Qaidam Basin, the third largest basin in China, has an area of about 200,000 square km. It is located in Qinghai province, northeast of Qinghai-Tibet Plateru. The average altitude of the bottom of the basin is about 2,600 - 3,000 m. It is the highest basin in China. The bottom of the basin is wide and flat so that people feel like crossing an ordinary plain when they drive cars or ride horses in the basin.

There are rich mineral resources in Qaidam Basin, so people call it the "treasure bowl". Salt, oil, lead zinc and borax are the four treasures in the basin.

There is so much salt there. there are more than 100 salt lakes and the total salt reserves amount to 60 billion tons. Here we can even see an airport and house built with salt.