Guide

Guide County is situated at the southeast part of Hainan Prefecture, Qinghai Province. It lies between 100°58’8’’-101°47’50’’ east longitude and 35°29’45”－36°23’35” north latitude．Bordering Hualong and Jianzha Counties in the east, Tongren and Zeku Counties in the south, Guinan and Gonghe Counties in the west, it is adjacent to Huangzhong and Huangyuan Counties in the north. The government of the county was set up at Heyin Town, 158 km away from Qiabuqia Town-the governmental seat of Hainan Prefecture, 114 km away from the capital of Qinghai Province--Xining City. It spans 63,4 km from east to west and extends 90.6 km from north to south. The whole county covers an area of 3, 703 square km, between Longyang and Lijia Gorges within the upper reaches of the Yellow River. Zhamarigan Mountain positions the highest point of 5.011 metres, the lowest point of 2,170 metres on the upper entrance of Songba Gorges, with an average altitude of 2,200 metres. It has a population of 0.102529 million according to the official statistics in 2009.

Guide County is located on the transitional expanses from Loess Plateau to Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Yellow River spans the middle and north parts of its whole area, which flows 76.8 km from west to east. With gorges and ravines crisscrossed, with mountains separated by rivers, its terrain presents the features of multi-level-river, basin and hills. It slopes both from north and south to the central part, made the valley-shape basin surrounding by mountains on four directions. As an inland area, it belongs to continental highland climate, sharing a long period of sunshine amounting to 2,928 hours each year and strong ultraviolet ray.