Towards the west, the ecoregion is on the southern Changtang plateau, a part of the greater Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. This area is a high basin between the even higher Kunlun Mountains to the north and the Himalayas to the south. The plateau tilts gently down towards the southeast, with elevations of 6,000 meters on the Changtang in the northwest to 3,200 meters at Qingai Lake in Qinghai Province. The terrain is generally rolling plains. At wide intervals are shallow, brackish lakes.