Qinghai Province, “Qing” for short, is located in the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in Western China. It named after Qinghai Lake, the largest inland salt-water lake in China. With an area of 722,000 square kilometers, Qinghai Province has a total population of 5.5 million. With the capital of Xining, it has jurisdiction over eight prefectures or cities: Xining City, Haidong Prefecture, Haibei, Huangnan, Hainan, Guoluo and Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures and Haixi Mongolia-Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Besides the Han, over 40 ethnic groups, such as Tibetan, Hui, Salar and Mongolian minorities, also live here. The population of minorities accounts for 46.32% of the total, thus it has become one of the multi-nationality provinces.
