Located on the northeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, at the junction of western Gansu Province and northeastern Qinghai Province, Qilian Mountain is a series of parallel mountains and inter-mountain valleys running in a north-west-south-east direction.
A vast wet island
Because of this mountain, the vast sea of sand did not swallow up the western part of China. It is also because of this mountain that the Hexi Corridor has been able to appear in history. The Qilian Mountains, which stretch across the two provinces of Gansu (Su) and Qinghai, are like a wet island stretching out into the western desert, turning a large area of originally barren land into a rich oasis.
Qilian Mountains, where mountains and rivers meet each other. Photo / Li Jun
The western end of Qilian Mountain starts from the Dangjin Pass and the Arjin Mountain, the eastern end reaches the Yellow River Valley, connects with the Qinling Mountains and Liupan Mountains, the north is bordered by the Gansu Hexi Corridor, and the south is adjacent to the northern edge of the Qinghai Qaidam Basin, with a length of nearly 1,000 kilometers. Qilian Mountain is 200-400 kilometers wide from north to south, the main peak is 5808 meters above sea level, and other peaks are mostly 4500-5500 meters above sea level.
Autumn colors of Qilian Mountains. Photography / Dexingfu
The width of the Qilian Mountains has created a rich variety of natural types: high mountains and valleys, forest and snow peaks, grassland farmland adjacent, wetland deserts, rivers and lakes. Diverse natural types form a variety of ecological environments, providing a good natural background for the survival of wild animals and plants. The entire Qilian Mountain ecosystem is extremely rich in biodiversity.
Qilian Mountain West Water Forest Farm Forest. Photographed by Dexingfu
A blessed land
The rivers, reservoirs and ponds of Qianshan are suitable habitats for birds. Grey geese, giant swans, red sparrows, green-winged ducks, and red-winged ducks live here in summer and autumn, feeding mainly on small fish, aquatic insects and young shoots of plants, and they will migrate to the south in the winter.
The desert belt at an altitude of 2000-2300 meters is distributed with desert grassland vegetation such as semi-shrubs, small semi-shrubs, clumped grasses, and small semi-shrub grasses. The montane grassland vegetation belt at an altitude of 2300-2800 meters is distributed with temperate meadow grassland, typical grassland and desert grassland vegetation. The corresponding animals are mainly Przewalski's gazelle, hartebeest, desert cat and rabbit.
The montane forest grassland belt is generally distributed in the mountains at an altitude of 2800-3200 meters, but in terms of distribution sites, the altitude of the yin slope and the yang slope is 200-400 meters. The shady slopes and semi-shady slopes are relatively humid, and there are cold and warm coniferous forests, and the main tree species is Qinghai spruce. The yang slope is relatively dry, mostly grassland, and there are also sporadic Qilian cypresses, which are inlaid and distributed, forming a special mountain forest grassland composite ecosystem. There are many kinds of forest animals, such as blood pheasants, blue horse chickens, pheasants, spot-tailed hazelnuts, and mammals such as musk deer, red deer, wolves, lynx and so on.
The mountainous area at an altitude of 3200-3800 meters is the alpine shrub meadow belt, distributed with rhododendrons, alpine willows, ghost arrow golden chickens, golden dew plums and other hardy, drought-resistant cold temperate broad-leaved shrub vegetation, the main animals are birds, plateau mountain quails, horned larks, brown-backed pseudo-ground crows, forest finches, skylarks, snow pigeons, gray-browed rock crows, goldfinches, gray-backed burrows, yellow-waisted willow warblers and red-billed mountain crows, spot-winged mountain quails, Dai Sheng, small sand larks and other mountain spirits disappear in the green grass at any time, occasionally singing a natural sound, giving people a surprise.
Alpine cushion vegetation belts at an altitude of 4000-4500 meters are distributed with cushion-like camel quinoa, cushion-like flea patches, Gansu fleas, cushion-like wisps and Rhodiola rosea flowing rock beach vegetation. Representative animals are tamarind gerbiles and meridian gerbiles of the hamster family, prairie spotted cats, desert cats, rabbits of the cat family, goose-throated antelopes and wild yaks of the bovine family.
Birds such as dark-bellied snow chicken, light-bellied snow chicken, kite, golden eagle, bearded vulture, jade belt sea eagle, etc., and mammals such as pan sheep, rock sheep, brown bears, snow leopards, and stone martens are distributed in the alpine bare rock, alpine flowing rock beach, near the snow line and the upper line of the forest belt at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters. The number and horizontal distribution of these specialized species adapted to harsh environments are gradually increasing from east to west, and their activities change with the change of seasonal snow line. Most of these animals are rock sheep, with snow leopards being the main carnivores but in very small numbers.
A giant ice warehouse
Qilian Mountains are located in the northern latitude belt of the mid-latitudes, deep inland, far from the sea, and have long been controlled by the western wind current. In addition, the special influence of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau on atmospheric circulation makes it difficult for the humid air flow from the southeastern monsoon in the Pacific Ocean to extend north and west in summer, so that the Qilian Mountains as a whole show more precipitation in the southeast than in the northwest.
