Welcome to Qinghai!
Qinghai (Mandarin Chinese: 青海, Tsinghai) is a province in Northwest China. It is located south of the Republic of Mongolia, east of Xinjiang, and north of Tibet. It is one of China's least densely populated provinces with under six million people in an area somewhat larger than France.
Geographically Qinghai is on the Tibetan Plateau and is the source of several of China's major rivers. The Yellow River (Huang He) starts in central Qinghai and flows north and east through much of North China. The Yangtze and the Mekong both start near the southern edge of Qinghai and flow across Tibet into Yunnan where they are two of the three rivers in the Three Parallel Rivers National Park, then diverge to flow into different oceans.
Historically, what is now Qinghai was one of the three provinces of the old Tibetan Empire and was called Amdo. It has its own dialect, Amdo Tibetan. Tibetans are still the main ethnic and cultural group, but Mongols, Hui (Chinese Muslims) and Han (ethnic Chinese) have been present for centuries and more Han have been moving in over the last few decades, albeit largely concentrated in a small area around the capital Xining. The current Dalai Lama was born here in 1935.
Qinghai (青海, Tsinghai), also known Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xining.
Qinghai borders Gansu on the northeast, Xinjiang on the northwest, Sichuan on the southeast and the Tibet Autonomous Region on the southwest. Qinghai province was established in 1928 during the period of the Republic of China, and until 1949 was ruled by Chinese Muslim warlords known as the Ma clique. The Chinese name "Qinghai" is after Qinghai Lake, the largest lake in China. The lake is known as Tso ngon in Tibetan, and as Kokonor Lake in English, derived from the Mongol Oirat name for Qinghai Lake. Both Tso ngon and Kokonor are names found in historic documents to describe the region.Located mostly on the Tibetan Plateau, the province has long been inhabited by a number of peoples including the Tibetans, Mongols, Han (concentrated in the provincial capital of Xining and nearby Haidong), Hui, Monguors, and Salars. According to 2021 census reports, Tibetans constitute a fifth of the population of Qinghai and the Hui compose roughly a sixth of the population. There are over 37 recognized ethnic groups among Qinghai's population of 5.6 million, with national minorities making up a total of 45.5% of the population.
The area of Qinghai was controlled by Manchu-led Qing China around 1724, after their defeat of Khoshut Mongols, which controlled most of the area that is now Qinghai. After the internal overthrow of the Qing dynasty in 1912, Qinghai came under Chinese Muslim warlord Ma Qi's control until the Northern Expedition by the Republic of China consolidated central control in 1928. In the same year, the province of Qinghai was established by the Nationalist Government, with Xining as its capital.