Golmud (Geermu) is a new industrial city on a plateau in the mid-west of Qinghai province. Close to the borders of the Gobi Desert, the Kunlun Mountains and the Cai Erhan Salt Lake, the city is a dusty and desolate place. With a population of a mere 140,000 and at 3,000 meters above sea level, the city is also, surprisingly, the largest metropolis in the world, encompassing an area of nearly 49,000 square meters.

Golmud has a population of 200,000, including members of the Han, Tibetan, Mongol, Hui and other ethnic groups. It is at the juncture of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and the Qinghai-Tibet, Qinghai-Xinjiang, and Dunhuang-Golmud Highways. It has a vast area and rich mineral resources, and it is a natural tourist destination. The Salt Bridge on the Dunhuang-Golmud Highway has solid salt as its foundation and presents an interesting scene. Golmud will be developed into an important industrial city in West China.

The city's size is largely a result of two related factors: Government relocation policies and the Chadamu Basin. Not far away from town, the basin is an area rich in mineral resources that is said to contain over 50 kinds of salts, non-ferrous metals and large reserves of crude oil and natural gas. Many of the Han migrants, who live in Golmud, work out here, most concentrating on extracting oil and potassium rich products (Potash Plants).

For migratory foreigners there are very few reasons to be stopping in this city. Your main reason will probably only be that you are on transit to or from Xining, Dunhuang or Xinjiang & Tibet. The Golmud - Lhasa Highway, with some extremely beautiful scenery, is the only official land route into Tibet.