For a time after its wars with the Xiongnu, Han China connected the lake with the legendary "Western Sea" assumed to balance the East China Sea, but as the Han Empire expanded further west into the Tarim Basin other lakes assumed the title.

Qinghai Lake lies about 100 kilometers (62 mi) west of Xining in a hollow of the Tibetan Plateau at 3,205 meters (10,515 ft) above sea level.

[16] If the water level were to rise by approximately 50 meters (160 ft), the connection to the Yellow River would be reestablished via the low pass to the east.

Although some Tibetans lived around the lake, the Qing maintained an administrative division from the time of Güshi Khan between the Dalai Lama's western realm (slightly smaller than the current Tibet Autonomous Region) and the Tibetan-inhabited areas in the east.

[21] During Nationalist rule (1928–1949), the Han formed a majority of Qinghai Province's residents, although Chinese Muslims (Hui) dominated the government.

[22] The Kuomintang Hui general Ma Bufang, having invited Kazakh Muslims,[23] joined the governor of Qinghai and other high ranking Qinghai and national government officials in conducting a joint Kokonuur Lake Ceremony to worship the God of the Lake.

During the ritual, the Chinese national anthem was sung and all participants bowed to a Portrait of Kuomintang founder Sun Yat-sen as well as to the God of the Lake.

[8] After the Chinese economic reform in the 1980s, drawn by new business opportunities, migration to the area increased, causing ecological stresses.

In 2001, the State Forestry Administration of China launched the "Retire Cropland, Restore Grasslands" (退耕，还草) campaign and started confiscating Tibetan and Mongol pastoralists' guns to preserve the endangered Przewalski's gazelle.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences reported in 1998 the lake was again threatened with loss of surface area due to livestock over-grazing, land reclamations, and natural causes.

As such, it is a focal point in global concerns regarding avian influenza (H5N1), as a major outbreak here could spread the virus across Europe and Asia, further increasing the chances of a pandemic.

[citation needed] There are five native fish species: The edible naked carp (Gymnocypris przewalskii, 湟鱼; huángyú),[29] which is the most abundant in the lake, and four stoneloaches (Triplophysa stolickai, T. dorsonotata, T. scleroptera and T.

[16] Other Yellow River fish species occurred in the lake, but they disappeared with the increasing salinity and basicity, beginning in the early Holocene.

[32] The lake is currently circumnavigated by pilgrims, mainly Tibetan Buddhists, especially every Horse Year of the 12-year cycle.