The Xiaoxiang Range (; ) is a mountain range in

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

Province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. It is part of a complicated system of mountains in south-central Sichuan, and runs in the general north-south direction within

Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture (Nuosu language, Northern Yi: /nɛ˨˩ʂa˧/) is an autonomous prefecture occupying much of the southern extremity of Sichuan province, People's Republic of China. Its seat is Xichang. Liangshan covers an area o ...

and the adjacent parts of

Ya'an Ya'an ( zh, s=雅安, p=Yǎ'ān, w=Ya-an) is a prefecture-level city in the western part of Sichuan province, China, located just below the Tibetan Plateau. The city is home to Sichuan Agricultural University, the only Project 211, 211 Project ...

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province of China, province and above a Counties of the People's Republic of China, county in China's ...

Geography

The Xiaoxiang Range is situated in the rugged mountainous regions of

Southwestern China Southwestern China () is a region in the People's Republic of China. It consists of five provincial administrative regions, namely Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Xizang. Geography Southwestern China is a rugged and mountainous region, ...

where the

Hengduan Mountains The Hengduan Mountains () are a group of mountain ranges in southwest China, southwest China that connect the southeast portions of the Tibetan Plateau with the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau. The Hengduan Mountains are primarily large north-south ...

abut the Yungui Plateau. Despite lying between the Dadu and Yalong Rivers, the Xiaoxiang are not considered part of the

Daxue Mountains The Daxue Range or Daxue Mountains () are a great mountain range in the western part of Sichuan province in Southwest China. It is part of the Hengduan Mountains, a complicated system of mountain ranges of western Sichuan, which itself is adjacen ...

. The Xiaoxiang, and all mountains further south bounded by the Jinsha (upper

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

) River, are more commonly considered a northern extension of the Yungui. The Xiaoxiang Range is separated from the Daxue Mountains by a narrow fault trench through which the G5 Expressway runs. The Xiaoxiang are notable for their high ridge line, providing an unusually consistent straight range of peaks in the region. This is due to the Xiaoxiang's orogenic formation at the edge of the

Yangtze Plate The Yangtze plate, also called the South China block or the South China subplate, comprises the bulk of southern China. It is separated on the east from the Okinawa plate by a rift that forms the Okinawa Trough which is a back-arc basin, on the ...

. The highest point of the range is Huatou Point (铧头尖) at above sea level. The Xiaoxiang Range was heavily glaciated during the last glacial period leaving many

cirque A (; from the Latin word ) is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by Glacier#Erosion, glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from , meaning a pot or cauldron) and ; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform a ...

s and tarns dotted along the ridgeline today. The Xiaoxiang Range is drained to west by the Anning River and its tributaries. The Anning separates the Xiaoxiang from the Miaoniu Mountains to the west. To the north and east, the Xiaoxiang is drained by tributaries of the Dadu River. Across the Dadu to the north lies the Daxiang Range. To the south and east are poorly-defined mountainous regions with no range-like features with the exception of the

Daliang Mountains The Daliang Mountains () are in the southern part of the province of Sichuan in China. The Daliang rises above the left bank of the Jinsha (Upper Yangtze) River, opposite the Wulian Feng in Yunnan Province. This part of the Jinsha River is the ...

further east.

Human activity

The valleys surrounding the Xiaoxiang were originally inhabited by

Yi people The Yi or Nuosu people (Nuosu language, Nuosu: , ; see also #Names and subgroups, § Names and subgroups) are an ethnic group in South China, southern China. Numbering nine million people, they are the seventh largest of the 55 Ethnic minorit ...

s before

Han Chinese The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's la ...

settlement. The mountain summits have long been inaccessible and have been spared from the intensive agricultural uses that dominate many nearby mountainous areas. Thus, the lakes and forests along the Xiaoxiang ridgeline form a significant contiguous ecological habitat dominated by indigenous

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; : ''rhododendra'') is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the Ericaceae, heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan ...

species. This ecosystem has been classified by the WWF as part of the Qionglai-Minshan conifer forests and Yunnan Plateau subtropical evergreen forests ecoregions. Administratively, the Xiaoxiang Range falls within Mianning County to the west, Yuexi County and

Ganluo County Ganluo County ( zh, s=甘洛县; ) is a county of Sichuan Province, China. It is under the administration of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture. Administrative divisions Ganluo County administers the following 9 towns A town is a type o ...

to the east, and Shimian County to the north. The Xiaoxiang Range rises above the primary route between

Kunming Kunming is the capital and largest city of the province of Yunnan in China. The political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province, Kunming is also the seat of the provincial government. During World War II, Kunming was a Ch ...

, the capital of

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

, and

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

, the capital of Sichuan. The Chengdu–Kunming Railway passes directly east of the Xiaoxiang and the new Beijing-Kunming Expressway passes directly to the west. Areas at the south end of the Xiaoxiang Range are currently being developed as a tourist zone.

References

Mountain ranges of Sichuan {{Sichuan-geo-stub