Threatened not only by well-armed poachers and forbidding terrain, they've also become something of a rogue guerrilla force pitted against a rival group set up by the government to do the same job. Yet as their folklore spreads, for most Chinese it is their imperfections as much as their valor that make their story so spellbinding. The rest of Qinghai is known for its harsh labor camps, sparse human population and research centers for China's first atomic and hydrogen bombs. The Dalai Lama was born in the province, most of which once belonged to Tibet. Nearly every inch is covered by sweeping grassland, much of it dry and brown.
Nothing grows for hundreds of miles except telephone poles.
The skies are so tempestuous that a hot summer afternoon could suffer the wrath of snow and hail. The winters are a gamble with God. In 1992, Suonandajie first targeted the illegal gold diggers who had poured into the region by the tens of thousands. The gold rush that began in the 1980s was like a plague of locusts on these vistas that had been left undisturbed for many millenniums. In a flash, riverbeds were sifted dry, rare animals were slain for food.