Sichuan is located in Southwest China, in the upper reaches of Yangtze River, between 92 degrees, 21 minutes-108 degrees, 12 minutes east longitude, and 26 degrees, 03 minutes-34 degrees, 19 minutes north latitude, running from east to west for 1,075 kilometers and from north to south for more than 900 kilometers. It borders on Chongqing to the east, Yunnan and Guizhou to the south, Tibet to the west and Qinghai, Gansu and Shaanxi to the north. It covers an area of 485,000 square kilometers, next to Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Qinghai, ranking No. 5 in China.
Landforms from the east to west vary greatly and the terrain is complex and diverse. Sichuan, in the first and second of the Three Gradient Terrains of China, namely, the transitional belt from first terrain Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and second terrain the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, giving it features of large fall in altitude, high in the west and low in the east. The west part is plateau and mountainous areas, with altitude above 4,000 meters. The east part is the basin and hilly areas, with altitude mostly between 1,000-3,000 meters. The whole province could be divided into three parts: Sichuan Basin, Northwest Sichuan Plateau and Southwest Sichuan Mountains.
In the east, the Sichuan Basin is one of the largest basins in China, covering an area of 165,000 square kilometers. It is surrounded by mountains, such as Qinling Mountains in the north, Micang Mountains and Daba Mountain in the east, Dalou Mountains in the south and Longmen Mountain, Qionglai Mountain, etc. in the northwest. It enjoys warm and humid climate, warm in winter and hot in summer, with an annual precipitation of 900-1,200 millimeters in most of the places. It has a subtropical moist monsoon climate and the vegetation is subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest. It yields two crops a year. In the west of the basin is the West Sichuan Plain, enjoying fertile land and in the region supported by Dujiangyan Irrigation System. The land is of high capacity. In the middle of the basin is the purple hilly area, at an altitude of 400-800 meters, and the terrain is slightly inclining from north to south. Minjiang River, Tuojiang River, Fujiang River and Jialing River run southward from the northern mountainous areas to Yangtze River. In the east of the basin is East Sichuan equal ridge-valley area. There are Huaying Mountain, Tongluo Mountain and Mingyue Mountain.
In the northwest of Sichuan is the Northwest Sichuan Plateau, being a southeast corner of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, at an average altitude of 3,000-5,000 meters. It has alpine climate and the meadow.
In the southwest are the north section of Hengduan Mountains, high mountains and deep valleys, rivers running among mountains. Mountains and rivers are arranged from the north to south, and from east to west, there are Minshan Mountain, Minjiang River, Qionglai Mountain, Dadu River, Daxue Mountain, Yalong River, Shaluli Mountain and Jinsha River, with climate and plants of vertical distribution, mostly the boreal taiga, temperate mixed forest, north subtropical evergreen and deciduous mixed forests and mid-subtropical-broad-leaved evergreen forest.
(The article is provided by Sichuan Yearbook Public House, the contents are from Sichuan Statistical Yearbook 2015)
|
