Abstract: Ninglang Basin is located on the active edge of Yangtze Paleo-Continent Block,and it is a structural transformation zone, which absorbed and regulated the stress and strain of India-Eurasia collision. In order to study the relationship between the formation and evolution of Cenozoic basins in Ninglang area of Yunnan Province and its regional structures and basin types, the authors analyzed the structural framework of Ninglang Basin and its adjacent areas, through several 1:50 000 regional geological surveys. The results show that the formation and evolution of the basin are controlled by faults. Ninglang Basin is believed to be a typical strike-slip pull-apart basin through the study of the sedimentary construction, spatial evolution of the basin-controlling structure and the regional geological background. The evolution has gone through three stages: pulling apart and opening stage from the Paleocene to Eocene, pull-apart basin deposition stage from the beginning of the Eocene to the end of the Eocene, and the basin reform stage from the Eocene to the Miocene.