The astronomical theory of climate has provided a very powerful means for developing accurate time scales. Using orbital tuning methods, a millennial-resolution time scale of the Dacan-1 core is established for the past 2.85 Ma for a 3200-meter-long logging curve of lake sediments in the Qaidam Basin, Western China. By analyzing multi-dimensional spectra and a singular spectrum of the logging curve and other climate records from deep-sea deposits (the delta (super 18) O curve of ODP Site 677, ODP Site 659, ODP Site 758 and the ice volume simulated curve) and Chinese loess deposits (grain size of the Baoji loess-soil sequence), a significant difference in periodic features is found between the Qaidam record and the deep-sea record and the loess deposits. The climate change reflected in the time-domain spectrum of the Qaidam record lagged that found in the deep-sea and loess deposits by 3-4 ka. Furthermore, frequency-domain analyses and a combination of singular spectrum analyses illustrate that the signal of the processional domain in the Qaidam record is stronger than that in other deep-sea and loess records. This suggests that long-term climate change in the basin has been strongly influenced by variations in processional-scale orbital insolation, as previously discovered in the low-latitude climatic regime. Deep-sea records and loess records have been strongly influenced by obliquity cycle changes. It is pointed that the processional cycles in the logging curve over the past 2.85 Ma are quite different from those in deep-sea and loess deposits.