Qinghai << ching hy >> Province is a large, thinly populated province in western China. It has an area of 278,400 square miles (721,000 square kilometers). Its capital and largest city is Xining. The province’s name is sometimes spelled Tsinghai.
A majority of the inhabitants of Qinghai are Han Chinese. About two-fifths of the people belong to ethnic minority groups, including Hui (Chinese Muslims), Kazakhs, Mongols, and Tibetans.
Qinghai lies on the northeastern part of the high Plateau of Tibet. Three of Asia’s greatest rivers—the Huang He (Yellow River), the Yangtze, and the Mekong—originate in the towering mountains of southern Qinghai. The Qaidam basin in the dry northwest has salty marshes and lakes. Qinghai Lake, China’s largest salt lake, lies in the northeast. The province’s climate is dry, with cold winters and warm summers.
Mining salt from salt marshes and lake beds has long been an important industry in northern Qinghai. Today, other mined products include coal, iron ore, lithium, and oil. The province’s industries produce chemicals, leather, machinery, rugs, steel, and textiles. Qinghai has vast grasslands. Herders raise cattle, horses, sheep, and yaks. Only a small amount of land is suitable for growing crops. The best farmland is near Xining. Farmers grow apples, millet, rapeseed, potatoes, and wheat.
Early trade routes between China and Tibet ran through eastern Qinghai near Xining. In the A.D. 600’s, China established influence over eastern Qinghai, and Tibet extended control over other parts of the region. Both powers declined in the 900’s. Qinghai’s ties to China grew stronger again in the 1200’s, when the Mongols conquered both Qinghai and China. The ties weakened after the Mongol rule of China ended in 1368.
In 1724, China invaded Qinghai as part of a campaign to gain control of Tibet. The Chinese government made Qinghai a province in 1928.
