Northwest China is located deep inside China, and is bounded by the Great Xing'an Mountains to the west, Kunlun Mountains - Altun Mountains - the Qilian Mountains and The Great Wall to the north. It consists of Xinjiang , Ningxia Autonomous Regions, Qinghai , Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.

This region borders with Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and other neighboring countries of Northwest China. This area is sparsely populated. While the area makes up about 30 percent of the whole country in size, its population is only about 7% of the total in China. Northwest China region is inhabited by many minority ethnic groups (about 1/3 of the area's population), including the Mongol, Hui, Uygur, Kazak ethnic minorities.