Qinghai Introduction
Qinghai Province is a cold, inhospitable region of poverty, barren plateaus and deserts. Located in the far northwest of China, this huge area, around 720,000 square kilometers, is about one hundred times the size of the Municipality of Shanghai, with only one third of its population. The province is notable for the prison and labour camps that hold some of China's most hardened criminals and political prisoners. Qinghai inmates, on some estimates, number as much as 10% of a total population of about 4.5 million.

In ancient times the province was known as Amdo, and it was considered Tibetan up until the eighteenth century, when it was formally incorporated into the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 AD) Empire. It still remains strongly Tibetan influenced, and many of the religious complexes here are of the most famous outside of the Himalayan region. These were to foster many of Tibetan Buddhism's notorious figures, including the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, born in Dek Ser, Ping'an County, some 30 kilometers south of the Kumbum Monastery. There is also a strong minority presence in Qinghai, with Tibetans among 30% of the population, and with other minorities including the Mongols, the Kazaks and the Muslim Hui & Salar. The incorporation of China into the province, however, means that now over 60% of the population are of Han descent.

Much of the province is dominated by the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau that rises from around 2,500 to over 3,500 meters above sea level. The plateau is home to the sources of three of China's most famous rivers, the Yangtze, the Yellow and the Mekong - rivers that that are considered the cradles of the Chinese civilisation. Economy in the province is mainly concentrated in agriculture, mining for minerals & oil, salt production, and tourism, however unemployment remains rife. The laogais (prison factories) are also still churning out goods, and these can, if you are lucky, be visited in Xining.
The eastern part of the plateau, around Xining, is an area of flat grassy plains that has easily the most developed agriculture in the province.
The north and northwest areas are of an arid landscape that contains a part of the vast Gobi Desert. It is an area that would have remained virtually uninhabited but for the fact that the Communist Government now have high hopes of removing possible vast resources of oil.
The south and southwestern region is where the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau rises to over 3,500 meters, with peaks of over 6,000 meters, and it is here that the newly defined Tibet is divided from Qinghai by the Tanggulashan Mountain Range. The majority of employment in this region is for salt or mineral mining, and in the herding/grazing of livestock.

Travellers to the province are mainly on their way either to or from Tibet, via Golmud in the far southwest. This is one of the roughest and most stunning of journeys, through the Tangula Mountain Pass. The biggest highlights within the province, the Kumbum Monastery and the vast Qinghai Lake, are most alluring to hikers, campers, ornithologists and those interested in Buddhism.