The Site is a high-altitude wetland on the south-eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, featuring herbaceous swamps, lakes and rivers. It includes a large peatland developed in the alpine humid climate which serves as an important carbon sink. With its unique geographical and ecological setting, it is one of the region’s biodiversity hotspots, providing important habitats for a large number of rare and threatened species (including some that are endemic to China,) such as the globally endangered alpine musk deer (Moschus chrysogaster) and Pallas’s fish eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus), and the vulnerable snow leopard (Panthera uncia), Chinese mountain cat (Felis bieti) and the endemic white-lipped deer (Przewalskium albirostris). The Site serves as an important stopover and breeding ground for many migratory birds such as black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis) and ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea). It plays a significant role in regulating the local climate, conserving water, controlling floods and mitigating climate change.

In Shiqu County of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Region western in Sichuan Province, P.R.China