Shrub encroachment is an important ecological process that affects the nutrient cycle of alpine meadows. In order to investigate the impact of shrub encroachment on vegetation communities and soil physicochemical properties in alpine meadows along the eastern edge of the Qilian Mountains, this study focused on the shrub encroachment alpine meadow area of Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous Region in Gansu Province. The study analyzed the characteristics of the vegetation in the meadow area, excessive area under the crown grass, bush in the excessive area, excessive area under the crown grass, bush in the scrub area, as well as the physical properties of the soils at depths of 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm, and 20-30 cm. The study examined the nutrient content, stoichiometric ratios, the activities of urease, alkaline phosphatase, catalase, and sucrase activities. The results showed that the evenness index, height, cover and aboveground biomass of alpine meadow vegetation at the eastern edge of the Qilian Mountains increased significantly with the process of shrub encroachment. However, Simpson's index, Shannon-Wiener's index, and abundance index decreased. Soil water content in the 0-10 cm layer was significantly higher in the scrub area than in the meadow area. Additionally, the bulk density in the staggered area was significantly higher than that in the scrub area (P<0.05), and there was no significant change in pH. Soil nitrogen content in the 20-30 cm layer was significantly higher in the meadow area than in the staggered area, but C ∶ P soil total nitrogen content in the 20-30 cm layer was significantly higher in the meadow area than in the scrub area. Furthermore, the total phosphorus content in the 0-30 cm layer was significantly higher in the scrub area than in the meadow area (P<0.05), C ∶ P and N ∶ P were the highest in the meadow area, but the significance of soil organic matter content was not apparent. Soil N ∶ P<14 indicated that nitrogen was the main limiting factor for soil nutrients. The activities of soil urease and catalase were significantly higher in the 0-30 cm layer compared to the scrub area (P<0.05). There was no significant in pH. Soil water content was significantly higher in the 20-30 cm layer compared to the scrub area. Higher than that in the scrub area (P<0.05), there were no significant changes in alkaline phosphatase and sucrase. Axes I and II in the redundancy analysis explained 47.27% and 7.62% of the total variation, respectively, while vegetation characteristics cumulatively explained 54.88% of the variation in soil physical and chemical properties. The best fit between soil catalase and vegetation characteristics (Pr=0.010) indicated that soil catalase was most influenced by vegetation characteristics during the process of alpine meadows scrub fertilization. Soil organic matter, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus content were highly significantly and negatively correlated with vegetation diversity. It can be seen that the shrub encroachment of alpine meadows significantly affects the structure of vegetation communities and soil physicochemical characteristics, and the influence of shrub encroachment should be paid attention to in the ecological protection and management of Qilian Mountains.