Atlas of China
Listed sites in Qinghai 青海
77 scenic areas and heritage sites from the official lists, by city. 13 have a page of their own; the rest open as cards on the map.
The A-level rating is the national grading of scenic areas, 5A being the top tier; national heritage sites are the buildings, ruins, tombs and carvings protected by the State Council. Both lists are on the lists page.
5A scenic areas in Qinghai
- Amidongsuo (Niuxin Mountain) 阿咪东索 5A scenic area · on the map
Amidongsuo is the mountain also called Niuxin ('Ox Heart') Mountain, a peak that local Tibetans hold sacred, rising south of Qilian town in the middle Qilian Mountains. - Tu Native Land Park, Huzhu 互助土族故土园 5A scenic area · on the map
A folk-culture complex around Weiyuan, the county town of Huzhu Tu Autonomous County, presenting Tu (Monguor) culture through traditional-style courtyard houses, an old oil mill, liquor workshops and a chieftain's mansion, with live song, dance and wedding performances.
By city
Golog (3) · Haibei (10) · Haidong (20) · Hainan (10) · Haixi (7) · Huangnan (4) · Xining (19) · Yushu (4)
Golog 3 sites
- Red Army Valley, Banma 班玛红军沟 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
A forested valley in Yartang township, Banma County, where Red Army units spent about three weeks in July 1936 on the Long March, and which local people renamed Red Army Valley. - Golog Peaceful Liberation Memorial, Dari 果洛和平解放纪念地 National heritage site · on the map
A memorial site near Zhalang Temple in Dari County, marking the arrival in August 1952 of a Northwest Military and Political Commission work team, whose meeting with tribal and religious leaders at the temple on 24 August is described in official accounts as the peaceful liberation of Golog. - Rakya Monastery 拉加寺 National heritage site · on the map
A Gelug monastery in Lajia town, Maqên (Maqin) County, built in the Qing period and also known in Chinese as Jiachan Temple.
Haibei 10 sites
- Amidongsuo (Niuxin Mountain) 阿咪东索 5A scenic area · on the map
Amidongsuo is the mountain also called Niuxin ('Ox Heart') Mountain, a peak that local Tibetans hold sacred, rising south of Qilian town in the middle Qilian Mountains. - Atomic City (Plant 221 Site), Haiyan 原子城 4A scenic area · National heritage site
Atomic City is the former site of Plant 221, China's first nuclear weapons research and production base, set up from 1958 on the Jinyintan grassland north-east of Qinghai Lake, where state accounts say the country's first atomic and hydrogen bombs were developed. - Dayu Folk Village, Haiyan 达玉民俗村 4A scenic area · on the map
Dayu Folk Village is a privately run Tibetan folk-culture park at Jinyintan near Xihai town, named after the Dayu tribe of the Qinghai Lake area. - Gangcha Tibetan Lakeside Town 高原海滨藏城 4A scenic area · on the map
Gangcha is the county town north of Qinghai Lake, rebuilt in Tibetan style and promoted as the 'Plateau Seaside Tibetan City'. - Gangshika Peak 岗什卡雪峰 4A scenic area
Gangshika is the highest peak of the eastern Qilian Mountains, a glaciated mountain of 5,254.5 m in Menyuan County that climbers often treat as a first snow mountain, because the approach is gradual and it lies under 160 km from Xining. - Menyuan Rapeseed Flower Fields 门源百里油菜花海 4A scenic area · on the map
The valley floor at Menyuan is farmed with rapeseed, which turns it yellow against the surrounding mountains in July. - Qilian Mountain Eco-Ranch, Menyuan 祁连山生态牧场 4A scenic area · on the map
The Qilian Mountain Eco-Ranch is a commercial grassland park in the Menyuan valley, developed from 2016 by a private tourism company, with its first phase opened in June 2017. - Wenjia Ranch, Haiyan 文迦牧场 4A scenic area · on the map
Wenjia Ranch is a privately run grassland resort near the east shore of Qinghai Lake in Haiyan County, begun in 2017 by a team of university graduates with a few rented tents and set up as a company in 2019. - Zhuoer Mountain, Qilian 卓尔山 4A scenic area · on the map
Zhuoer Mountain is a ridge of red sandstone and conglomerate (Danxia landform) on the north bank of the Bayi River, with a summit at about 2,930 m that serves as a viewing platform over the town, the river and Amidongsuo to the south. - Xihai Commandery City Site, Haiyan 西海郡故城 National heritage site · on the map
These are the remains of the commandery city that the regent Wang Mang set up in about 4 CE at the end of the Western Han, with trapezoid earth walls about 600 m across that still stand 4–12 m high.
