Abstract: Glaciers in western China are one of the key elements driving changes of water resources because glacierized regions form the formation areas of many large river systems in the region. Influenced by global/regional warming changes in climate, many glaciers have been retreating. In contrast with the intensive warming and glacier shrinkage both in global and in High Asia during recent 30 years, however, two peculiar phenomena have occurred in the Tibetan Plateau: 1) the temperature dropping about 0.6℃ in the northern Tibetan Plateau with very small glacier decrease rate and melt water reduction, and 2) considerable number of glaciers has been advancing in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau with the increase of high precipitation. These facts indicate the complexity of climate change and glacier dynamic response to it. Furthermore, remote sensing technique is imperatively required in monitoring glacier changes in more regions to derive regional characteristics of these changes.

Key words: global warming, the northern Tibetan Plateau, temperature dropping, glacier shrinking, the southeastern Tibetan Plateau, glacier advancing