The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With 8,472 square miles (21,940 km2) and a population of more than 2.2 million people, it is the second-largest metropolitan area centered in Missouri (after Greater St. Louis) and is the largest metropolitan area in Kansas, though Wichita is the largest metropolitan area centered in Kansas. Alongside Kansas City, Missouri, these are the suburbs with populations above 100,000: Overland Park, Kansas; Kansas City, Kansas; Olathe, Kansas; Independence, Missouri; and Lee's Summit, Missouri.
Tongde County is located in the southeast of Qinghai Province, at the junction of Hainan, Huangnan and Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, and belongs to the people's Government of Hainan Prefecture. The Xijiu Highway, the provincial highway, runs through the whole territory from north to south, and the Yellow River surrounds the county in a half-ring from east to west. The county seat is located 3060 meters above sea level, 256km away from the state capital Chabqa town and 282km away from the provincial capital Xining, with a resident population of about 9000. The climate is typical plateau continental climate, the highest elevation in the county is 4671 meters, the lowest elevation is 2648 meters, the average elevation is 3660 meters, the average annual temperature is 0.4 ℃-0.6 ℃, the average annual precipitation is 440mm, and there is no absolute frost-free period. The county has a total area of 4758 square kilometers and has jurisdiction over 73 administrative villages in 2 towns and 3 townships. In 2009, the total population was 61000.