Haidong 20 sites
- Tu Native Land Park, Huzhu 互助土族故土园 5A scenic area · on the map
A folk-culture complex around Weiyuan, the county town of Huzhu Tu Autonomous County, presenting Tu (Monguor) culture through traditional-style courtyard houses, an old oil mill, liquor workshops and a chieftain's mansion, with live song, dance and wedding performances. - Beishan National Forest Park, Huzhu 互助北山国家森林公园 4A scenic area · on the map
A large forest park in the mountains north-east of Huzhu, rising from about 2,100 m to over 4,300 m and also a national geopark. - Hehuang Culture Museum 河湟文化博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
A regional museum in Ledu District that opened in July 2023 and is described in Chinese state media as the only comprehensive museum devoted to Hehuang culture, the cultures of the Huangshui valley in eastern Qinghai. - Lajia Archaeological Site 喇家遗址 4A scenic area · National heritage site
Lajia is a Qijia-culture settlement about 4,000 years old on a Yellow River terrace, where excavations found houses destroyed in a sudden disaster, with victims' remains still inside. - Ping'an Yi (Hehuang Folk Culture Quarter) 平安驿 4A scenic area · on the map
A newly built cultural quarter in Ping'an District, laid out in the style of an old post-station village and themed on Hehuang, the Huangshui valley of eastern Qinghai, whose food, architecture and crafts reflect its many ethnic groups. - Qili Flower Sea 七里花海 4A scenic area · on the map
A rural-tourism park at the foot of Mount Kangeda in Shanzhuang village, Gushan town, Minhe County, developed from 2017 on stony wasteland. - Salar Homeland Folk Culture Park 撒拉尔故里民俗文化园 4A scenic area · on the map
A folk-culture park in Majia village, Jiezi town, set up to present the life of the Salar, a Muslim people whose ancestors, by tradition, migrated here from Central Asia and who live mainly in Xunhua. - Ahetan Mosque 阿河滩清真寺 National heritage site · on the map
A Qing-period mosque in the Salar village of Ahetan in Ganduo town, Hualong, listed nationally in 2013 after provincial protection from 1988. - Chuzang Monastery 却藏寺 National heritage site
A Gelug monastery in the hills north of Huzhu, founded in 1649 and one of four well-known monasteries of north-eastern Qinghai. - Dandou Monastery 旦斗寺 National heritage site · on the map
A Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Jinyuan Tibetan township, Hualong, regarded as one of the main cradles of the later diffusion of Buddhism on the Tibetan plateau. - Gönlung Monastery (Youning Temple) 佑宁寺 National heritage site · on the map
A Gelug monastery in the hills east of Huzhu, founded in 1604 and long called the mother of the monasteries north of the Huangshui river. - Hongshuiquan Mosque 洪水泉清真寺 National heritage site · on the map
A mosque in Hongshuiquan village, Ping'an District, listed nationally in 2013 as a Ming-to-Qing building. - Jiezi Gongbei 街子拱北 National heritage site · on the map
A Muslim tomb shrine (gongbei) in Jiezi town, Xunhua, listed nationally in 2013 as a Qing-period tomb. - Liuwan Cemetery and Painted Pottery Museum 柳湾遗址 National heritage site · on the map
Liuwan is a Neolithic to Bronze Age cemetery found in 1974, where about 1,700 graves of the Majiayao, Qijia and Xindian cultures, dating from roughly 4,600 to 3,600 years ago, were excavated. - Qutan Temple 瞿昙寺 National heritage site
A Gelug-school Tibetan Buddhist monastery in a side valley south of Ledu, begun in 1392 in the early Ming dynasty and laid out like a small palace with a gatehouse, three courtyards and a long axis of halls, and nicknamed the 'little Forbidden City' in tourism material. - Salar Mosques of Xunhua 撒拉族清真寺古建筑群 National heritage site · on the map
A national heritage group of five Qing-period mosques of the Salar community in Xunhua County, at Mengda, Qingshui (Hedong), Tashapo, Zhang'ga and Kewa, listed together in 2013. - Tianyoude Liquor Workshop 天佑德酒作坊 National heritage site · on the map
The historic workshop of the Tianyoude brand of highland-barley (qingke) liquor in Weiyuan, listed nationally in 2013 as a Qing-period industrial site. - Wendu Monastery and the 10th Panchen Lama's Birthplace 文都寺及班禅大师故居 National heritage site · on the map
A Gelug monastery, also written Bimdo or Biandu, in Wendu Tibetan township, Xunhua, together with the house where the 10th Panchen Lama was born in 1938. - Western Route Red Army Sites, Xunhua 循化西路红军革命旧址 National heritage site · on the map
According to official accounts, over 400 captured soldiers of the Red Army's Western Route Army were held in Hongguang village, then called Zanbuhu, by Ma Bufang's forces from 1939 to 1946 and set to forced labour clearing land and building houses, a school and a mosque. - Xiaqiong Monastery 夏琼寺 National heritage site · on the map
A Gelug monastery in remote hills in Chapu Tibetan township, Hualong, named for the roc-shaped mountain it stands on ('Xiaqiong' means roc in Tibetan).
