Qinghai can be divided into two main economic regions, the main mode of existence being dictated by the climate and the characteristics of the land. Thus, the population is predominantly agricultural to the eastern side abutting Gansu, and pastoral nomadic on the high plateaus to the west, and some 500,00 people make their living from nomadic or semi-nomadic herding in the Province.
The main agricultural products are wheat, highland barley, rapeseed, beans and peas. The Province boasts more than five hundred kinds of medical plants, the most valuable being the Chinese caterpillar fungus, boxthorn fruits, notoptergium, yellow azalea oil and flos saussure which form part of an increasingly large medicinal processing industry.
Poverty in the Province is widespread, with 14 counties and 38 townships being identified as poverty stricken by the national State Council and the Provincial Government.
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