Qinghai has a continental climate. The greater part of it is dry and cold and with long winters, short summers, frequent winds, little rainfall, long hours of sunshine and great differences in temperature between day and night. It has a mean annual temperature of 0-8℃ -- the hottest month, July, averaging 0-20℃ and the coldest month, January, below -8℃-- and a mean annual precipitation generally below 300 mm.

Qinghai is an important livestock breeding center. Its livestock includes sheep, yaks, pian niu (crossbreed of bulls and yaks) and horses. Qinghai produces large quantities of sheep wool, meat, leather and sausage casings for other parts of the country. It is an important producer of medicinal materials such as caterpillar fungus, antlers, musk and rhubarb. Qinghai Lake is famous for its scaleless naked carp. The province grows spring wheat, highland barley, broad beans, potatoes and rapeseed.

Qinghai is rich in petroleum, lead, zinc, copper, chromium, cobalt, nickel, iron, asbestos, mirabilite, gypsum, lake salt, potassium, boron and coal. The Qilian is called the "treasure mountains" and the Qaidam the "treasure basin".

Qinghai is a sparking jewel set on the northwest plateau of China. It is at the source of the rivers in Himalayas, wherein the Yangtze River and Yellow River as well as the Lancang (Mekong) River take their source.

The scenic quality of Qinghai's widely varying landscape is superb and enticing, offering from the ranges of gleaming mountains with glacier-capped peaks over 6,000 meters high to the Gobi desert dunes of Qaidam, from lush ranch land to the sapphire-like lakes of vast area, all this has created a land of marvel, mystery and diversity.

The Qinghai Lake is a photographer and artist's paradise of mirrored pastel sunrises, azure beauty in midday and the indigo blues of sunset. The Bird Island, called "the Kingdom of Birds", on the western tip hosts hundreds of thousand migratory birds, hovering over the sky or diving into the water. In April, tens of thousands of brown-headed gulls, cormorants, and swan come from South China, Southeast Asia and other places to multiply here.

The Qaidam, once been prosperous as the ancient Silk Road stretching across much of its length, is an idea place for expedition. You can explore the End of the World, mystic Lost City and discover the beauty of dazzling salt lakes.

As it is one of China's six biggest lamaseries of the yellow sect and the birthplace of its founder, Tsong Khapa, the Taer Lamasery is a fine combination of Han and Tibetan architecture covering an area of more than 40 hectares. The original construction began in the 39th year of the Jiajing reign (1560) of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the lamasery now consists of the Great Temple of Golden Tile, the Lesser Temple of Golden Tile, the Great Meditation Hall, Eight Stupas, the Longevity Temple and the Nine Room Hall, to mention a few. The butter sculptures, murals and appliqués are known as its unique "three wonders" of art.