The relief of the expedition area in NW-Sichuan and SE-Qinghai can simply be separated into two main areas: the catchment area of the Yangtze with deeply incised rivers in narrow V-shaped valleys up to about 3,000 m and the plateau area with old peneplains in the Huang He catchment with meandering rivers up to more than 4,000 m. Precipitation and temperature decrease towards the NW. All zonal boundaries, eg the vegetation boundaries or the snowline, are ascending in elevation towards the interior of the plateau. The natural vegetation, especially the forests, are modified by anthropo-zoogenic influences. Within the zone of alpine meadows and the uppermost region of natural forest as well as in the Red Basin evidence of pasture and agriculture goes back by at least 2,000 years. During the last 20 years within the transition zone of the deeply incised valleys towards the plateau one third of the forests have been cut down.

The main investigation area of Nianbaoyeze is built up by a granite-dome being about 500 to 800 m higher than the surrounding peneplains. The extent of Pleistocene glaciations can be mapped by the distribution of terminal and lateral moraines and erratic granite boulders on the slopes of the surrounding schists. The altitude of terminal moraines indicates a snowline of the last glaciation at about 4,300 m, which is about 800 m below the present snowline. Three main Pleistocene glaciations can be separated due to palaeosols, the overlying stratum being either aeolian sandy silt or solifluction debris. The ice free areas shows several Pleistocene terraces and in addition loess deposits with palaeosols in the deeper basins. In summary there is a rising of the snowline of the last glaciation at the E margin of the Tibetan Plateau from about 4,000 m in the E (Minshan) to 4,300 m at Nianbaoyeze and to about 4,700 m in the W (Bayan Har Shan). The hypothesis of an extensive plateau glaciation could not be verified for this region.