Xiahe County (Chinese: 夏河县; Tibetan: བསང་ཆུ་རྫོང་།) is a county in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu province, China, bordering Qinghai province to the west. The name (both Chinese and Tibetan), which literally means "Xia River", refers to the Daxia River which runs through the county. It is home to the famed Labrang Tibetan Buddhist monastery, one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist monasteries outside the Tibet Autonomous Region. The town is populated largely by ethnic Tibetans, as well as some Hui and Han Chinese. The area is highly rural and pastoral (including yak and other animal rearing). The geography is mountainous. In recent years it has become a tourist attraction. The county was named Xiahe in 1928, after the Daxia River that flows through its territory.

Xiahe County
夏河县 · བསང་ཆུ་རྫོང་།
Sangqu
Labrang Monastery
Xiahe County (red) within Gannan Prefecture (yellow) and Gansu
Xiahe County (red) within Gannan Prefecture (yellow) and Gansu
Xiahe is located in Gansu
Xiahe
Xiahe
Xiahe is located in China
Xiahe
Xiahe
Coordinates (Xiahe County government): 35°12′00″N 102°31′03″E / 35.20000°N 102.51750°E / 35.20000; 102.51750
CountryChina
ProvinceGansu
Autonomous prefectureGannan
County seatLabrang
Area
 • Total6,274 km2 (2,422 sq mi)
Population
 (2020)[1]
 • Total86,355
 • Density14/km2 (36/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+8 (China Standard)
Postal code
747100
Websitewww.xiahe.gov.cn
Xiahe County
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese夏河县
Traditional Chinese夏河縣
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinXiàhé Xiàn
Tibetan name
Tibetanབསང་ཆུ་རྫོང་།
Transcriptions
Wyliebsang chu rdzong
Tibetan PinyinSangchu Zong
Xiahe school (note the mottos in English, Chinese, and Tibetan)
Near Sangkog, Gansu Province

History

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Xiahe (Sangqu) used to be part of Qinghai when it was under the control of Chinese Muslim General Ma Qi.[2] It was the site of bloody battles between Muslim and Tibetan forces.[3][4][5]

In 1980, Xiahe mandible, a hominin fossil jaw, was discovered in Baishiya Karst Cave, Xiahe County.

Location

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Xiahe (Sangqu) is found in the southern portion of Gansu province, along the western border with Qinghai province. It lies along the Daxia and Zhao rivers. It is on the northeast edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The average elevation is 2,900 to 3,100 m (9,500 to 10,200 ft) with the highest being 4,636 m (15,210 ft) and the lowest 2,160 m (7,087 ft).

Climate

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Xiahe County has an alpine subarctic climate (Köppen Dwc) that grades into an alpine climate (ETH) at the highest elevations. The climate is characterised by mild, rainy summers and frigid, but dry and sunny, winters.

Climate data for Xiahe, elevation 2,948 m (9,672 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1981–2010)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 16.0
(60.8)
18.8
(65.8)
23.8
(74.8)
29.1
(84.4)
26.4
(79.5)
28.2
(82.8)
30.7
(87.3)
29.2
(84.6)
28.6
(83.5)
23.8
(74.8)
18.4
(65.1)
14.5
(58.1)
30.7
(87.3)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 2.2
(36.0)
4.8
(40.6)
8.6
(47.5)
13.1
(55.6)
15.9
(60.6)
18.7
(65.7)
20.9
(69.6)
20.6
(69.1)
16.7
(62.1)
12.0
(53.6)
7.9
(46.2)
3.8
(38.8)
12.1
(53.8)
Daily mean °C (°F) −8.0
(17.6)
−4.9
(23.2)
−0.3
(31.5)
4.7
(40.5)
8.5
(47.3)
11.9
(53.4)
13.9
(57.0)
13.3
(55.9)
9.5
(49.1)
4.0
(39.2)
−1.8
(28.8)
−6.7
(19.9)
3.7
(38.6)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) −15.2
(4.6)
−11.9
(10.6)
−6.6
(20.1)
−1.6
(29.1)
2.7
(36.9)
6.4
(43.5)
8.5
(47.3)
8.1
(46.6)
4.8
(40.6)
−1.0
(30.2)
−8.1
(17.4)
−13.8
(7.2)
−2.3
(27.8)
Record low °C (°F) −24.8
(−12.6)
−22.9
(−9.2)
−19.9
(−3.8)
−11.8
(10.8)
−9.4
(15.1)
−1.4
(29.5)
1.3
(34.3)
−0.4
(31.3)
−5.5
(22.1)
−12.4
(9.7)
−19.0
(−2.2)
−26.0
(−14.8)
−26.0
(−14.8)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 2.9
(0.11)
4.2
(0.17)
11.1
(0.44)
26.1
(1.03)
60.7
(2.39)
65.3
(2.57)
96.4
(3.80)
81.5
(3.21)
72.4
(2.85)
31.6
(1.24)
4.3
(0.17)
1.3
(0.05)
457.8
(18.03)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) 3.6 4.8 7.9 10.2 15.5 17.5 17.2 15.7 16.3 11.6 3.3 2.0 125.6
Average snowy days 5.7 7.2 11.2 9.7 3.5 0.4 0.1 0.1 0.7 6.5 5.5 3.8 54.4
Average relative humidity (%) 45 47 51 55 61 67 71 73 74 68 53 44 59
Mean monthly sunshine hours 192.5 187.4 215.2 218.1 208.2 189.7 207.4 203.2 164.7 184.8 196.1 194.8 2,362.1
Percent possible sunshine 61 60 58 55 48 44 47 49 45 54 64 64 54
Source: China Meteorological Administration[6][7]