Hainan 10 sites
- Guide National Geopark 贵德国家地质公园 4A scenic area · on the map
The geopark is a Danxia landscape of red sandstone and conglomerate cliffs near Ashigong village in Garang township, where earth-pillar formations sit on the upper layers and seven differently coloured gorges cut through the lower ones. - Longyangxia Scenic Area 龙羊峡 4A scenic area · on the map
Longyangxia is a Yellow River gorge scenic area built around the reservoir behind the Longyangxia hydropower dam (completed in 1992). - Qingqing Yellow River Scenic Area, Guide 清清黄河 4A scenic area · on the map
Along its stretch at Guide the Yellow River runs unusually clear, which gave rise to the local saying that 'the Yellow River is clear at Guide'. - Fusi City Site (Tuyuhun Capital) 伏俟城遗址 National heritage site · on the map
Fusi (also written Fuqi) was the capital of the Tuyuhun kingdom, a Xianbei-founded realm that held the Qinghai Lake region and the Qaidam Basin until it fell to the Tibetan Empire in 663. - Guide Confucian Temple and Yuhuang Pavilion 贵德文庙及玉皇阁 National heritage site
This is a cluster of temples in Guide's old town, begun in 1592 under the Ming and mostly rebuilt in the late 19th century under the Qing, with a Confucian temple, a literary courtyard, the Yuhuang (Jade Emperor) Pavilion, a Guan–Yue (war god) temple and a City God temple side by side. - Saizong Monastery 赛宗寺 National heritage site · on the map
Saizong is a Gelug monastery of Tibetan Buddhism below Saizong ('Monkey Fortress') mountain, founded in 1923 by the third Aro Tsang lama of Rongwo Monastery. - Shizang Monastery 石藏寺 National heritage site · on the map
Shizang is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Hebei township in the far south of Tongde County, near the Yellow River. - Wenchang Temple, Guide 文昌庙 National heritage site · on the map
Wenchang Temple is a Qing-dynasty temple of Wenchang, the god of literature and examinations, in Xiapai village, Hexi, on the Yellow River plain west of Guide town. - Zhenzhu (Pearl) Temple, Guide 珍珠寺 National heritage site · on the map
Zhenzhu ('Pearl') Temple is a Gelug monastery on the edge of Guide's old town; local tradition says a senior monk founded it in the 1240s with a donation of a load of pearls, hence the name. - Zongri Site 宗日遗址 National heritage site · on the map
Zongri is a Neolithic settlement and cemetery on a Yellow River terrace at Tuanjie village, which gave its name to the Zongri culture of about 5,000 years ago, known for painted pottery with dancing-figure and two-people-carrying designs.
