Geography
Qinghai is located on the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Yellow River originates in southern part of the province, while the Yangtze and Mekong have their sources in the southwestern part. Qinghai is separated by the Riyue Mountain (Chinese: 日月山; pinyin: Rìyuè Shān; literally "Sun and moon mountain") into pastoral and agricultural zones in the west and east.
The average elevation of Qinghai is over 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) above sea level. Mountain ranges include the Tanggula Mountains and Kunlun Mountains. Due to the high altitude, Qinghai has quite cold winters (harsh in the highest elevations), mild summers, and a large diurnal temperature variation. Its mean annual temperature is approximately −5 to 8 °C (23 to 46 °F), with January temperatures ranging from −18 to −7 °C (-0 to 19 °F) and July temperatures ranging from 15 to 21 °C (59 to 70 °F). It is also prone to heavy winds as well as sandstorms from February to April. Significant rainfall occurs mainly in summer, while precipitation is very low in winter and spring, and is generally low enough to keep much of the province semi-arid or arid.
By area, Qinghai is the largest province in China - excluding the autonomous regions, which are technically not provinces; but if they were, Xinjiang would be the largest.
Qinghai Lake (Koko Nor) is the largest salt water lake in China, and the second largest in the world.
Qaidam basin lies in northwestern Qinghai. About a third of this resource rich basin is desert. The basin has an altitude between 3000 to 3500 meters.
The Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve (SNNR), also referred to as the Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve, or the Three Rivers Nature Reserve, is the area of Qinghai province, PRC which contains the headwaters of the Yellow River (Huang He), the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang), and the Mekong River (Lancang Jiang). The SNNR was established to protect the headwaters of these three rivers. The reserve consists of 18 subareas, each containing three zones which are managed with differing degrees of strictness.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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