The Australia-China Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New South Wales

QINGHAI PROVINCE（青海省）

Qinghai Province is shown in black.

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General Profile:

Population: 5,200,000

Provincial Capital: Xining, located in a relatively high river valley in the eastern part of the province.

Average temperatures: -18 deg C to -7 deg C in January; 5 deg C to 21 deg C in July..

Physical features: The province occupies the northeast portion of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Qaidam Basin in the northwest is a large, relatively unoccupied area. Most of the population resides in the river valleys in the east. The total land area of the province is 720,000 square kilometres.

Rivers: The Yellow River and its tributaries, including the Huangshui River at Xining, are important to the province. Qinghai Lake, which lies to the northwest of Xining, is the largest salt lake in China.

Administrative divisions: 2 cities, 6 autonomous prefectures, 30 counties and 7 autonomous counties.

Historical significance: Qinghai was a frontier territory for many years. It officially became part of China in the 18th century (except the eastern portion near Xining that was part of China from an earlier period) and became a separate province in 1928. It began to develop in the 1950s after construction of the rail link to Lanzhou. Mineral deposits in the province contributed to its industrialisation.

Ethnic minorities account for about 43 per cent of the population. Major groups include Tibetan（藏）, Hui（回）, Tu（土）, Salar（撒拉）, Mongolian（蒙）and Kazak （哈薩克）.

Natural Resources:

Coal, oil and iron ore are the principal natural resources. It also has reserves of borax, salt and phosphates from the salt lakes in the province. Some lead and zinc deposits are also found in the province.

Economic Profile:

	1999		2000
Economic Indicators	Value	Growth	Value	Growth
		(% p.a.)		(% p.a.)
Gross domestic product (RMB bn)	423.8	7.3 *	455.7	7.5 *
Per capita GDP	6,473	6.6	6,913	6.8
Income per capita
- urban (RMB)	5,116	2.7	5,395	5.4
- rural (RMB)	3,240	2.2	3,181	-1.8
Fixed asset investment (RMB bn)	91.8	16.6	101.8	10.9
Value added by sector
- primary (RMB bn)	79.0	3.9	80.6	2.0
- secondary (RMB bn)	207.5	7.7	223.3	7.6
- tertiary (RMB bn)	137.3	8.7	151.9	10.6
Retail sales (RMB bn)	133.3	11.5	145.9	9.5
Inflation (retail price index, %)	-2.3		-2.2
Exports (US$ bn)	2.6	-1.1	2.7	1.9
- by FIEs (US$ bn)	0.7	14.3	0.8	11.1
Imports (US$ bn)	1.6	21.6	1.9	14.7
- by FIEs (US$ bn)	0.6	7.0	0.7	8.2
Foreign direct investment
- number of projects	696	10.7	520	-25.3
- contractual amount (US$ bn)	1.3	13.9	0.9	-29.8
- utilised amount (US$ bn)	1.4	29.8	1.0	-27.1

Notes: *In real terms
Sources: China Statistical Abstract, 2001, CEIC database

Infrastructure:

Railways － Major railyways in the province include: Lanzhou-Qinghai railway（蘭青）, Qing-Xin railway（青新鐵路: Qinghai-Xinjiang 青海－新疆）, Yang-Xi railway（陽西鐵路: Yangpingguan-Xining 陽平關－西寧）and Xi-Zhang railway（西張鐵路: Xining-Zhangxe 西寧－張掖）.

Expansion of the rail system is among the many projects associated the Great Western Development Strategy.

Roadways －he province’s road network consists of three major links: Qinghai with Xinjiang, Qinghai with Tibet and Qinghai with Gansu.

There are 20 new roadway improvement projects in the province, 8 of which involve new roads or relocations. A recently completed project is the Pingxi Expressway (平西高速公路：平家镇--西宁), which is the first expressway on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Air Transport － Golmud（格爾木）airport and Caojiabao（曹家堡）airport at Xining provide air routes to major cities in China including Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Lanzhou, Urumqi and Lhasa.

Telecommunications －Telecommunications services in Qinghai improved substantially during the past few years. As at the end of April 2000, there were over 100,000 mobile phone users in the province, and nearly 300,000 households have installed telephones. In 1998, the Lanzhou-Xining-Lhasa optical fibre cable was constructed.

Electricity Supply － The existing Longyiangxia（龍羊峽）and Lijiaxia （李家峽） hydropower stations enable the province to be an important hydropower base in the north-west China. Other large hydropower stations such as Laxiwa（拉西瓦）, and Gongboxia （公伯峽）were under construction.

