[2] The town is reached by a two-day car ride on China National Highway 214 - a good, mostly metalled road leading all the way from Xining (820 km or 510 mi), the provincial capital, via the Sun and Moon Pass, Gonghe-Chabcha of Hainan prefecture and Madoi in Golog across the Bayankara Mountains.

[3] Located 18 kilometers to the south of the town at the 3,890 meters elevation about the sea level, this the highest airport in Qinghai Province.

In the early 20th century, when trade was at its peak in Gyêgu, the town had a native population of about 100 Tibetan families—400 persons—plus 300 to 400 monks in Döndrub Ling monastery.

[6] The population doubled periodically with the advent of several hundred Han and Hui merchants from the TAR and Sichuan, with some Mongols from China's northwestern provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu.

The different balance of power in this part of Kham enabled the older Tibetan Buddhist orders to prevail in Yushu, and thus Gyêgu.

Like at the beginning of the 20th century[8] Other nearby monastic sites include the important Karma-Kagyupa lamaseries Domkar Gompa and Thrangu Gompa, the famous Mahavairocana Temple (often called Wencheng Temple[citation needed]) and the popular religious site of Gyanamani with its billions of mani stones.

"[9] Prior to collectivization in 1958, the entire monastic population of present-day Yushu TAP amounted to more than 25,000 Buddhist monks and nuns, with approximately 300 incarnate lamas among them.

On the average about three to five per cent of the population were monastic, with a strikingly higher share in Nangqên county, where monks and nuns made up between 12 and 20% of the community.

During the festival the colorful appliqué tents so typical for Tibetan summer outings cover the grasslands of the Bathang plain or the horse race grounds in the west of the town, with Khampas from all over Yushu prefecture, and even farther, showing off in between time and watching picturesque folk dances.