Herbs, perennial, 9-35 cm tall, sometimes caespitose; rhizomes stout, often with stolons bearing rosettes. Stems erect or ascending, simple, sparsely to moderately strigose and/or villous, eglandular. Leaves basal and cauline; cauline leaves gradually reduced upward, both surfaces strigose, sometimes sparsely to moderately minutely stipitate glandular, abaxial veins moderately to densely villous, sometimes ± thick, margin villous-ciliate, midvein abaxially ± prominent (some basal leaves abaxially ± 3-veined); basal rosette present at anthesis; basal and lower cauline leaves winged petiolate; blade spatulate to oblanceolate, 0.7-4 × 0.4-1.4 cm, base attenuate, margin entire, sometimes sinuate, apex rounded to obtuse; middle cauline leaves oblong to lanceolate, 1.8-4 × 0.2-0.8 cm, base subclasping, apex acute or obtuse. Capitula terminal, solitary, 4-5.5 cm in diam. Involucres hemispheric, 5-7 mm; phyllaries 2-seriate, equal, squarrose, oblong-linear, 7.5-9 × 1.2-2 mm, abaxially sparsely to moderately villosulous proximally, adaxially distally moderately to densely villosulous, leaflike, margin narrowly scarious, villous-ciliate, midvein inconspicuous, apex obtuse to acute, tip purplish. Ray florets 28-40, bluish purple to lavender blue, lamina 12-23 × 2.5-3 mm; disk florets orange, ca. 6 mm, limb funnelform, ca. 4.5 mm, proximally moderately hairy, lobes spreading, triangular, ca. 1.2 mm, abaxially minutely stipitate glandular. Achenes broadly obovoid, ± compressed, 2.6-3 mm, densely strigillose, margin 2-ribbed (ribs distally reddish brown), strigillose-ciliate (sometimes rib completely strigillose). Pappus 4-seriate, purplish straw-colored, bristles barbellate throughout; outermost bristles few, slender, ca. 0.5 mm; outer bristles slender, ca. 4 mm; inner bristles few, ca. 5 mm, acute; innermost bristles ca. 5.5 mm, slightly clavate. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

Aster handelii is similar to A. tongolensis but differs in the pappus structure.

● Alpine or subalpine grasslands and dry grasslands, pastures, wet meadows, mixed shrublands, clearings in Quercus forests; 3000-3500 m. SW Sichuan, NW Yunnan.