Terra Nova, 24, 333–338, 2012AbstractThe northern mountains of Beijing are the type locality of the Mesozoic Yanshanian orogen. Our structural study emphasizes the importance of dextral strike‐slip for the formation of this intracontinental belt. The South‐ and North‐directed thrusts are positive flower structures rooted in strike‐slip faults. This transpressional tectonics developed from Late Triassic to Late Jurassic‐Early Cretaceous through three deformation phases coeval with syntectonic sedimentation, separated by two transtensional episodes coeval with magmatism. The Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous tectonic event is also recognized in several places of North China. Strike‐slip faulting controls the deformation of the northern border of the North China block in the Yanshan‐Yinshan belt. Simultaneously, East‐directed thrusts and folds develop along N‐S elongated ranges in Helanshan, Shanxi highlands and Taihangshan. The Jurassic tectonics of the North China Block is interpreted in a unitary way as the result of the westward underthrusting of the North China block below the Alashan block.