The Jinping Mountains or Jinping Shan are a short north-south mountain range in southwestern Sichuan Province, China. The Jinping are located within Yanyuan and Mianning Counties, both in Liangshan Prefecture. This mountain range is notable for the Jinping Bend, where the Yalong River wraps around the entire Jinping range. The Jinping Mountains, sometimes considered a large mountain massif, are approximately long and only wide.
The Jinping Mountains are rugged and rise almost above the Yalong River on either side. The Jinping are located in the complicated grouping of mountains called the Hengduan Mountains that transition between the Tibetan Plateau in the northwest to the Yungui Plateau in the southeast. The Jinping are sometimes classified as a southern subrange of the Shaluli Mountains, a component range of the Hengduan. The Yalong River separates the Jinping Mountains from the Daxue Mountains to north. The tallest peak of the Jinping Mountains rises to above sea level and has a topographic prominence of. This peak is also known in Chinese as Jinping Shan as the word for mountain can refer to either a mountain or mountain range. After flowing southeasterly, the Yalong River diverts north along the west side of the Jinping before turning180 degrees and flowing south along the east side of the mountains. This forms the dramatic Jinping Bend, known for its deep gorge and inhospitable terrain.
Human development
The Jinping's vertical relief and the Yalong River's elevation drop from one side to the other make it an optimal source of hydroelectric energy. The Jinping-I Dam, on the west side of the Jinping Mountains, is the tallest dam in the world at high. The Jinping-II Dam, a little further downstream, diverts the water of the Yalong River nearly under the Jinping Mountains to the east side of the bend. More than 13.2 million m3 of earth was excavated for the construction of Jinping-II's power station below the mountains. A total of seven tunnels were bored through the Jinping Mountains at depths up to beneath the mountain peaks. This included four water diversion tunnels, two auxiliary tunnels, and one construction drainage tunnel. The China Jinping Underground Laboratory was developed along the southernmost Jinping-II tunnel through the Jinping Mountains. This institution specializes in the research of dark matter as the location deep below the surface of the earth shields the laboratory from interfering cosmic rays.
