[1] The autonomous county has an area of around 2,100 square kilometres (810 sq mi), and a population of approximately 161,600 inhabitants per a 2022 government publication.

[3] As of April 2009, Xunhua is also the site of a mosque containing the oldest hand-written copy of the Quran in China, believed to have been written sometime between the 8th and 13th centuries.

[5]: 11–12 The Ming dynasty established control of the area by the year 1370, placing it under the jurisdiction of Hezhou, located in Gansu.

[5]: 13 Since the early Ming dynasty, many Salars in the region engaged in long-distance traded along the Yellow River, a practice which has continued into modern times.

[2] In April 1958, during the Great Leap Forward, an uprising of ethnic Tibetan and Salar people against the government took place, known as the Xunhua Incident.

[5] Xunhua Salar Autonomous County is located in the east of Qinghai province, under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Haidong.

[2] The autonomous county spans an area of approximately 2,100 square kilometres (810 sq mi), and has an average elevation of 2,300 metres (7,500 ft) above sea level.

[5]: 11–12 In 2021, Xunhua Salar Autonomous County's gross domestic product (GDP) totaled 4.036 billion renminbi (RMB), an increase of 6.5% over the previous year.