The Xining Basin on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau holds the longest continuous Cenozoic stratigraphic record in China. The sequence record contains considerable information on the history of Tibetan uplift and associated climatic change. In particular, high resolution n-alkane biomarker proxy and pollen records have been obtained from the Paleogene sediments of the Xiejia section of the basin. A combination of the n-alkane and palynological records reveals that the paleoclimate in the Xining Basin experienced a long-term cooling trend from 50.2 to 28.2 Ma with a distinctive ecological event spanning 37.5 to 32.7 Ma. Since this ecological event, a vertical zonation of vegetation from lowland arid grasses, to middle-elevation subtropical broad-leaf plants, to high-elevation coniferous trees was established. We interpret that these changes in climate and vegetation were probably responses to a combination of long term global cooling since the Eocene climatic optimum and uplift of the surrounding mountains on the northern Tibetan Plateau in the early Cenozoic.