Highest Mountains in China

Geology

Geologists have subdivided the rocks comprising Mount Everest into three units called formations. Each formation is separated from the other by low-angle faults, called detachments, along which they have been thrust southward over each other. From the summit of Mount Everest to its base these rock units are the Qomolangma Formation, the North Col Formation, and the Rongbuk Formation.

The Qomolangma Formation, also known as the Jolmo Lungama Formation, runs from the summit to the top of the Yellow Band, about 8,600 m (28,200 ft) above sea level. It consists of greyish to dark grey or white, parallel laminated and bedded, Ordovician limestone interlayered with subordinate beds of recrystallised dolomite with argillaceous laminae and siltstone.

Climate

Mount Everest has an ice cap climate (Köppen EF) with all months averaging well below freezing.

The base camp for Everest expeditions based out of Nepal is located by Khumbu Glacier, which is rapidly thinning and destabilizing due to climate change, making it unsafe for climbers. As recommended by the committee formed by Nepal's government to facilitate and monitor mountaineering in the Everest region, Taranath Adhikari—the director general of Nepal's tourism department—said they have plans to move the base camp to a lower altitude. This would mean a longer distance for climbers between the base camp and Camp 1.

Climbing history

Namcha Barwa was located in 1912 by British surveyors but the area remained virtually unvisited until Chinese alpinists began attempting the peak in the 1980s. Although they scouted multiple routes, they did not reach the summit. In 1990 a Chinese-Japanese expedition reconnoitered the peak. Another joint expedition reached 7,460 metres (24,480 ft) in 1991 but lost member Hiroshi Onishi in an avalanche. The next year a third Chinese-Japanese expedition established six camps on the South Ridge over intermediate Nai Peng (7,043 metres or 23,107 feet), reaching the summit on October 30.

Location

Namcha Barwa is in an isolated part of southeastern Tibet rarely visited by outsiders. It stands inside the Great Bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo River as the river enters its notable gorge across the Himalaya, emerging as the Siang and becoming the Brahmaputra. Namcha Barwa's sister peak Gyala Peri at 7,294 metres (23,930 ft) rises across the gorge 22 kilometres (14 mi) to the north-north-west (NNW).

Geography

Mount Gongga is located in the Daxue Mountains at the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The mountain rises 6,400 metres (21,000 ft) above the Dadu River valley 29 kilometres (18 mi) to the east, one of the largest elevation differences on earth.

The mountain consists of granodiorite that has been shaped by glacial activities. Five major glaciers originate from Mount Gongga, namely Yanzigou, Hailuogou, Mozigou, Gongba and Bawang. The 14.2-kilometre (8.8 mi)-long Hailuogou, the longest glacier, extends to its lowest point at an altitude of 2,850 metres (9,350 ft), and is home to China's largest icefall. On the main peak, glacial erosion formed 4 narrow, steep ridges at slope angles of up to 70°.

Mountaineering history

The first western explorers in this region heard reports of an extremely high mountain and sought it out. An early remote measurement of the mountain, then called Bokunka, was first performed by the Inner Asian expedition of the Hungarian count Béla Széchenyi between 1877 and 1880. That survey put the altitude of the peak at 7,600 metres (24,900 ft).

Forty-five years later, the mountain, this time called Gang ka, was sketched by China Inland Mission missionary James Huston Edgar from a distance.

In 1929 the explorer Joseph Rock, in an attempt to measure the mountain's altitude, miscalculated its height as 30,250 ft (9,220 m) and cabled the National Geographic Society to announce Minya Konka as the highest mountain in the world.

Geology

Jengish Chokusu consists of low-grade black schists, volcanoclastic metasandstones, marbles, and metabasites overlain by high-grade metamorphic charnockites. The overlying charnockite have been overthrust northward over the metasedimentary rocks along a major thrust fault that is called the Pobeda thrust. The charnockites underlie the highest part and southern slopes of the Pobeda Massif and Jengish Chokusu. The northern slopes of the Pobeda Massif and Jengish Chokusu are undelain by the low-grade metasedimentary rocks. These rocks are part of a kilometers-thick stack of thrust sheets, known as nappes, consisting of fault-bound sheets of metamorphosed Devonian to Carboniferous sedimentary strata.

The charnockites consists of clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, and olivine.

History

Although Jengish Chokusu is over 400 metres higher, Khan Tengri was believed to be the highest peak in the range until Jengish Chokusu's survey in 1943.