Haixi 7 sites
- Chaka Yihao Salt Lake 茶卡壹号·盐湖 4A scenic area · on the map
Chaka Yihao, formerly Tiankong Yihao ('Sky Number One') until its renaming in July 2022, is the second tourist area of Chaka Salt Lake, on the eastern part of the lake; it opened in July 2019 after nearly a year of trial operation. - Emerald Lake, Da Qaidam 翡翠湖 4A scenic area · on the map
Emerald Lake is a group of former mining pools in the Da Qaidam salt lake, an industrial legacy of the area's mineral extraction, where brine of differing mineral content shows colours from pale blue to deep green. - General's Building (Qinghai–Tibet Highway Headquarters), Golmud 将军楼 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
The General's Building is a two-storey brick building from 1956 that served as the office and home of Mu Shengzhong, who commanded construction of the Qinghai–Tibet Highway (completed to Lhasa in December 1954); it was the first two-storey building in Golmud. - Kunlun Mountain Tourist Area, Golmud 格尔木昆仑旅游区 4A scenic area · on the map
The Kunlun tourist area is Golmud's name for a string of Kunlun Mountains sights south of the city along the Qinghai–Tibet road rather than a single gated park; Golmud's promotion lists Kunlun Spring and Wuji Longfeng Palace among them. - Qarhan Salt Lake 察尔汗盐湖 4A scenic area
Qarhan is a vast salt flat in the southern Qaidam Basin, much of it worked for potash and other salts; the Golmud government gives its area as 5,856 km². - Wusute Water Yadan 乌素特水上雅丹 4A scenic area · on the map
Wusute is a shallow saline lake in the Taijinar basin of the western Qaidam Basin, where eroded clay ridges (yardangs) rise out of the water among salt flats and desert. - Reshui Tombs 热水墓群 National heritage site · on the map
Reshui is a large cemetery of the Tuyuhun kingdom under Tibetan Empire rule (7th–8th centuries) on both banks of the Chahanwusu River, with hundreds of earth-covered mounds on the grassland.
Huangnan 4 sites
- Heri Temple and Mani Stone Wall 和日寺石经墙 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
A Nyingma temple in Heri town, Zêkog (Zeku) County, known for its stone-sutra wall of more than 100,000 engraved slabs, which the county government gives as over 200 m long. - Rongwo Monastery and Rebgong Old Town 隆务寺 4A scenic area · National heritage site
Rongwo (Longwu) Monastery in Tongren, called Rebgong in Tibetan, is a large Gelug monastery of the Amdo region with origins in the 14th century, and the centre of a valley of Tibetan and Tu (Monguor) villages famed for thangka painting. - Bao'an Fort Villages 保安古屯田寨堡 National heritage site · on the map
A national heritage group of four Ming and Qing military-farming (tuntian) forts on the terraces of the middle Longwu river in Tongren: Bao'an old town and the fort villages of Nianduhu, Guomaru and Wutun. - Nangla Qianhu Manor 囊拉千户院 National heritage site · on the map
The manor of the seventh Nangla (Ang'la) qianhu, a hereditary Tibetan local chief of the Jainca area, built in the late 1940s in Jianbaang village.
Xining 19 sites
- Bianmagou Flower Sea 边麻沟花海 4A scenic area · on the map
A flower garden of about 800 mu (roughly 53 hectares) in Bianmagou village, Shuobei Tibetan township, Datong County, at an average height of about 2,800 m. - Dan'gar Ancient Town 丹噶尔古城 4A scenic area · on the map
The old town of Huangyuan County, called Tongkor in Tibetan, founded in the Hongwu era of the early Ming (1368–98) and made the seat of a Qing sub-prefecture, the Dan'gar Ting, in 1829. - Kunlun Jade Culture Museum 昆仑玉文化博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
A museum in the Biological Science and Technology Park in Xining's Chengbei district, in the same museum cluster as the Tibetan Medicine Culture Museum and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Natural Museum. - Laoye Mountain 老爷山 4A scenic area · on the map
A 2,928 m mountain above Qiaotou town, the seat of Datong Hui and Tu Autonomous County north of Xining, taking its name by tradition from a Guandi temple on its slopes, with other small temples along the ascent. - Limeng Pedestrian Street 力盟步行街 4A scenic area · on the map
A modern shopping and dining quarter in central Xining, built in an old-street style of Qin-brick and Han-tile design and laid out as 'two streets, four gates and eight lanes'. - Qinghai Provincial Museum 青海省博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
Qinghai's provincial museum, open to the public since 1986 and housed since 2001 in a large building on West Gate Street in central Xining. - Qinghai Tibetan Culture Hall 青海藏文化馆 4A scenic area · on the map
