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Geological and hydrological characteristics, joint geometric features, rock physical and mechanical properties and rock mass quality are studied in the Beishan area, preselected for China's high‐level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal engineering. A comprehensive survey method is developed to study joint geometric features in the outcrop and samples from borehole BS06 into the Xinchang rock mass were tested. The optimal joint sets are determined by rose diagrams and equal‐area lower hemisphere plots of joint poles. Results show that: 1) the distribution of joint occurrence obeys a normal distribution, while the distribution of joint spacing obeys a negative exponential distribution; 2) concentric circular and tangent circular sampling windows are applied to study the trace length and the trace midpoint density. Results indicate that tangent circular sampling window is more stable and reasonable; 3) Beishan granite shows high density, low porosity and high strength based on many laboratory tests and the physical properties and mechanical properties are closely related; and 4) a synthesis index, Joint Structure Rating (JSR), is applied to evaluate the quality of rock mass. Through the research results of rock mass characteristics, the Xinchang rock mass in the Beishan preselected area has the favorable conditions for China's HLW disposal repository site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]