Qinghai (Mandarin Chinese: 青海, Qīnghǎi) is a province in Northwest China. It is located south of the Republic of Mongolia, east of Xinjiang, and north of Tibet. It is one of China's least densely populated provinces with under six million people in an area somewhat larger than France.
Geographically Qinghai is on the Tibetan Plateau and is the source of several of China's major rivers. The Yellow River (Huang He) starts in central Qinghai and flows north and east through much of North China. The Yangtze and the Mekong both start near the southern edge of Qinghai and flow across Tibet into Yunnan where they are two of the three rivers in the Three Parallel Rivers National Park, then diverge to flow into different oceans.
Historically, what is now Qinghai was one of the three provinces of the old Tibetan Kingdom and was called Amdo. It has its own dialect, Amdo Tibetan. Tibetans are still the main ethnic and cultural group, but Mongols, Hui (Chinese Muslims) and Han (ethnic Chinese) have been present for centuries and more Han have been moving in over the last few decades, albeit largely concentrated in a small area around the capital Xining.