It is under the administration of the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture.

About 8,398 square meter and about 40,000 people reside (2004) mostly Amdo Tibetan.

The language is spoken is one of the most conservative dialect among the Amdo Tibetan varieties.

Southwest University for Nationalities maintains the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Ecological Environmental Protection and Advanced Technology for Animal Husbandry in Hongyuan County.

Hongyuan has a subarctic climate (Köppen Dwc) with short, mild summers and cold winters, although not as cold as subarctic climates at higher latitudes.