A Soviet expedition mounted in 1938 to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Youth movement Komsomol claimed to have climbed the highest peak in the area, the summit being reached on 19 September by L. Gutman, E. Ivanov and A. Sidorenko. They measured the altitude as 6,900 metres, and named the peak Pik 20-ti letiya Komsomola (Peak of the 20th Anniversary of Komsomol).

A survey by another team in 1943 found the peak to be 7,439 metres high. The peak was renamed as Pik Pobedy (Victory's Peak) in 1946 to commemorate the Soviet victory in World War II.

Description

Jengish Chokusu is a massif, with several summits along its lengthy ridge. Only its main summit breaks 7,000 metres (22,966 ft). It is 16 km (9.9 mi) southwest of Khan Tengri (7,010 m/23,000 ft), from which it is separated by the South Engilchek Glacier, where base camps for both mountains are usually located.

The massif runs at right angles to the glaciers which flow from it into three alpine valleys in Kyrgyzstan on the north, all eventually running to the Engilchek Glacier, the largest in the Tian Shan. Its main summit is usually approached from the Zvozdochka (Russian for "little star") glacier, which is coloured red with rocks from Jengish Chokusu.

Climbing history

The first ascent of Gyala Peri was in 1986, by a Japanese expedition, via the South Ridge.

The group spent about 11⁄2 months on the mountain. The U.K. Alpine Club's Himalayan Index lists no other ascents.

Location

Mount Nyenchen Tanglha is located in the western part of the range on the watershed between the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra River) to the south and the endorheic basins of the Changtang to the north. In particular, it lies to the south of Namtso Lake. It belongs to Damxung County in the Prefecture of Lhasa of Tibet.

History

There have been only a few attempts to climb Ulugh Muztagh and several of them have not been even able to reach the foot of the mountain. Getting near the mountain requires a difficult drive across terrain at the elevation of 4300–5000 metres. Expeditions who have climbed the mountain spent 2 to 3 weeks on the approach alone using 4 or 6 wheel drive vehicles.

The 7,723 metre elevation claim was made by the English country gentleman and explorer George Littledale in 1895.

History

The region has only recently been explored, and before 2009 none of its 47 peaks above 6,000 m had been climbed. Bairiga / Ruoni, which remains unclimbed itself, was photographed for the first time in 1933 by the botanist explorer Frank Kingdon-Ward, at which time it was known as Choembo.

In October 2003, a Japanese team attempted to climb Ruoni I via the northeast ridge. Some progress was made above two different Camp Is but avalanche risk, a huge snow cornice and a 10 day snow fall stopped the team from finding a suitable route to the summit.

In 2009, a Sino-Japanese joint climbing team formed by China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) and Kobe University organized an expedition to climb Kangri Garpo II or Ruoni II (6,805 m).

Geography and topography

Mount Kailash is located in Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It lies in the Gangdise Shan (also called as Kailash Range) of the Transhimalaya, in the western part of the Tibetan Plateau. The peak of Mount Kailash is at an elevation of 6,638 m (21,778 ft). The region is located north of the western tripoint of the border between China, India, and Nepal.

The major rivers rising from the western Gangdise Mountains are the Yarlung Tsangpo (which becomes the Brahmaputra), the Indus, the Sutlej, and the Ghaghara (a tributary of the Ganges). All these river systems originate within a 60 km (37 mi) stretch in the region. Mount Kailash is located on the banks of Manasarovar and Rakshastal lakes.

Climate

Due to the area's arid climate, its annual precipitation is only 200 mm (7.9 in). In the high-altitude area of over 5,000 meters (16,404 ft), however, there exists violent local air circulation and its yearly precipitation is several hundred mm more than that in the foothill area. Thus, snow and hailstones frequently fall, presenting conditions for the development of glaciers. The average temperature is −5 °C (23 °F), and the hottest months are from June to August with a temperature of over 20 °C (68 °F), while the coldest month is January, with a temperature of −18 °C (−0.4 °F). In the high-altitude area of over 5,000 m (16,404 ft), it remains cold all year round, the lowest temperature being less than −30 °C (−22 °F).

Location

Geladaindong is located in the administrative unit known as Tanggula Town: an exclave of Haixi Prefecture, in the middle section of Tanggula Shan (the Tanggula Mountain Range).

The Geladaindong Peak is encircled by over twenty high peaks exceeding 6,000 meters (19,685 ft) in height. It is approximately 50 km (31 mi) long from north to south and approximately 20 km (12 mi) wide from west to east, covering an area of approximately 670 square kilometres (260 sq mi) with ice and snow, covered by over 40 glaciers. This area is directly across the border from Amdo County, Nagqu Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway crosses the Tanggula Mountain Range around 100 km (62 mi) to the east of Geladaindong Peak.

