Aba

Aba (Ngawa) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture is situated in northwestern Sichuan Province, the eastern end of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It neighbors Qinhai and Gansu provinces in the north.

For thousands of years, a multitude of Chinese ancient ethnic minorities, including Qiang, Sienpi (Xianbei), Tubo and Hui, had worked collaboratively on the development of Aba, leaving the land abundant culture accumulations of ethnic minorities. The prefecture was changed into Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in 1955 and Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in 1987.

Tableland and alpine valleys make up the main landform of the prefecture. Parts of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and the Hengduan Mountains extend to its territory. Alpine valleys are mainly distributed in the southeastern part, while its northwestern land is plateau region. Minjiang River and Dadu River, tributaries of the upper Yangtze River, flow across Aba which is the only place in Sichuan Province having the Yellow River flow through.