How big is the Qinling Mountains?

The Qinling Mountains in a broad sense is a huge east-west mountain range across the central part of China, starting from Baishi Mountain in the north of Lintan County in Gansu Province in the west and bounded by Dieshan Mountain and Kunlun Mountain. Enter Shaanxi eastward through McKee in the south of Tianshui. At the junction of Shaanxi and Henan, it is divided into three branches, the northern branch is Xiaoshan, and the remaining veins extend eastward along the south bank of the Yellow River, commonly known as Mangshan; The middle branch is Xiong 'er Mountain; The south branch is Funiu Mountain. A small part of the southern part of the mountain range extends from Shaanxi to Yunxian County, Hubei Province. The Qinling Mountains are 1600 km long and tens of kilometers to two or three hundred kilometers wide from north to south, covering a vast area.

In a narrow sense, Qinling refers to the middle part of Qinling, which is located in the middle of Shaanxi Province. It was called "Qinling Mountain" in the Han Dynasty, and it was named "Nanshan" because it was located in the south of Guanzhong.

The altitude is 2000 ~ 3000 meters. The fault in the north collapsed. The mountain is majestic, like a shadow wall. "Historical Records" said: "Qinling Mountain is a great obstacle in the world." Therefore, it is called "the danger of Kyushu".

The Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi are distributed like the waist of bees, and there are several mountains on the east and west wings. The three branches of the west wing are Dasanling (2819m above sea level), Fengling (2000m above sea level) and Baizishan (2538m above sea level). From north to south, the east wing is Huashan (elevation1997m), Mangling, Liu Ling and Xinkailing. Mountains and basins are staggered, and many rivers in deep mountains develop. The middle Qinling Mountains mainly include Taibai Mountain (3,767 meters above sea level), Aoshan Mountain (3,476 meters above sea level), shouyangshan Mountain (2,720 meters above sea level), Zhong Nanshan Mountain (2,604 meters above sea level) and Caolianling Mountain (2,646 meters above sea level). Mountains have obvious blocking effect on the East Asian monsoon, which is the dividing line in climate, and also the dividing line between Weihe River, a tributary of the Yellow River, and Jialing River and Hanjiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze River.

There are obvious differences in natural landscapes between the northern and southern slopes of Qinling Mountains. The northern slope of the Yellow River Basin is a warm temperate mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forest and deciduous broad-leaved forest. Due to the long-term agricultural development, most of them are secondary forests. The flora and animal species in Qinling Mountain area are obviously transitional, mixed and complex. Wild animals include giant panda, golden monkey, antelope and other precious species, and birds include national first-class protected animals such as crested ibis and black stork. There are now national Taibai Mountain Nature Reserve and Foping Nature Reserve in Qinling Mountains.

The cultural landscapes in the north and south of Qinling Mountains also have their own characteristics. The Guanzhong Plain in the north is called "Qinchuan in 800 Li" in history. Since the Neolithic Age, human farming and settlement have appeared, and it is a famous gathering place of cultural relics and historic sites in China. The deep valley in the north-south direction between the Qinling Mountains has been a communication channel between the north and the south since ancient times, among which the famous ones are Chencang Road, Ziwu Road from Xi 'an to Ningshan, Baoxie Road near the water, Luo Luo Lu Road and Zhouyang Road. There are many cultural relics and historical stories on the northern slope of Qinling Mountains and the southern edge of Guanzhong Plain. There are Qin Shihuang Mausoleum and many imperial mausoleums, Zhou Fenghao Site, Qin Epang Palace Site, Louguantai, Zhangliangmu and Cailun Tomb. Zhong Nanshan, located more than 40 kilometers south of Xi, has beautiful scenery since ancient times. There is a poem in The Book of Songs Qin Feng: "There is nothing in the south, but a plum blossom". In the Tang Dynasty, officials and gentlemen built villas here, of which Wangchuan Villa of Wang Wei was the most famous. Most of Wang Wei's beautiful landscape poems describe the scenery here. Zuyong, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, once wrote a poem "Looking at the Snow Peak in Central South China", in which he wrote: "Nanyang Ridge is beautiful, with white clouds, snow lines in the warm air, and cold in the valley." There are also beautiful peaks such as Cuihua Mountain, Nanwutai Mountain and Lishan Mountain nearby. There are more than 40 large and small temples, such as Taiyi Palace and Laojun 'an, which have been built since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is a good place to visit Guanzhong for summer vacation.

There are Maijishan Grottoes in the west of Qinling Mountains, and the cliffs stand like wheat. Since the post-Qin period, there have been 194 caves, more than 7,000 Buddha statues and 1300 square meters murals, which are the treasure house of ancient sculpture art.

In the alpine forest of Qinling Mountains, there are countless mammals such as gazelle, impala, wild boar, black bear, forest musk deer, muntjac, hedgehog, bamboo rat, squirrel, squirrel, and the most abundant pheasant group in the world. With so many herbivores, I believe no carnivore will worry about the food here. Therefore, based on the identification of leopards, clouded leopards, jackals, yellow-throated minks, leopard cats and other carnivores, zoologists have never given up hope of finding South China tigers in Qinling Mountains. Animals are still like this, let alone plants. As the ancients said, there is no idle grass on Taibai Mountain. The plants in Qinling Mountains are not only diverse, but also unique.