Abstract: The shale gas resource potential of Sichuan Basin is huge, and the South Sichuan and West Chongqing area is one of the hot exploration and development areas. Under the influence of multi-stage reconstruction, the shale gas reservoir of Wufeng-Longmaxi Formation exhibits considerable variation in burial depth, complex in-situ stress state and structural characteristics, and the mineral composition and natural fracture development vary correspondingly, resulting in significant differences in shale mechanical properties and stimulation efficiency. It is urgent to clarify the differences in mechanical properties and hydraulic fracture propagation characteristics in shale cores of different burial depths. Taking shallow shale in Zhaotong exploration area and deep shale in Da'an exploration area as research objects, this paper carried out cyclic loading triaxial compression and hydraulic fracturing tests on reservoir shale cores, and the distinctions of mechanical strength and hydraulic fracture propagation characteristics of different sublayer shale in Long-1 submember were analyzed. The results showed that: (1) Affected by stratum uplift, bedding fractures are relatively developed in shallow shale, and the brittle mineral content and triaxial compressive strength of shallow shale are significantly lower than those of deep shale. The triaxial compression of shallow shale forms a single shear fracture, while with the activation of bedding fractures, the triaxial compression of deep shale forms multiple tensile fractures. (2) Based on CT scans, the three-dimensional hydraulic fracture morphology of shallow shale and deep shale was reconstructed and compared. The vertical propagation of hydraulic fractures in shallow shale is significantly affected by bedding fractures, and the newly created fractures are mainly concentrated around the perforation, with the magnitude of fluid pressure decrease after fracture initiation being relatively small. The bedding fracture development degree of deep shale is obviously smaller than that of shallow shale. Vertical main fractures could be created during fracturing, and the breakdown pressure and the magnitude of fluid pressure decrease after fracture initiation are higher than those of shallow shale samples. (3) By comparing the fracture pressure of Guanyinqiao argillaceous limestone and Longmaxi shale, it is found that the fracturing pressure of argillaceous limestone is lower than that of shale, which indicates that the hydraulic fractures initiated from the shale reservoir meet the condition of passing through the argillite of Guanyinqiao section. The research results could provide experimental support for the fracturing scheme and target layer selection of shale reservoirs with different burial depths in South Sichuan and West Chongqing.