The Daba Mountains, also known by their Chinese name as the Dabashan, are a mountain range in Central China between the watersheds of the

Yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In th ...

and

Yangtze River 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 ...

s. Part of the larger

Qinling mountain range The Qinling () or Qin Mountains, formerly known as the Nanshan ("Southern Mountains"), are a major east–west mountain range in southern Shaanxi Province, China. The mountains mark the divide between the drainage basins of the Yangtze and Yellow ...

, it cuts through four provinces:

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 t ...

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Co ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), N ...

, and

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The p ...

. It is about long.

Geography

The Daba Mountains run in the general west-northwest to east-southeast direction, along the border between, on the one side (southwest and south)

and

, and on the other side (northeast and north)

and

. The mountains of Shennongjia are often considered the easternmost section of the Daba Range. The southern slope of the Daba Mountains drains into the

Sichuan Basin The Sichuan Basin (), formerly transliterated as the Szechwan Basin, sometimes called the Red Basin, is a lowland region in southwestern China. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides and is drained by the upper Yangtze River and its tributar ...

or directly into the Yangtze via short streams that flow into the river in the

Three Gorges The Three Gorges () are three adjacent gorges along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, in the hinterland of the People's Republic of China. With a subtropical monsoon climate, they are known for their scenery. The "Three Gorges Scenic A ...

area, such as the Shen Nong Stream. The northern side drains into the Han River, a major tributary of the Yangtze, which, however, does not join the Yangtze until some hundreds kilometers to the east (in

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city a ...

). The Daba Mountains' highest points are in the Shennongjia

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

in Shennongjia Forest District. The three tallest peaks, located west of Muyu town, are Shennong Deng ("Shennong Peak", elevation), Da Shennongjia ("Great Shennongjia", ), and Xiao Shennongjia ("Lesser Shennongjia", , on the district's border with

Badong County Badong County () is a county located in western Hubei province, People's Republic of China, bordering Chongqing municipality to the west. It is the northernmost county-level division under the administration of Enshi Prefecture. The Yangtze R ...

). Laojun Shan, tall, is located northeast of Muyu. In the southeast, the Daba Mountains are joined to the Wu Mountains, which block the Yangtze's flow out of the

. In the east, the small Jingshan Range (in the southern part of the

Xiangyang Xiangyang is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hubei province, China and the second largest city in Hubei by population. It was known as Xiangfan from 1950 to 2010. The Han River runs through Xiangyang's centre and divides the city no ...

Prefecture) can be viewed as the extreme extension of the Daba Mountains. In the northeast, the

Wudang Mountains The Wudang Mountains () consist of a mountain range in the northwestern part of Hubei, China, just south of Shiyan. They are home to a famous complex of Taoist temples and monasteries associated with the Lord of the North, Xuantian Shangdi. T ...

are nearby; some authors even consider them a "branch" of the Daba Mountains. In the rural counties of southern

Hanzhong Hanzhong (; abbreviation: Han) is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Shaanxi province, China, bordering the provinces of Sichuan to the south and Gansu to the west. The founder of the Han dynasty, Liu Bang, was once enfeoffed as ...

, in Shaanxi Province, there is a large area of

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, Dolomite (rock), dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathe ...

with some of the largest

sinkholes A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

in the world, known as the Shaanxi tiankeng cluster or "Hanzhong tiankeng group". It covers nearly 5019 square kilometers and is located in four counties, Ningqiang County, Nanzheng County, Xixiang County, and

Zhenba County Zhenba County () is a county under the administration and in the southeast corner of Hanzhong City, in the southwest of Shaanxi province, China. The southernmost county-level division of Hanzhong, it borders Sichuan province to the south. Admin ...

, with the largest sinkhole (520 meters in diameter and 320 meters deep), near Sanyuanzhen () in Zhenba County.

Natural environment

The natural landscape of the region, the

Daba Mountains evergreen forests The Daba Mountains evergreen forests are a Global 200 endangered ecoregion located on the Daba Mountains in China. The forests are part of temperate broadleaf and mixed forests containing both coniferous and broadleaf trees covering a swath of ...

, is listed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as one of the world's 200 ecoregions that should be a priority for conservation. Dabashan National Nature Reserve is located in the Chongqing part of the Daba Mountains ( Chengkou County); Shennongjia Mountain Nature Reserve (), in

( Shennongjia Forestry District). The Dawn Redwood (''Metasequoia glyptostroboides'') is a deciduous conifer endemic to the Daba Shan, whose nearest living relatives are the Coast Redwood and Giant Sequoia of California. Redwoods formerly ranged across the northern hemisphere, but were thought to be extinct outside California until stands of Dawn Redwood were discovered in the Daba Shan in the 1940s. Plants of the Daba Mountains File:VM 5248 Muyu hills forest mushroom.jpg, A forest mushroom (near Muyu, Shennongjia) File:VM 5356 G209 north of Muyu - bean tree.jpg, ''

Decaisnea :''Decaisnea Lindl. is a synonym of Tropidia (plant), an orchid genus.'' ''Decaisnea'' Hook.f &Thomson, (猫儿屎属 mao er shi shu) known commonly as dead man's fingers, blue bean plant or blue sausage fruit, is a genus of flowering plant in ...

insignis'' (at about elevation, north of Muyu) File:VM 5262 Muyu hills forest - blue flowers.jpg, '' Hosta ventricosa'' File:VM 5352 G209 north of Muyu - mountain conifer.jpg, '' Cryptomeria japonica'' File:VM 5156 G209 Wujiaping to Baishahe (Xingshan County).jpg, Chinese red pine (''

Pinus tabuliformis ''Pinus tabuliformis'', also called Manchurian red pine, Southern Chinese pine or Chinese red pine, is a pine native to northern China and northern Korea. Description ''Pinus tabuliformis'' is a medium-sized evergreen tree growing to tall, wit ...

''), in Xingshan County File:VM 5083 Xiqiuwan xiang Baishawan cun fields.jpg, '' Cunninghamia lanceolata'' (center), in

Land use

Presently, terraced agriculture is expanded in the Daba Mountains. A widely planted cash crop is the Eucommia tree, a medicinal plant.

Notes

References

{{Authority control Mountain ranges of Sichuan Landforms of Chongqing Landforms of Shaanxi Mountain ranges of Hubei Mountain ranges of China