The Greater Khingan Range or Da Hinggan Range ( zh, s=大兴安岭, t=大興安嶺, p=Dà Xīng'ān Lǐng;
IPA: ) is a volcanic
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 aris ...
in the
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...
region of
Northeast China
Northeast China () is a geographical region of China, consisting officially of three provinces Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain, the largest plain in China with an area of over . The regi ...
.
It was originally called the Xianbei Mountains, which later became the name of the northern branch of the
Donghu, the
Xianbei
The Xianbei (; ) were an ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. The Xianbei were likely not of a single ethnicity, but rather a multiling ...
.
Geography
The range extends from north to south. It is the watershed between the
Nen and
Songhua river systems to the east, and the
Amur
The Amur River () or Heilong River ( zh, s=黑龙江) is a perennial river in Northeast Asia, forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China (historically the Outer Manchuria, Outer and Inner Manchuria). The Amur ...
and its tributaries to the northwest.
Population
Its slopes are a relatively rich grazing area. The
Khitan people
The Khitan people (Khitan small script: ; ) were a historical Eurasian nomads, nomadic people from Northeast Asia who, from the 4th century, inhabited an area corresponding to parts of modern Mongolia, Northeast China and the Russian Far East.
...
lived on the eastern slopes
[ before establishing the Liao Dynasty in the tenth century. Oroqen, a Tungusic people, live along the Greater and Lesser Khingan range in northeastern China and belong to the oldest autochthonous populations of the region. On the western slopes lived the nomadic people, who raised sheep and camels and used the Mongolian plateau for their pastoralist economy.]
In fiction
The Greater Khingan Range is a key setting in the science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
novel ''The Three-Body Problem'' (novel) by Chinese author Liu Cixin
Liu Cixin (, pronounced ; born 23 June 1963) is a Chinese computer engineer and science fiction writer. In English translations of his works, his name is given as Cixin Liu. He is sometimes called "''Da'' Liu" ("Big Liu") by his fellow sc ...
.
See also
*Daxing'anling Prefecture
Daxing'anling (), also known as Da Hinggan Ling, is the northernmost Chinese prefecture-level division, located in northwestern Heilongjiang Province. It covers and had a population of 520,000, as of 2004. It is named after the Greater Khinga ...
* Lesser Khingan
* Xing'an
* Da Hinggan-Dzhagdy Mountains conifer forests
References
Further reading
*
{{Mountain ranges of China
Mountain ranges of China
Landforms of Inner Mongolia
Xianbei