It is located approximately 200 km (120 mi) southeast of the Da Qaidam Administrative Region.

Because the prefecture seat is located in Hedong, it is slightly more flourishing than Hexi, which is chiefly agricultural.

[1] Established in 1988, Delingha administers seven township-level divisions covering an area of 27,700 km2 (10,700 sq mi) and has a total population of 78,184, making it the smallest of the five cities in Qinghai.

Delingha has a cool semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk) just moist enough to avoid being a cool arid climate (BWk), characterised by warm summers with moderate rainfall and frigid to freezing, dry winters.

[6] At an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,800 ft), a 50 MW concentrated solar power plant with parabolic trough opened in 2018.