The northeast-southwest ranges

consists also of three groups, mostly in the low-lying east : In the western groups, the greater Hinggan mountains lie between the inner Mongolia Plateau and the northeast plain; the Taihang mountains between the Loess Plateau and the North China plain; the Wushan Mountains on the Sichuan-Hubei border; and the Xuefeng Mountains in western Hunan Province.

In the Middle group, the Changbai Mountains are east of the Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjing provinces and the Wyo Mountains are on the Fujian-Jiangxi border.

The eastern group consists of the Taiwan Mountains. The northeast-southwest ranges, the Greater Hinggan and Taihang chains in particular, stand as barriers in the way of the moist air currents from the sea, affecting the distribution of precipitation in China.