the North China Plain, principally in the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and 0 ...

. The range rises between the

Chaobai River The Chaobai River () is a river in northern China. The river is 458 km long and flows from the confluence of the Chao and Bai Rivers at the Miyun Reservoir in Beijing Municipality through Hebei Province and into the Grand Canal of the Hai Ri ...

on the west and the Shanhai Pass on the east. It is made up mostly of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

, and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

. Its altitude ranges from 400 to 1000 meters. The main peak,

Mount Wuling Mount Wuling () is a mountain located at the border of Xinglong County, Chengde, Hebei Province and Miyun District, Beijing. It is the main peak of Yan Mountains, with a height of 2118 m above sea level. The mount raised during the Yanshanian m ...

, is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

and is located in

Xinglong County Xinglong County () is a county in the northeast of Hebei province, bordering the municipalities of Beijing to the west and Tianjin to the southwest. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Chengde, with a population of 320,0 ...

in Hebei. The range contains many narrow passes, such as the Gubei Pass, the

Xifeng Pass Xifeng may refer to: *Xifeng County, Guizhou () * Xifeng County, Liaoning () *Xifeng District (), Qingyang, Gansu *Xifeng jiu (), Chinese alcoholic beverage * Xifeng, Liaoning (), town in and seat of Xifeng County * Xifeng, Heilongjiang (), in Rao ...

, and the

Leng Pass Leng may refer to: * Leng (surname) (冷), a Chinese surname * Leng (plateau) Leng may refer to: * Leng (surname) Leng is the Mandarin pinyin and Wade–Giles romanization of the Chinese surname written in Chinese character and Vietnamese surna ...

. The eastern stretch of the

Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic gro ...

, including Badaling in northern

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, can be found in the Yan Mountains. The mountains are also an important traffic gateway between north and south.

Notes

References

North China Plain Mountain ranges of China Mountains of Hebei Mountains of Beijing {{PRChina-geo-stub