Bayi Glacier. Photography / Dexingfu
Here the winter cooling range is large, the temperature difference is large, the daily and annual average daily difference is higher than 10 °C, the main climate is the continental alpine semi-humid mountain climate, which is manifested in the long and cold and dry winter, the summer is short and cool and humid, and the annual precipitation is mainly concentrated in May to September.
The Qilian Mountains have natural glaciers that serve as solid reservoirs. Most of the glaciers here rely on the abundant cold storage provided by tall mountains, which not only maintains the stability of water in the source area of the river, but also has an important protective effect on the fragile ecosystem of the mountain.
The Dunde Glacier in the Tulgenda Banshan Mountains, with an area of 57 square kilometers and ice reserves of 4.28 billion cubic meters, is the largest flat-top glacier in the Qilian Mountains. Tiger Valley Glacier No. 12, which is about 10 kilometers long, covers an area of nearly 22 square kilometers, and has ice reserves of 2.63 billion cubic meters, is the largest valley glacier.
The world's closest to the city, the "Qiyi Glacier", as the first glacier discovered during the survey of Qilian Mountain, is of landmark significance in the history of glacier research in China.
The stable supply of glacier water in mountainous areas, supplemented by the water conservation function of forest and grass vegetation, provides a stable water source for the oasis and desert ecosystem in the north and south of Qilian Mountain.
The Huangshui and Yellow River valleys in the south of the mountain, and the Shiyang River, Heihe River and Shule River basin in the north of the mountain have all become rich agricultural areas because of the nourishment of the Qilian mountains and rivers. People in many parts of the Qilian Mountains refer to qilian mountains as "father mountain" and the river where they live as "mother river". The vast alpine grasslands on the north and south sides of the mountain are lush pastures with abundant aquatic plants. It can be said that the area around the Qilian Mountains is basically the richest place in the two provinces of Gansu (Su) and Qinghai (Hai).
An epic corridor
Qilianshan's greatest contribution was to shape the Hexi Corridor. Under its ecological protection and snow water, a rich oasis agricultural corridor has been formed in the desert area of the northwestern hinterland of China.
The Hexi Corridor starts from Wusheling in the east, reaches Guyumen Pass in the west, and is between nanshan (Qilian Mountain and Arjin Mountain) and North Mountain (Mamanth Mountain, Heli Mountain and Longshou Mountain) in the north and south, with a length of about 900 kilometers and a width of several kilometers to nearly 100 kilometers, which is a narrow flat land running northwest-southeast, shaped like a corridor, called the Gansu Corridor, because it is located west of the Yellow River, also known as the Hexi Corridor. Thanks to the snow and water irrigation of Qilian Mountains, oasis agriculture in the Hexi Corridor is very developed, and it is known as the "Granary of Hexi".
The Hexi Corridor is the main road from the interior to Xinjiang, an important part of the ancient Silk Road, and is famous for the Han and Tang civilizations. The famous Han Dynasty general Huo Qi left many historical stories in the Hexi Corridor when he went to the west to conquer the Xiongnu, and Qilian Mountain was also widely known because of the Battle of Han and Hungary.
The Han-Hungarian conquest under the Qilian Mountains has always led people to believe that the Hexi Corridor under the Qilian Mountains was the homeland of the Xiongnu at the earliest, and "Qilian" is also an ancient Xiongnu language, but this is not the case.
In fact, thousands of years ago, when the Xiongnu iron horse stepped on the Hexi Corridor, the term "Qilian Mountain" already stood in the middle of Eurasia. The Book of Han and the Biography of the Xiongnu has a cloud: "The Xiongnu call the heavens 'ploughing'", not "Qilian". It can be seen that the naming of Dunhuang Nanshan as "Qilian Mountain" is not the native language of the Xiongnu, but is based on the local residents (such as Tocharian and Qiang) to call the mountain. Because the Xiongnu language "Qilian Mountain" is usually considered to mean "Tianshan Mountain", in the Xiongnu language "Qilian" means "heaven".
Qilian Mountain was originally the hometown of the Yue clan. According to Sima Qian's "Chronicle of the Great Wanlie", "The Shiyue clan lived in Dunhuang, Qilianjian, and was defeated by the Xiongnu..." In 209 BC, the increasingly powerful Xiongnu Mao Dundan "attacked the Yue clan from the west" after the "great destruction of the Eastern Hu King", expelling the once powerful Yue dynasty westward from the Hexi Corridor of Caosheng Mafei. Xu is the ancestor of the Yue clan, Xu is the ancestor of the inheritance lineage, and "Qilian" has been passed down in the name of the mountain since then.
With its continuous peaks, trickling water, pine waves, endless green grass, and countless life and many long-unknown cultures have been precipitated by snowy sacred mountains. (Source: Wang Qiang, Editor of Forest and Humanity Magazine)