Administrative divisions

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Xiahe County is divided to 8 towns and 5 townships.[8]

Name Simplified Chinese Hanyu Pinyin Tibetan Wylie Administrative division code
Towns
Labrang Town
(Lazhang, Labuleng)
拉卜楞镇 Lābǔléng Zhèn བླ་བྲང་གྲོང་རྡལ། bla brang grong rdal 623027100
Panggurtang Town
(Wangge'ertang)
王格尔塘镇 Wánggé'ěrtáng Zhèn བང་གུར་ཐང་གྲོང་རྡལ། bang gur thang grong rdal 623027101
Amqog Town
(Amuquhu)
阿木去乎镇 Āmùqùhū Zhèn ཨ་མཆོག་གྲོང་རྡལ། a mchog grong rdal 623027102
Sangkog Town
(Sangke)
桑科镇 Sāngkē Zhèn བསང་ཁོག་གྲོང་རྡལ། bsang khog grong rdal 623027103
Gain'gya Town
(Ganjia)
甘加镇 Gānjiā Zhèn རྒན་གྱ་གྲོང་རྡལ། rgan gya grong rdal 623027104
Martang Town
(Madang)
麻当镇 Mádāng Zhèn མར་ཐང་གྲོང་རྡལ། mar thang grong rdal 623027105
Bora Town
(Bola)
博拉镇 Bólā Zhèn འབོ་ར་གྲོང་རྡལ། 'bo ra grong rdal 623027106
Kocê Town
(Kecai)
科才镇 Kēcái Zhèn ཁོ་ཚེ་གྲོང་རྡལ། kho tshe grong rdal 623027107
Townships
Damê Township
(Damai)
达麦乡 Dámài Xiāng མདའ་མེད་ཤང་། mda' med shang 623027202
Qu'ngoin Township
(Qu'ao)
曲奥乡 Qū'ào Xiāng ཆུ་སྔོན་ཤང་། chu sngon shang 623027204
Tanggarnang Township
(Tangga'ang)
唐尕昂乡 Tánggǎ'áng Xiāng ཐང་དཀར་ནང་ཤང་། thang dkar nang shang 623027205
Jayü Township
(Zhayou)
扎油乡 Zhāyóu Xiāng ཅ་ཡུས་ཤང་། ca yus shang 623027206
Gyicang Township
(Jicang)
吉仓乡 Jícāng Xiāng སྐྱིས་ཚང་ཤང་། skyis tshang shang 623027208

References

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  1. ^ "甘南州第七次全国人口普查公报" (in Chinese). Government of Gannan Prefecture. 27 May 2021.
  2. ^ Frederick Roelker Wulsin, Joseph Fletcher, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, National Geographic Society (U.S.), Peabody Museum of Salem (1979). Mary Ellen Alonso (ed.). China's inner Asian frontier: photographs of the Wulsin expedition to northwest China in 1923 : from the archives of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, and the National Geographic Society (illustrated ed.). The Museum : distributed by Harvard University Press. p. 49. ISBN 0-674-11968-1. Archived from the original on 4 February 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2010.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Dean King (2010). Unbound: A True Story of War, Love, and Survival (illustrated ed.). Hachette Digital, Inc. ISBN 978-0-316-16708-6. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
  4. ^ Paul Hattaway (2004). Peoples of the Buddhist world: a Christian prayer diary. William Carey Library. p. 4. ISBN 0-87808-361-8. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  5. ^ Gary Geddes (2008). Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things: An Impossible Journey from Kabul to Chiapas (illustrated ed.). Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. p. 175. ISBN 978-1-4027-5344-2. Archived from the original on 30 September 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  6. ^ 中国气象数据网 – WeatherBk Data (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  7. ^ 中国气象数据网 (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  8. ^ 2022年统计用区划代码和城乡划分代码:夏河县 [2022 Statistical Area Numbers and Rural-Urban Area Numbers: Xiahe County]. National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China. 2022.
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