The Achnatherum splendens community is an important vegetation type of warm steppes along the Qinghai-Tibet railway. It plays a very important role in environmental protection in this area. The characteristics of A. splendens community near Haiyan County, such as spatial distribution pattern, species richness and biomass, were examined in this paper. The results show that A. splendens community in the study region is composed of two types of patches, i.e. A. splendens patch and Stipa patch. The number and size of the two types of patches showed certain an interesting distributional pattern. Along the gradient away from the railway, the total size of A. splendens patch showed a decreasing trend and species richness showed an increasing trend. Coverage of A. splendens patches was higher obviously than that of Stipa patches. The number and size of patches may reflect the degradation of A. splendens community. Human activities can speed up the degradation process of A. splendens community. Based on the characteristics and present status of A. splendens community, we suggest that some measures be taken to control human activities for A. splendens community conservation in the study area.