According to the Second Chinese Glacier Inventory (SCGI) that were mostly compiled based on Landsat TM/ETM+images, the Qilian Mountains contained 2684 glaciers covering an area of 1597.81 70.30 km~2 and ice volume of ~84.48 km~3 from 2005 to 2010. While most glaciers are small (85.66% are smaller than 1.0 km~2), some larger ones (12.74%, with each having 1.0 and 5.0 km~2) cover 42.44% of the total glacier area. The Laohugou No.12 Glacier (20.42 km~2) located on the north slope of the Daxue Range is the only one larger than 20 km~2 in the Qilian Mountains. The average median altitude of glacier was 4972.7 m a.s.l. and gradually rose from east to west. Glaciers in the Qilian Mountains are mostly distributed in Gansu and Qinghai provinces, which have 1492 glaciers (760.96 km~2) and 1192 glaciers (836.85 km~2), respectively. In 11 watersheds, the Shule River contains most of the glaciers in either area or volume. However, the Heihe River, the second longest interior river in China, has the minimum average area of glacier. Comparison of glaciers from the SCGI and the revised glacier inventory based on topographic maps and aerial photos taken from 1956 to 1983 indicated that all the glaciers in the Qilian Mountains were receding, which is consistent with other mountains and plateaus in western China. In the past half century, the area and volume of glaciers decreased by 420.81 km~2 (-20.88%) and 21.63 km~3 (-20.26%), respectively. The glaciers which are smaller than 1.0 km~2 constituted the main body of glacier number depression and area recession. Due to shrinkage, the glaciers below 4000 m a.s.l. completely disappeared.