town, northwestern Qinghai (Tsinghai) sheng (province), western China. It is situated in the northwestern part of the Qaidam Basin, to the southwest of Dangjin Pass, which leads from the Qaidam region into western Gansu province and to the Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang (Sinkiang, Uygur Autonomous Region of). Lenghu is one of the major centres of the oil fields developed in the Qaidam Basin during the 1960s and has its own refinery. It is also linked by a highway with the western Qaidam oil field around Mangya and by pipeline with oil fields to the northwest of Yumen. Another highway links it with Golmud in the south-central Qaidam Basin and with Xining in the east. Pop. (2003 est.) 21,000.