Szechwan Basin, Wade–Giles romanization Sichuan BasinChinese (Pinyin) Sichuan Pendi or (Wade-Giles romanization) Ssu-ch’uan P’en-ti, Pinyin Sichuan Pendii, also called Red Basin, conventional Szechwan Basinbasin comprising the greater part of eastern Szechwan Province (sheng), southwest Sichuan province and the western portion of Chongqing municipality, southwestern China. It is surrounded by high mountains, including the Tsinghai–Tibet Plateau on the south, the Yunnan–Kweichow the highlands of the Plateau of Tibet on the west and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau on the south , Wu Shan (mountains) and the Wu Mountains on the east , and the Ta-pa Shan Daba Mountains on the north, all of which protect the interior from temperature extremes. The basin covers 88,600 sq mi square miles (229,500 sq square km) of red-brick sandstone, deeply dissected in the south by the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) and in the centre by three of its tributaries. Its floor is just under 800 ft feet (244 m240 metres) in elevation, and its outer margins lie at about 2,000 ftfeet (600 metres). The basin, which is heavily densely populated, has a mild climate that permits diversified agriculture, mainly on terraced hillsides. The basin is one of China’s main rice-producing areas; other products include tung oil, sugarcane, oranges, tangerines, and medicinal herbs. Industries utilize the coal, oilpetroleum, natural gas, salt, manganese, sulfur, and iron ore deposits of the basin. Ch’eng-tu Chengdu is the major centre of population, and Chongqing lies on its eastern edge.