Guinan County, subordinate to Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province, is located in the northeastern part of Qinghai Province, between the Xizhou Mountains and the Yellow River, adjacent to Zeku County of Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the east, Tongde County of Honshu in the south, Xinghai County and Gonghe County in the west, and Guide County in the north. The resident office of the County is 254 km away from Xining, the provincial capital, and 148 km away from Chabuqia Town of Hainan State Government. The total area of the region is 6649.7 square kilometers. By the end of 2020, Guinan has a permanent population of 81,200.

At the end of the third century, the Qiang people of Guinan belonged to the Tuguhun Kingdom. Qin and Han dynasties, for burning when Qiang grazing land. On March 21, 1953, the CPC Qinghai Provincial Committee decided to set aside the pastoral areas of Gumaying, Ri 'an and Lucang and Changmu of District 3 to form the Lucang Working Committee. On July 15 of the same year, Guannan County was disorganized from Guide County, directly under the People's Government of Qinghai Province. On December 6, the Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Region (renamed the Autonomous Prefecture in 1955) was established, and Guinan was one of the five prefectures subordinate to Hainan Prefecture. As of October 2021, Guinan County has jurisdiction over 3 towns and 3 townships, and the county people's government is located in Mangqu Town.
In 2020, the regional GDP of Guinan County was 2.02 billion yuan, and the per capita GDP of the county was 24,713 yuan, an increase of 6.1% over the previous year.

In May 2019, Guinan County dropped out of the poverty-stricken county list. In December, it became a national pilot unit for the construction of rural governance system. In December 2021, Guinan County was selected as the ninth batch of demonstration units of National Ethnic unity and Progress Demonstration Zone by the State Ethnic Affairs Commission.