The Map of Permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (1:3,000,000) (Shude Li and Guodong Cheng, 1996) was made by the State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, LIGG, CAS (currently called the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences). It was based on first-hand information from the study of frozen soil and previous research papers and literature. By detailed study and consultation of aerial photographs, satellite images, the Permafrost Map along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway (1:600,000) (Boliang Tong, et al., 1983), Geomorphological Map of the Qilian Mountains (1:1,000,000) (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1985), Natural Landscape Map of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (1:3,000,000) (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1990), Quaternary Glacial Distribution Map of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (1:3,000,000) (Bingyuan Li and Jijun Li, 1991), Frozen Soil Remote Sensing Map of the Western Channel Project of the South-North Water Diversion in the Region of the Tongtian-Yalong Rivers (1:500,000) (Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Cryopedology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1995), and Map of Snow, Ice, Frozen Ground in China (1:4,000,000) (Yafeng Shi and Desheng Mi, 1988), with editing on 1,000,000 aerial survey topographic maps, and the 1:3,000,000 Map of Permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau was then generated. It was later digitized by Zhuotong Nan of the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The data include:

1) Digitized distribution map of frozen soil on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

2) Scanned map of frozen soil map on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

The types of frozen soil in the digitized frozen soil map include:

1. Seasonally frozen ground; seasonal frozen soil

2. Permafrost

3. Island permafrost;

4. Continuous permafrost;