Gas Supply － One of the key projects in the Great Western Development Strategy is the delivery of natural gas from the major gas fields in China’s northwest to the eastern provinces. The first stage of the project is a new natural gas pipeline linking Qinghai and Gansu provinces and it is nearing completion. The pipeline runs 953 kilometres from Sebei Natural Gas Field in the Qaidam Basin, through Xining to Lanzhou.

Agriculture:

Agricultral products include: wheat, highland barley, millet, rice, potatoes, rapeseed, broad beans, peas, leather, rhubarb, Chinese and caterpillar fungus. A speciality product is Xining wool used in carpet making.

Industry:

In 2000, Qinghai’s industrial output was US$19.3 billion. Industries are mainly located at Xining, Golmud and the Qaidam Basin.

Qinghai Lake and the large Qaidam Basin to the west of the lake have large reserves of potassium, magnesium, lithium, natural gas and crude oil. This provides the raw material for the province’s heavy industries. Major industries are oil and gas, electricity, chemical salts, nonferrous metals, metallurgy, machinery, electronics, foodstuffs, leather and textiles.

Both the Qinghai Aluminium Factory and Qinghai Magnesium Factory are the largest in the nation.

Export products were mainly resources based, with the share of non-ferrous metal and mineral products accounting for 55 per cent of total export value. Other major products were honey, textile, metal silicone and hand-woven rugs.

Science and Technology:

Qiaotou Economic Development Zone（橋頭經濟技術開發區）
The zone is devoted mainly to chemicals, building materials, non-ferrous metals, machine manufacturing, coal and power.

Golmud Kunlun Economic Development Zone（格爾木崑崙經濟開發區）
The zone is used to develop lake salt, petroleum, natural gas and non-metal mineral deposits.

Haixi Eastern Economic Development Zone（海西東部經濟區）
This was established this year (2001) and is located near the city of Delingha. The name is derived from the Haixi region which lies to the west of Delingha.

Xining New and High-Tech Development Zone（西寧高新技術開發區）
The focus of the zone is new resources, bio-engineering technology, mineral products and processing from salt lake resources, medicine and electricity.

Consumers’ Market:

Retail sales of consumer goods of the province in 1999 totalled RMB 8.2 billion in 2000, an increase of 9.2 per cent compared to 1998. Xining is the largest consumer centre in Qinghai, accounting for 57 per cent of the total sales.

Major department stores and shopping centres in Qinghai include Qinghai Department Store（青海百貨股份有限公司）and Xining Xidajie Department Store （西寧市西大街百貨大樓）.

Key Cities in Hebei:

Eastern industrial region: This includes the portion of Qinghai that was formerly known as Ando.

Ø Xining

Central industrial region: This includes the portion of the province surrounding the Qaidam Basin

Ø Golmud

Ø Delingha

Xining 西寧:

1999 data:

Population	GDP	Industrial Output	Retail Sales
('000)	(RMB bn)	(RMB bn)	(RMB bn)
1,140 (+1.2%)	7.3 (+9.0%)	7.1 (-10.1%)	7.8 (+95%)

The provincial capital has an elevation of 2,200 metres above sea level and the land rises sharply to the west, thus preventing an outlet for Qinghai Lake. It is by far the largest city in the province and most of the industries in the city are rural-based.

Golmud 格爾木:

1999 data:

Population	GDP	Industrial Output	Retail Sales
('000)	(RMB bn)	(RMB bn)	(RMB bn)
90 (+1.1%)	1.3 (+8.3%)	0.8 (+8.5%)	0.5 (+0%)

Golmud is an outpost near the centre of Qinghai, well within the Qaidam Basin, and is about 600 kilometres for Xining. The main industry is potash mining, though it is becoming a staging area for bus trips into Tibet.

Delingha 德令哈

1999 data:

Population	GDP	Industrial Output	Retail Sales
('000)	(RMB bn)	(RMB bn)	(RMB bn)
57 (+2.7%)	0.3 (+40%)	0.04 (-60%)	0.1 (+0%)

Delingha occupies the northern edge of the Qaidam Basin at the foot of the Qilian Mountains.

Information Sources:

Information contained in this page was obtained from:

Hong Kong Trade Development Council (http://www.tdctrade.com)

Additional Information:

The Chamber maintains contact with:

Qinghai Sub-Council of the China Chamber for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT)

We are in the process of maintaining regular contact with organisations in the cities listed. Please contact us if you require additional information about Qinghai Province or any of the cities listed.

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