A privately run museum of Tibetan history and culture in Lusar, Huangzhong District, opened in 2010 and housed in two exhibition halls. - Qinghai Tibetan Medicine Culture Museum 青海藏医药文化博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
A national first-grade museum devoted to Tibetan medicine and plateau civilisation, in Xining's Biological Science and Technology Park, with nearly 60,000 objects including fossils, stone tools, pottery, gold and silver, silks, old manuscripts, medical instruments and thangka. - Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Natural Museum 青藏高原自然博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
A natural-history museum in Xining's Biological Science and Technology Park, opened in 2011 and a few minutes' walk from the Tibetan Medicine Culture Museum. - Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Wildlife Park 青藏高原野生动物园 4A scenic area · on the map
A zoo and wildlife rescue centre at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain on the western edge of Xining, opened in 2009 and best known for its snow leopards, most of them rescued from the wild; Xinhua reported in 2025 that it kept 12 of the roughly 20 snow leopards on public display in China. - Riyue Mountain 日月山 4A scenic area
A pass at 3,399 m on the road west from Xining to Qinghai Lake, dividing the Huangshui river basin and the farming zone to the east from the Qinghai Lake basin and the herding zone to the west. - Western Route Army Memorial Hall, Xining 中国工农红军西路军纪念馆 4A scenic area · on the map
A memorial museum in Xining on the Red Army's Western Route Army, the force that crossed the Yellow River westwards in October 1936 and was defeated by Ma family armies in Gansu's Hexi Corridor by March 1937, when more than 9,000 of its soldiers were captured. - Xiangqu Kayang Outdoor Resort 乡趣卡阳 4A scenic area · on the map
An outdoor resort in the high forest and pasture hills of Lanlongkou town, Huangzhong District; an official 2020 case study calls it the nearest primeval forest to Xining, with 81.1% tree cover, and gives its Tibetan name Kayang as 'pure place'. - Xinhualian Tongmeng Park 新华联童梦乐园 4A scenic area · on the map
A children's theme park and resort complex at Duoba in Huangzhong District, built around a Silk Road theme and open since 2019 on a site of about 24 hectares. - Xining Sports Park 西宁市体育公园 4A scenic area · on the map
A municipal sports-themed park on Haihu Avenue in Xining's Chengbei district, opened in 2016 as one of the main areas of the city's ring-road ecological park. - Zongjiagou Scenic Area 宗家沟 4A scenic area · on the map
A gorge scenic area in Riyue Tibetan township, Huangyuan County, with rock formations, natural caves and a hall to the Queen Mother of the West, a figure of Kunlun mythology. - Dongguan Mosque 东关清真大寺 National heritage site
A mosque in the Dongguan quarter on the east side of Xining, a focus of the city's Hui Muslim community, founded in the Hongwu era of the early Ming (1368–98). - Huangyuan City God Temple 湟源城隍庙 National heritage site · on the map
A palace-style temple built into the hillside in the heart of Dan'gar old town, begun in 1776, rebuilt in 1801 and repaired in 1911 and 1926. - Nanliang Hutai Site 虎台遗址 National heritage site
A rammed-earth mound of the Sixteen Kingdoms period, said to be what remains of a nine-tier reviewing platform built by Tufa Hutai, crown prince of Southern Liang, with room below for 100,000 troops according to the records.
Yushu 4 sites
- Princess Wencheng Temple and Lebagou Rock Carvings 勒巴沟文成公主庙 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
A small Buddhist temple built against a cliff in the Beinagou valley near Gyêgu (Jiegu), Yushu's main town, where Vairocana and eight attendant bodhisattvas are carved in relief on the rock above the hall, with more carvings and Tibetan inscriptions elsewhere in the valley and in neighbouring Lebagou. - Xinzhai Jiana Mani Stone Pile 新寨嘉那嘛呢 4A scenic area · National heritage site
A huge pile of carved mani stones on a hillside at Xinzhai, on the edge of Gyêgu (Jiegu), Yushu's main town, begun, by tradition, in the late 18th century by the first Jiana lama of Jiegu Monastery and added to by pilgrims ever since. - Dana Temple and the Stupas of Gesar's Thirty Generals 达那寺 National heritage site
A Yelpa Kagyu monastery on the slopes of Dana (Horse-Ear) Mountain in the far north-west of Nangqian County, near the border with the Tibet Autonomous Region, said to be the only surviving monastery of its school and to have begun as a Bon temple. - Zangniang Stupa and Sangzhou Temple 藏娘佛塔及桑周寺 National heritage site · on the map
A large stupa dating from the Northern Song period (960–1127), standing beside Sangzhou monastery on the south bank of the Tongtian River in Yushu.