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The Qilian Mountains (), together with the Altyn-Tagh sometimes known as the Nan Shan, as it is to the south of the Hexi Corridor, is a northern outlier of the Kunlun Mountains, forming the border between Qinghai and the Gansu provinces of northern China.
The eponymous Qilian Shan peak, situated some 60 km south of Jiuquan, at , rises to 5,547 m. It is the highest peak of the main range, but there are two higher peaks further south, Kangze'gyai at with 5,808 m and Qaidam Shan peak at with 5,759 m. Other major peaks include Gangshiqia Peak in the east.
The Nan-Shan range continues to the west as Yema Shan (5,250 m) and Altun Shan (5,798 m). To the east, it passes north of Qinghai Lake, terminating as Daban Shan and Xinglong Shan near Lanzhou, with Maoma Shan peak (4,070 m) an eastern outlier. Sections of the Ming dynasty's Great Wall pass along its northern slopes, and south of northern outlier Longshou Shan (3,616 m).
The Qilian mountains are the source of numerous, mostly small, rivers and creeks that flow northeast, enabling irrigated agriculture in the Hexi Corridor (Gansu Corridor) communities, and eventually disappearing in the Alashan Desert. The best known of these streams is the Ejin River. The region has many , the largest of which is the Touming Mengke. These glaciers have undergone acceleration in their melting in recent decades.
Lake Hala is a large Brackish water lake, located within the Qilian mountains.
The characteristic ecosystem of the Qilian Mountains has been described by the World Wildlife Fund as the Qilian Mountains conifer forests.
Biandukou (扁都口), with an altitude of over 3500 m, is a pass in the Qilian Mountains. It links Minle County of Gansu in the north and Qilian County of Qinghai in the south.
The Tuyuhun were based around the Qilian mountains.
The mountain range was formerly known in European languages as Richthofen Range after Ferdinand von Richthofen, who was the Red Baron's explorer-geologist uncle.Winchester, Simon. (2008). The Man Who Loved China: the Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom, p. 126.
The mountain range gives its name to Qinghai's Qilian County.
History
The Shiji mentions the name "Qilian mountains" together with Dunhuang in relation to the homeland of the Yuezhi.Sima Qian et al., Shiji vol 123: "Account of Dayuan" quote: "始月氏居敦煌、祁連閒". translation: "Initially the Yuezhi dwelt between Dunhuang and Qilian." These Qilian Mountains however, has been suggested to be the mountains now known as Tian Shan, 1,500 km to the west. Dunhuang has also been argued to be the Dunhong mountain.Xinru Liu, Migration and Settlement of the Yuezhi-Kushan: Interaction and Interdependence of Nomadic and Sedentary Societies (2001) [4] Qilian (祁连) is said to be a Xiongnu word meaning "sky" () according to Yan Shigu, a Tang dynasty commentator on the Hanshu. Sanping Chen (1998) suggested that 天 tiān, 昊天 hàotiān, 祁連 qílián, and 赫連 Helian Bobo were all cognates and descended from multisyllabic Proto-Sinitic * gh?klien. Schessler (2014) objects to Yan Shigu's statement that 祁連 was a Xiongnu word; he reconstructs 祁連's pronunciation in around 121 BCE as * gɨ-lian, apparently the same etymon as 乾 (☰) the Bague for "Heaven", in standard Chinese qián < Middle Chinese Qieyun * gjän < Eastern Han Chinese gɨan < Old Chinese * gran, which Schuessler etymologizes as from Proto-Sino-Tibetan and related to Proto-Tibeto-Burman * m-ka-n, cognate with Written Tibetan མཁའ (Wylie transliteration: mkha') “heaven”.Schuessler, Axel (2014). "Phonological Notes on Hàn Period Transcriptions of Foreign Names and Words". Studies in Chinese and Sino-Tibetan Linguistics: Dialect, Phonology, Transcription and Text - Language and Linguistics Monograph Series. Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica (53). p. 274 of 249-292. archived from originalSchuessler, Axel. 2007. An Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese. University of Hawaii Press. p. 425
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