This special issue is on active tectonics and palaeeo-enviroment in West China. It comprises 19 original research papers under the following three themes: (a) Late Cenozoic intracontinental deformation in West China, especially in the northeast and north margins of the Tibetan Plateau (nine papers), (b) Geomorphic evolution (four papers), and (c) Palaeo-environmental evolution and Cenozoic strata (six papers).