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 ...

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 flow ...

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 th ...

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 Cou ...

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), Ning ...

, 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 pr ...

. 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 Shennongjia Forestry District () is a county-level administrative unit (a "forestry district") in northwestern Hubei province, People's Republic of China, directly subordinated to the provincial government. It occupies in western Hubei, and, as of ...

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 tribut ...

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 ...

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). 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. ...

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 t ...

, in Shaanxi Province, there is a large area of karst with some of the largest sinkholes 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 Ningqiang County () is a county and both the southwesternmost and westernmost county-level division of Shaanxi province, China, bordering both Sichuan and Gansu. It is under the administration of Hanzhong City. The source of the Han River is loc ...

, Nanzheng County, Xixiang County, and Zhenba County, 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 o ...

, 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 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 and Yangtze Rivers. Part of the larger Qinling mountain range, it cuts through four provinces: ...

is located in the Chongqing part of the Daba Mountains ( Chengkou County); Shennongjia Mountain Nature Reserve (), in

(

Forestry District). The

Dawn Redwood ''Metasequoia glyptostroboides'', the dawn redwood, is a fast-growing, endangered deciduous conifer. It is the sole living species of the genus ''Metasequoia'', one of three genera in the subfamily Sequoioideae of the family Cupressaceae. It now ...

(''Metasequoia glyptostroboides'') is a deciduous conifer endemic to the Daba Shan, whose nearest living relatives are the Coast Redwood and

Giant Sequoia ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (giant sequoia; also known as giant redwood, Sierra redwood, Sierran redwood, California big tree, Wellingtonia or simply big treea nickname also used by John Muir) is the sole living species in the genus ''Sequoiade ...

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 insignis'' (at about elevation, north of Muyu) File:VM 5262 Muyu hills forest - blue flowers.jpg, ''

Hosta ''Hosta'' (, syn. ''Funkia'') is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies and occasionally by the Japanese name gibōshi. Hostas are widely cultivated as shade-tolerant foliage plants. The genus is currently placed in the fam ...

ventricosa'' File:VM 5352 G209 north of Muyu - mountain conifer.jpg, ''

Cryptomeria japonica ''Cryptomeria'' (literally "hidden parts") is a monotypic genus of conifer in the cypress family Cupressaceae, formerly belonging to the family Taxodiaceae. It includes only one species, ''Cryptomeria japonica'' (syn. ''Cupressus japonica'' L. ...

'' File:VM 5156 G209 Wujiaping to Baishahe (Xingshan County).jpg, Chinese red pine ('' Pinus tabuliformis''), in

Xingshan County Xingshan County () is a county of western Hubei, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of Yichang Prefecture-level City. Geography The county occupies the mountainous north-western corner of Yichang prefecture ("prefecture-le ...

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

Land use

Presently, terraced agriculture is expanded in the Daba Mountains. A widely planted cash crop is the

Eucommia ''Eucommia'' is a genus of small trees now native to China, with a fossil record that shows a much wider distribution. The single living species, '' Eucommia ulmoides'', is near threatened in the wild, but is widely cultivated in China for ...

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