"Great Northern Wilderness" used to refer to the vast barren areas of Nenjiang River Basin, Heilongjiang River Basin and Sanjiang Plain in Heilongjiang Province. People's narrow sense of "Great Northern Wilderness" mainly refers to the area under the jurisdiction of Heilongjiang Reclamation Area. Located in one of the three black soil regions in the world, it is bordered by Heilongjiang in the north, Wusuli River in the east, Xingkai Lake and Russia in the southeast, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the west and Jilin Province in the south, with a total area of more than 80 million mu.

Nanniwan is a narrow valley, located 45 kilometers southeast of Yan 'an.