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Qianhu Mountain, situated southeast of the Tibetan Plateau, is a key location for testing the role of tectonic uplift in controlling the response of mountain glaciations to climate change in western China. The mountain has distinctive glacial landforms and deposits, including cirques, peaks, arêtes, lateral moraines and terminal moraines above 3500 m a.s.l., and these morphologic features suggest a clear sequence of landscape-forming events during one or more glacial cycles. Optically stimulated luminescence dating reveals that the glacial deposits record events from the last glacial maximum ( LGM, ∼22.2 ± 1.9 ka), the middle stage of the last glacial cycle ( marine isotope stage 3 ( MIS3), 37.3 ± 3.7 - 45.6 ± 4.3 ka) and possibly an earlier stage of the last glacial cycle. The glacial extent in the middle stage of the last glacial cycle is larger than that in the LGM. This may reflect a larger increase in South Asia summer monsoon precipitation during MIS3 than during the LGM. The glacial sequences preserved on Qianhu Mountain indicate a briefer history of glaciation here compared with mountains to the northwest, which experienced more and earlier uplift in association with uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. This suggests that climatic and tectonic factors both play a part in controlling the number and extent of glaciations in western China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]