Qilian Grassland 祁连大草原

About Qilian Grassland

The provincial portal's account of Qilian County's tourism describes driving from Xining over the Daban mountain into the broad Haomen river valley and then along the Babao River, with the wide Arou grassland (阿柔草原) opening out on the way and the Ebao old town, a Song-dynasty triangular fort and the Arou monastery strung along the road. It describes the county as sitting in a basin wrapped by ranges including Zhuo Er Shan and Niuxin Shan, with the Babao River running slowly through the county town, and says the county takes its name from lying in the middle section of the Qilian Mountains. The Qinghai Daily account carried by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration uses the name Qilian grassland (祁连大草原) for the grassland around Keshizha (克什扎草原) in Mole town, Qilian County, at 3,600-3,800 m. Neither page draws a boundary for the area the catalogue calls the Qilian grassland, and neither describes an entrance, a designated viewing area or any designation.

The restoration work is the Qinghai Daily report's main subject. The Keshizha pasture had degraded under overgrazing and disorderly use until some ground would grow nothing, and from 2012 a Qinghai University team built nearly 50,000 mu of trial and demonstration base there, treating 20,000 mu of severe black-soil beach and 30,000 mu of light and moderate degradation, with hay yields of up to 500 kg per mu and yields four to five times the pre-treatment level. The same article puts Qinghai's grassland at 590 million mu, or 56.50 per cent of the province's land area, and calls grassland the province's largest land ecosystem.

What to look for

• The Arou grassland (阿柔草原), which the county account describes opening out along the road as it follows the Babao River into Qilian County
• The Keshizha grassland (克什扎草原) in Mole town, the pasture the Qinghai Daily report names
• The ground at 3,600-3,800 m in Mole town where the degraded-pasture restoration trial and demonstration base was built
• The Babao River running slowly through the county town, described in the county account as the floor of the basin the surrounding ranges enclose

Location & getting there

Getting to Qilian Grassland

Confirm the road and activity operator, weather and return transport. Stay on permitted routes and do not treat open land as unrestricted access.

• Search for 祁连大草原 with 海北藏族自治州 and 祁连县.