The Population Changes and Urban Development

Abstract

The Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau has long history of human cultivation. Many ancient nationalities and tribes once lived here. They have migrated and merged each other during the long historical time. Until the early 7th Century, the unified Tufan Dynasty was built and had close political and economic relation with the Central China. The Tufan Dynasty collapsed at mid-9th Century. At mid-13th Century, the plateau was confined to the unified administration of the Yuan Dynasty. It was divided into three parts followed as the northeast, southeast, and the west administrated by three relevant Xuanwei Si, which actually is basis of administrative regionalization of the plateau nowadays. In the Ming Dynasty, the administrative regionalization of the plateau generally adopted the old system of the Yuan Dynasty. The present Deqin, Zhongdian Counties, etc belonged to the Yunnan Province, and the Xining Zhou located in the present eastern Qinghai Province was changed to Xining Wei and confined to Shaanxi Province. In the Qing Dynasty, the Xining Wei (later changed to Xining Fu), Hezhou was zoned to Gansu Province, the Songpan, Aba and the eastern Yalongjiang River zoned to Sichuan Province. In 1726 AD, the Jinsha River was defined as the basic boundary between Xizang and Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces. Since 1729 AD, the government began to send chancelleries to administrate the Tibet. In 1731 AD, areas dominated by chancelleries distributed from the Qing Government to the Tibet and Qinghai was defined. In 1929, the Qinghai Province was set. Thereafter, related changes occurred. The whole Plateau was liberated in 1951.