Climbing history

In 1906, British botanist Frank Kingdon-Ward reached the headwaters of the Irrawaddy, sparking British colonial interest in surveying the mountains nearby. The height of the mountain was measured during colonial rule — first by Petters from a distance measuring the elevation to be 19,269 feet and a second survey from closer to the foot of the mountain measuring it at 19,315 feet with the help of local porters. Kingdon-Ward attempted to climb the peak in 1937, but misjudged his approach and ended up on the Dundi Yayway range instead.

In 1955, Burma sent a military column called the Yei Nwe Parr column to attempt the mountain.

Climate

Mount Wutai has a subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification Dwc). The average annual temperature in Haidian is 2.2 °C (36.0 °F). The average annual rainfall is 686.7 mm (27.04 in) with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around 15.0 °C (59.0 °F), and lowest in January, at around −11.8 °C (10.8 °F). The temperature in Mount Wutai is comfortable from July to August, which is suitable for travel. It's very cold from November to March. The extreme low temperature in Mount Wutai occurred on 15 January 1958, which was -44.8°C.

Current geography and geology

Mount Paektu is 2,744 m (9,003 ft) tall, making it the highest mountain in North Korea and Northeast China and the highest mountain of the Baekdu-daegan and Changbai mountain ranges.

Mount Paektu is a stratovolcano whose cone is truncated by a significant caldera. The central section of the mountain rises about 3 mm (0.12 in) per year due to rising levels of magma below the central part of the mountain. Sixteen peaks exceeding 2,500 m (8,200 ft) line the caldera rim surrounding Heaven Lake. The highest peak, called Janggun Peak, is covered in snow about eight months of the year. The slope is relatively gentle until about 1,800 m (5,910 ft). The caldera is about 5 km (3.1 mi) wide and 850 meters (2,790 ft) deep, and is partially filled by the waters of Heaven Lake.

Geological history

The geological origin of Mount Paektu remains a mystery. Two leading theories are a hotspot, or an uncharted portion of the Pacific Plate sinking beneath Mount Paektu.

Beginning about 5 million years ago, Paekdu Mountain erupted, releasing a series of basaltic lava flows that formed a lava plateau. The construction of the cone of the volcano began approximately 1 million years ago, as the eruptive materials transitioned into trachytic, pyroclastic, and lava flows. During the cone-construction stage, major Plinian-type eruptions occurred 448, 67.6, 85.8 and 24.5 thousand years ago (ka) and deposited ash in the Sea of Japan. The cone's growth was halted by two widely-recognized major explosive eruptions: Tianwenfeng and Millennium.

Cultural history

The mountain has been worshipped by the surrounding peoples throughout history. A considerable percentage of the Koreans and Manchus consider it sacred, especially the Heaven Lake in its crater.

The mountain has been considered sacred by Koreans throughout history. According to Korean mythology, it was the birthplace of Dangun, the founder of Gojoseon (2333–108 BC), whose parents were said to be Hwanung, the Son of Heaven, and Ungnyeo, a bear who had been transformed into a woman. Many subsequent kingdoms of Korea, such as Buyeo, Goguryeo, Balhae, Goryeo and Joseon recognized this myth.

The Goryeo dynasty (936–1392) first called the mountain Baekdu, recording that the Jurchens across the Yalu River were made to live outside of Mount Baekdu.

Tourism

Most Chinese, Russian, South Korean and international visitors climb the mountain from the Chinese side. The North Korean side of the mountain is also popular among visitors to North Korea. The Chinese tourism area is classified as a AAAAA scenic area by the China National Tourism Administration.

There are a number of monuments on the North Korean side of the mountain. Paektu Spa is a natural spring and is used for bottled water.

Geography

Mount Hua is located near the southeast corner of the Ordos Loop section of the Yellow River basin, south of the Wei River valley, at the eastern end of the Qin Mountains, in Southern Shaanxi Province. It is part of the Qinling or Qin Mountains, which divide not only northern and southern Shaanxi, but also China.

Traditionally, only the giant plateau with its summits to the south of the peak Wuyun Feng (五雲峰, Five Cloud Summit) was called Taihua Shan (太華山, Great Flower Mountain). It could only be accessed through the ridge known as Canglong Ling (蒼龍嶺, Dark Dragon Ridge) until a second trail was built in the 1980s to go around Canglong Ling. Three peaks were identified with respective summits: the East, South and West peaks.

The East peak consists of four summits.

