The full name of Xunhua County is Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, which also known as “Dowi County“;
Xunhua County is located in the eastern part of Qinghai Province. It borders Jishishan County and Linxia County of Gansu Province to the east, Xiahe County of Gansu Province and Tongren County of Qinghai Province to the south, Jianzha County to the west, and neighbors of Hualong Hui Autonomous County and Minhe Hui Autonomous County of Qinghai Province to the north.
Xunhua County is 68 kilometers long from east to west, 57 kilometers wide from north to south, covering an area of 2,100 square kilometers. The county seat is Jishi Town, 165 kilometers away from the provincial capital Xining.
Xunhua County has dense forests, fertile farmland, and luxuriant pasture. The cultural landscape is rich in connotation and the ethnic customs is very unique. It is one of the best tourist areas in Qinghai Province. The three scenic spots in the territory of Mengda Tianchi, Camel Spring, and Wendu Temple are listed for “Top Ten Scenic Spots of Qinghai”. Among them, Wendu Great Temple is the second largest mosque in Qinghai, which has the collection of the only manuscript of the “Quran”
Best travel time Spring and Autumn
Local climate Plateau continental climate
Most popular sites
Mengda Tianchi, is a plateau lake with an area of about 300 acres. The main protection object of this lake is forestconservation ecosystem. It is located in the east of Xunhua County, about 110 kilometers southeast of Xining City. The total area is 17,290 hectares, the altitude is between 1780-3356 meters, the average altitude is above 2500 meters, and the main peak is 4178 meters high. It is in the transitional zone between the northeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Long-Loess Plateau, and the mountains are basically north-south.
Camel Spring is located near the Great Mosque in Jiezi Village, 4 kilometers west of Jishi Town. Although it is a small clear spring, it is related to the origin of the Salars. According to folklore, the ancestors of the Salars were originally a small tribe living in Samarkand in Central Asia. The heads of the Salars were the two brothers, who were forced to leave their homes and wander around. The two of them took 18 people of the same family, led a white camel, carried the water and soil of their hometown and the “Quran”, looking for new musicians to the east. When they came to the foot of Jishi Mountain, they unexpectedly lost the white camel in the dark night. The next day, they found a clear spring and a lost white camel (turned into a white stone lying beside the spring) on the sand slope east of the street, so they lived here and named the clear spring Camel Spring.
Wendu Monastery, located in Ladai Village, Chuwendu Township, belongs to the Gelug pa of Tibetan Buddhism. It is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Xunhua area and a large-scale Tibetan monastery complex.
Geography and climate
Xunhua County is located on the east edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, it is high in the south and low in the north, surrounded by mountains. The altitude is 1780 meters-4636 meters above sea level. The relative elevation difference is 2855 meters. The county has an average elevation of 2200 meters, which is one of the lower elevations in Qinghai Province. The Yellow River flows 79 kilometers through Xunhua County. The landforms of the county are mid-elevation mountains. It is adjacent to the Yellow River flat area to the north, low mountains and hills in the middle and northeast, and middle and high mountainous areas in the south. The wide valley area of the Yellow River gradually increases in elevation to the south, and the vertical difference is obvious. It can be divided into four types of landforms: valley, middle high mountains in the middle-eastern area, high mountains in the middle-western, and high mountains in the east
The climate of Xunhua County is: mild climate, no hot days in summer, not very cold in winter, long sunshine time, strong solar radiation, and great temperature difference between day and night. There is little rainfall, large evaporation; the extreme maximum temperature is 34.1℃, the extreme minimum temperature is -19.8℃, and the average annual temperature is 8.5℃. The difference between day and night is big,
Population and ethnic group
As of 2011, the total population of Xunhua Salar Autonomous County was 126,900. Among them, 78,900 Salars, accounting for 62% of the total population, accounting for 81% of the total population of Salars of China; and there are 29,600 Tibetans, accounting for 24% of the total population of Xunhua county; in addition, there are and Hui, Han, and other ethnic minorities
Brief history
In the 27th year of Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty (AD 1762), Xunhua area was established.
In the 1st year of Emperor Guangxu of Qing Dynasty (AD 1875), Xunhua belonged to Taozhou Department (currently Lintan County, Gannan Prefecture, Gansu province)
In the 16th year of the Republic of China (1927), Xunhua area was under jurisdiction of Gansu Province
In the 19th year of the Republic of China (1930), part of Xunhua area was under jurisdiction of Minhe County
After October 1949, the administrative ownership of Xunhua autonomous counties was changed several times. It was directly governed by the province until 1958
From 1959 to 1979, it was placed under the management of Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture,
Since 1986, it has been under the jurisdiction of the Haidong City.
