Abstract: The North Qilian Orogen was a multi-cycle orogenic belt,with an obvious feature of some large to small blocks of continent crustal remnants composed of the Pre-Sinian metamorphic rocks scattered in the Early Paleozoic rock series.The main characteristics of 9 tectono-stratigraphic units were described in this paper,which demonstrated that these continent crustal remnants were parts of giant unified continent of the North China plate,rifted and drifted away during the Early Paleozoic.In the western sector of the orogen a rift system(including rift,taphrogen and submarine volcanic belt) occurred during the Cambro-Ordovician.In the central sector of the orogen some rifts developed further and opened a micro-oceanic basin.Both the Middle Qilian Block and these large or small continent crustal remnants in North Qilian were rifted from the Paleo-Alaxa Block which was southwestern marginal part of the North China plate during Early Paleozoic; in other words,these continent crustal remnants were not nappe outliers or allochthones units.The tectonic framework of North Qilian in Early Ordovician should be similar to that of the Bafin Bay and the Queen Elizabeth Islands.