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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

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From the journal

Arou Station: Reading a Grassland Through Instruments

At a high alpine grassland station in Qilian County, a tower and buried sensors turn changing air and soil into measurements.

1 min readHaibei
Arou station compares measurements above and below the grassland surface with a gradient tower and soil sensors. Original editorial diagram; illustrative, not a photograph or measured site plan.
Arou station compares measurements above and below the grassland surface with a gradient tower and soil sensors. Original editorial diagram; illustrative, not a photograph or measured site plan.

A tower above the meadow

The Arou freeze-thaw observation station stands at Caodaban Village in Arou Township, Qilian County. ChinaFLUX describes it as a high alpine grassland site. A gradient meteorological tower rises above the grass, with flux measurements taken from the tower. The station’s location matters: the subject being measured is the exchange between a high-altitude grassland and the air above it.

Measurements at different heights

The station record describes layers of weather instruments at several heights, alongside sensors set into the soil. Temperature and moisture readings extend below the surface; wind, humidity and other atmospheric conditions are observed above it. These measurements let researchers compare conditions within the grassland with those in the air above it. Arou’s story is therefore less a single instrument than a fixed patch of alpine grassland revisited through a coordinated array of measurements.

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  1. Arou station compares measurements above and below the grassland surface with a gradient tower and soil sensors. Original editorial diagram; illustrative, not a photograph or measured site plan.© 2026 IFreeing · Rights information Photo source ↗ Proportionally resized and converted to WebP without cropping. No objects were added, removed or reconstructed.