Qinling Mountains (Qinling)

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On August 24, 2011, in China Attractions, Cool Places, Must See Attractions, Nature Scenery, Xi'an, by Jack Li

The Qinling Mountains, ( simplified Chinese: 秦岭; traditional Chinese: 秦嶺) are immense mountain ranges from the west to the east in central China. To the west of the Qinling Mountains is the Baishi Mountain in the north of Lintan County, in the Gansu province. In the west, Yishan Mount is the boundary between the Qinling Mountains and the Kunlun Mountains. To the east of the Qinling Mountains is Maiji Mountain. It is in the south of Tianshui, a city in Gansu and near Shanxi. There are three main ranges between Shaanxi and Henan. The north range is Xiaoshan Mountain stretching to the south bank of the Yellow River. The middle range is the Xiong’er Mountain, while the south range is the Funiu Mountain. This mountain stretches to Hubei from Shaanxi.The Qinling Mountains cover large areas. They are very magnificent mountains with an altitude of 2000 to 3000 metres and are 1,600 kilometres long from west to east. Also they are 10 to 300 kilometres wide from south to north. They are said to be named after ‘Qin’ in Qinling because they were the highest mountains in the Qin Kingdom. The Qin Kingdom existed during the Spring and Autumn Era and the Warring States Period (770BC-221BC). The north part of the Qinling Mountains have majestic cliffs because of the movement of faulted zones. In the ‘Shi Ji’, a historical record of dynasties of ancient China, the Qinling Mountains are described as supreme blocks. From above, the mountains of the Qinling in Shaan Xi are scattered from east to west and are so small they look like the waist of a wasp. There is the Dasan Ridge (2819m), Feng Ridge (2000m) and Mount Zibo (2538m) in the west range. Mount Hua (2154.9 m), Mount Mengling, the Liu Ridge and the Xinkai Ridge are in the east range. The middle range is composed of Mount Taibai (3767 m) , Mount Aoshan (3476m), Mount Shouyang (2720m), Apex Bingjing (3015m), Mount Zhongnan (2604m)and the Caolian Ridge(2646m). The Qinling Mountain blocks the East Asian monsoon, which brings rain from the Pacific Ocean. These mountains divides the different climatic provinces. They also divide different rivers, for example the Weihe River which connects to the Yellow River and the Jiangling River and the Han River which connects to the Yangtze River.