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Qinghai

Qinghai · Map

At Ta’er Monastery, butter becomes a temporary sculpture. In the Hehuang valleys, painted clay, embroidery and temple murals hold other kinds of time. Northward, Qinghai Lake is crossed by fish and birds; westward, salt works and telescopes bring two different kinds of work to the Qaidam Basin. Farther south, painters, carvers, herders and river patrols bring the headwaters into view through particular places and tasks. Follow the material, the water or the work: each route opens another Qinghai.

Qinghai
Xining Haidong Haibei Huangnan Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Golog Yushu Haixi

Selected waterways · simplified geography

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From the journal

A Stop on the Central Asian Flyway

The Keluke–Tuosu reserve is part of a migratory-bird network, and its monitoring records show how field observation works in a desert wetland.

1 min readHaixi
Original editorial diagram, not a photograph or measured plan: Repeated transects and survey points recorded 138 bird species across the reserve during 2019–2021.
Original editorial diagram, not a photograph or measured plan: Repeated transects and survey points recorded 138 bird species across the reserve during 2019–2021.

A route across the Qaidam Basin

The Keluke Lake–Tuosu Lake reserve lies on the Central Asian flyway within the wider network of migratory birds. In a 2019–2021 study, observers followed fixed transects and survey points, counting birds with binoculars and spotting scopes. They also recorded habitat conditions and signs of human activity, returning to the same routes over multiple seasons.

From sightings to a record

The research assembled observations of 138 species across the study period. It found resident birds alongside summer migrants and passage migrants, placing the reserve within several parts of the annual cycle. A bird crossing this dry basin may be seen for only a short period; repeated routes and careful counts make those temporary visits legible. The reserve’s value as a stopover becomes visible through the accumulated field record, where location, season and species are read together.

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  1. Original editorial diagram, not a photograph or measured plan: Repeated transects and survey points recorded 138 bird species across the reserve during 2019–2021.© 2026 IFreeing · Rights information Photo source ↗ Proportionally resized and converted to WebP without cropping. No objects were added, removed or reconstructed.