Lesser Khingan

Hsiao-hsing-an-ling, a mountain range in the USSR (Khabarovsk Krai and Amur Oblast, RSFSR) and northeastern China. Length (northeast to southwest), approximately 500 km. The Chinese section of the Lesser Khingan is bounded by the Nun-chiang and Sungari river valleys and the Sungliao and Sanchiang plains; the Soviet section extends east from the gorge of the Amur River (170 km long; valley depth, up to 600 m in places) to the upper reaches of the Tyrma River for a distance of 150 km. The predominant relief is mountainous with flat, often marsh-ridden waterdivides and separate high domes; maximum elevation, 1,150 m (Mount Tuimienshan in China). The range is composed of granites, gneisses, crystalline schists, and basalts. The Viun’-Kholdongi volcanoes, which erupted in the 18th century, are at the west foot. There are deposits of coal, graphite, gold, iron ore, and tin. The mountain forests on the northern slopes are of larch and spruce and birch; in the south, there are broad-leaved forests of oak, maple, linden, and Amur cork tree.