History

As early as the 2nd century BC, there was a Daoist temple known as the Shrine of the Western Peak located at its base. Daoists believed that the mountain was inhabited by the god of the underworld and consequently the temple at its foot was often used by spirit mediums to contact this god and his underlings. Unlike Taishan, which became a popular place of pilgrimage, Huashan, because of the inaccessibility of its summits, only received Imperial and local pilgrims, and was not well visited by pilgrims from the rest of China. Mount Hua was also an important place for immortality seekers, because many Chinese medicinal plants grew (or were grown) there, and powerful drugs were reputed to be found there.

Geography

Tai Mo Shan has a steep northwestern slope and less steep southern slope. Since it is the tallest mountain in Hong Kong, it forms a barrier that blocks the monsoon from the south, the rain shadow leading to the dryness of some of the northern and northwestern parts of the New Territories.

The whole Tai Mo Shan mountain range, known as Kwun Fu Mountain (官富山, named after the salt field Kwun Fu Cheung (官富場) in present-day Kowloon Bay) in Ming and Qing dynasties, covers over 350 square kilometres (140 sq mi), and stretches from Tai Lam Chung Reservoir in the West near Tuen Mun and Ma On Shan in the east and the mountains of Kowloon and Clear Water Bay in the south.

Geology

Tai Mo Shan is an inactive volcano dating from the Jurassic period. A small hill known as "Kwun Yam Shan" near the mountain still vents warm air through cracks in the rocks that lead all the way to the mantle. The holes that exhale warm air are known as "hot pots". When the surface temperature is cold, and the warmth of the expelled air is clearly discernible, this phenomenon is referred to by locals as "dragon's breath". If the air temperature at the summit is 6 degrees Celsius, then the air emerging from the interior of Kwun Yum Shan is somewhere between 13 and 21 degrees Celsius. These "hot pots" are remnants of the active volcano's superheated steam vents.

The area's volcanic rocks are mainly coarse ash crystal tuff.

Climate

Under the Köppen climate classification, Tai Mo Shan features a humid subtropical climate (Cwa), bordering a subtropical highland climate (Cwb). Due to the height of the mountain, Tai Mo Shan is claimed to be Hong Kong's most misty area, as it is often covered in clouds. In summer it is frequently covered with cumulus clouds, especially on rainy days, and in winter stratus clouds and fog often cover the peak. It is not uncommon for temperatures to drop below freezing point during the winter. A record low of −6.0 °C (21.2 °F) was seen in the January 2016 East Asia cold wave. Since the Tai Mo Shan weather station was established in 1997, it has never measured a temperature exceeding 30.0 °C (86.0 °F), and the highest maximum temperature was measured as 29.5 °C (85.1 °F).

Geology and relief

The Turpan Basin is a fault-bounded trough located in the eastern part of the Tian Shan. It covers an area of 50,000 square kilometres (19,000 sq mi). The surrounding mountain ranges are: the central Tian Shan in the west, the Bogda Shan in the north-west, the Haerlike Shan in the north-west, and the Jueluotage Shan in the south. Beyond the surrounding mountain ranges lie the Junggar Basin in the north and the Tarim Basin in the south.

Some geographers also use the term Turpan-Hami Basin, which is understood as including the Turpan Depression along with the Hami Depression (located to the east of the Turpan Depression, and to the southwest of the city of Hami) and the Liaodong Uplift separating the two depressions.

History of human settlement

The ancient city of Gaochang was a key point on the ancient Silk Road and dates back to the 1st century BC. It was burnt down in wars in the 14th century. The Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, which are located in the Flaming Mountains' Mutou Valley, about 30 km (19 mi) east of the city of Turpan, have been hewn into the rock from the Tang dynasty–era up to the time of the Yuan dynasty (13th century). The caves are famous for their murals, which can still be found in about 40 of the 77 known caves. The desert climate has favored preservation of the content of the Astana-Karakhoja ancient tombs, which are located about 6 km from the ancient city of Gaochang.

Climate

The Turpan Basin has a harsh, continental desert climate (Koppen BWk) in which the precipitation is far less than the potential evaporation. At Turpan City, July is the hottest month with a 24-hour average temperature of 32.2 °C (90.0 °F) and January the coldest with a 24-hour average temperature of −7.6 °C (18.3 °F). Monthly rainfall is highest in June, at 2.9 millimetres (0.11 in) and lowest in February and April, at 0.5 mm (0.020 in). The annual average precipitation is only 15.7 mm (0.62 in), falling on only 13 days per year. In contrast to this, the potential annual evaporation rate reaches 3,000 mm (120 in). Because of its climate, the area is sometimes counted as one of the Furnaces of China, although the locations included under this heading vary.