In the cold regions of western China, underlying surfaces are mainly (87.7%) composed of grassland, meadow and desert. However, the hydrological functions of these landtypes are unclear and lacking in adequate measured data. Based on the 4-year (2009-2012) observation work at point scale, small watershed scale and simulation results from Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere Transfer (SVAT) system, it concludes that the alpine desert should be the primary runoff production area, which takes part 12% of high-cold region. While the alpine grassland and meadow (taking about 64%) contribute to the watershed runoff a little, its ecological function is more evident than its hydrological function. Combined with other research results in the literature, runoff coefficient for different landsacpes can be sorted as: glacier>cold desert>swamp meadow>hill slope shrub>meadow>alpine grassland>forest. If the vegetation belt moves upward under the global warming, the runoff coefficient will decrease in the alpine watershed of China.