We developed a Faxon fir (Abies faxoniana) tree-ring width chronology at the timberline in the western Qinling Mountains, China. Herein February–July mean temperature was reconstructed for Zhouqu in the western Qinling Mountains back to AD 1650 based on the standard chronology. The climate/tree-growth model accounts for 43.5% of the instrumental temperature variance during the period 1972–2006. Spatial correlation analyses with the gridded temperature data shows that the temperature reconstruction captures regional climatic variations over central and southeast China, and strong teleconnections with the nearby High Asia. There is a good agreement with cold and warm periods previously estimated from tree-rings in Nepal, India and southwest China. The temperature re-construction indicates that there was pronounced cooling in Zhouqu during the Maunder Minimum (late 1600s to early 1700s). The cold period (1813–1827) of the temperature reconstruction coincide with the volcanic eruptions. Significant spectral peaks are found at 56.9, 22.3, 11.4, 2.9, 2.8, 2.6, 2.2 and 2.0 years. The spatial correlation patterns between our temperature reconstruction and SSTs of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans suggest a connection between regional temperature variations and the atmospheric circulations. It is thus revealed that the chronology has enough potential to reconstruct the climatic variability further into the past.