# Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Chinese: 海西蒙古族藏族自治州; Mongolian: ᠬᠠᠶᠢᠰᠢ ᠶᠢᠨ ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ ᠲᠥᠪᠡᠳ ᠦᠨᠳᠦᠰᠦᠲᠡᠨ ᠦ ᠥᠪᠡᠷᠲᠡᠭᠡᠨ ᠵᠠᠰᠠᠬᠤ ᠵᠧᠦ; Tibetan: མཚོ་ནུབ་སོག་རིགས་ཆ་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ།), locally also known as Qaidam Prefecture (Mongolian: ᠴᠠᠢᠳᠠᠮ; Tibetan: ཚྭ་འདམ།; Chinese: 柴达木), is an autonomous prefecture occupying much of the northern half of (as well as part of the southwest of) Qinghai Province, China. It has an area of 325,785 square kilometres (125,786 sq mi) and its seat is Delingha. The name of the prefecture literally means "west of (Qinghai) Lake."
Geladandong Mountain, the source of the Yangtze River, is located here.

## History

After 1949, the People's Government of Dulan County was founded and the area was renamed Dulan Autonomous District (都兰自治区); in 1954, Dulan was renamed Haixi Mongol, Tibetan and Kazakh Autonomous District (海西蒙藏哈萨克族自治区) and in 1955, Haixi Mongol, Tibetan and Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture (海西蒙藏哈萨克族自治州). In 1963, it was renamed "海西蒙古族藏族哈萨克族自治州" (with the "Tibetan" added to the official county name). In 1985, after the Kazakhs had returned to Xinjiang, it was again renamed to Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

## Demographics

As of the 2017 census, Haixi had 515,200 inhabitants.
The following is a composition of ethnic groups in the prefecture, taken in the 2010 Census.
| Nationality | Population | Percentage |
| Han | 322,996 | 66.01% |
| Tibetan | 53,498 | 10.93% |
| Hui | 65,828 | 13.45% |
| Mongolian | 27,043 | 5.53% |
| Tu/Monguor | 9,952 | 2.03% |
| Salar | 4,665 | 0.95% |
| Dongxiang | 2,734 | 0.56% |
| Manchu | 684 | 0.14% |
| Tujia | 346 | 0.07% |
| Kazakh | 525 | 0.11% |
| Others | 1066 | 0.22% |

## Subdivisions

Haixi directly governs 3 county-level cities and 3 counties.
Map :
| Golmud (city) ※ Delingha (city) Mangnai (city) Ulan County Dulan County Tianjun County Da Qaidam ※ ||||||||||
| Name | Hanzi | Hanyu Pinyin | Mongolian (Transcription from Mongolian) | Tibetan | Wylie Tibetan Pinyin | Population (2010) | Area (km$^2$) | Density (/km$^2$) |
| Delingha City (Delhi City) | 德令哈市 | Délìnghā Shì | ᠳᠡᠯᠡᠬᠡᠢ ᠬᠣᠲᠠ Delekei qota | གཏེར་ལེན་ཁ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར། | gter len kha grong khyer Dêrlênka Chongkyir | 91,855 | 61,613 | 1.49 |
| Golmud City (Ge'ermu City) | 格尔木市 | Gé'ěrmù Shì | ᠭᠣᠯᠮᠣᠣᠠ ᠬᠣᠲᠠ Ɣool modu qota | ན་གོར་མོ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར། | na gor mo grong khyer Nakormo Chongkyir | 215,213 | 123,460 | 1.74 |
| Mangnai City (Mangya City) | 茫崖市 | Mángyá Shì | ᠮᠠᠨᠭᠨᠠᠢ ᠶᠢᠨ ᠬᠣᠲᠠ Mangnai-yin qota | མང་ནེ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར། | mang ne grong khyer Mangnai Chongkyir | 33,451 | 49,000 | 0.63 |
| Ulan County (Wulan County) | 乌兰县 | Wūlán Xiàn | ᠤᠯᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠰᠢᠶᠠᠨ Ulaγan siyan | ཝུའུ་ལན་རྫོང་ | wu'u lan rdzong Wu'ulain Zong | 38,723 | 10,784 | 3.59 |
| Dulan County | 都兰县 | Dūlán Xiàn | ᠳᠤᠯᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠰᠢᠶᠠᠨ Dulaγan siyan | ཏུའུ་ལན་རྫོང་ | tu'u lan rdzong Tu'ulain Zong | 76,623 | 50,000 | 1.53 |
| Tianjun County | 天峻县 | Tiānjùn Xiàn | ᠲᠢᠶᠡᠨ ᠵᠢᠶᠦ᠋ᠨ ᠰᠢᠶᠠᠨ Tiyen ǰiyün siyan | ཐེན་ཅུན་རྫོང་ | then cun rdzong Têncün Zong | 33,923 | 20,000 | 1.70 |
| Da Qaidam Administrative Zone (Ih'qaidam Administrative Zone) | 大柴旦行政委员会 | Dàcháidàn Xíngzhèng Wěiyuánhuì | ᠶᠡᠬᠡ ᠴᠠᠢᠢᠳᠠᠮ ᠤᠨ ᠵᠠᠰᠠᠭ ᠵᠠᠬᠢᠷᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠦ ᠵᠥᠪᠯᠡᠯ Yeke čayidam-un ǰasaγ ǰaqiraγan-ü ǰöblel | ཚྭ་འདམ་ཆེ་བའི་སྲིད་འཛིན་ཨུ་ཡོན་ལྷན་ཁང་། | tshwa 'dam che ba'i srid 'dzin u yon lhan khang | 13,671 | 34,000 | 0.40 |
* The southwestern exclave of the Haixi Prefecture, separated from the rest of the prefecture by a "panhandle" of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, is the Tanggula Town of Golmud City.

## Gallery

* A picture taken in the southwestern part of the prefecture
* The Qingzang Railway can be seen on the far left

## Notable features

* Delingha City
* Qaidam Basin
* Geladandong mountain
* Headwaters of the Yangtze River
* The Baigong Pipes