Xainza County 申扎县 •ཤན་རྩ་རྫོང་། Shantsa, Shentsa | |
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.png) Location of Xainza County within Tibet | |
  Xainza County Location in Tibet Show map of Tibet Xainza County Xainza County (China) Show map of China | |
| Coordinates:31°01′15″N88°48′02″E / 31.02083°N 88.80056°E /31.02083; 88.80056 | |
| Country | China |
| Autonomous region | Tibet |
| Prefecture-level city | Nagqu |
| County seat | Xainza (Naktsang) |
| Area | |
• Total | 25,546 km2 (9,863 sq mi) |
| Population (2020)[1] | |
• Total | 21,768 |
| • Density | 0.85/km2 (2.2/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (China Standard) |
| Website | www |
| Xainza County | |||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 申扎县 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 申扎縣 | ||||||
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| Tibetan name | |||||||
| Tibetan | ཤན་རྩ་རྫོང་། | ||||||
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Xainza County, alsoShantsa,Shentsa,[2] (Tibetan:ཤན་རྩ་རྫོང;Chinese:申扎县) is a county withinNagqu of theTibet Autonomous Region ofChina. In 1999 the county had a population of 16,190.
The capital lies atNaktsang Town orXainza.[3] The county covers an area of 25,546 square kilometres (9,863 sq mi).[3] Until recent times the County extended all the way from the borders ofXinjiang in the north to the Brahmaputra River in the south, covering a larger area than theUnited Kingdom. It has since been split into two, Shentsa (Xainza) County and the newNyima County to the east.[4]
"In this region there are 67 lakes, including some of Tibet's largest:Serling, Dangra Yutso, Ngangtse-tso, Kering-tso, Taktse-tse and Uru-tso. In the northeast there are a number of 6,000 m peaks including Purok Gangri 6,482 metres (21,266 ft) and Norla Gangri 6,136 metres (20,131 ft), not to mention theKunlun mountains on the Xinjiang border further north. The entire northern region forms part of theJangtang Nature Reserve. Ten large salt fields testify to the importance of this region for the traditional trading commodity of the Jangtang Plateau."[4]
Lakes in close proximity to the main town areGeren Lake,Mujiu Lake,Anzi Lake,Guomang Lake,Cuo'e andZiguii Lake,Wuru Lake,Siling Lake[5] andBangecuo. With an area of 1,865 square kilometres (720 sq mi), Siling Lake is the second largest saltwater lake in the northernTibetan Plateau and forms part of theSiling Co National Nature Reserve (also Selincuo Reserve or Xainza Nature Reserve).[3] The 400,000 hectares (990,000 acres) reserve was established in 1993 and contains significant populations ofblack-necked cranes and some 120 species of birds in total.[3][6][7]Tibetan sheep,wild donkey,argali,snow leopards,bar-headed goose, etc., also inhabit the county.[3]
Xainza has an extremesubarctic climate, bordering onpolar. The climate of the county is typical of a plateau climate zone, with thin, cold air and a dry climate, with 279.1 days of frost per year on average.[3]The average annual wind speed is 3.8 m/s (12.5 ft/s), the average annual temperature is 0.4 °C (32.7 °F), and the average annual precipitation is 298.6 millimetres (11.76 in).[3]
| Climate data for Xainza, elevation 4,672 m (15,328 ft), (1991–2020 normals) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 12.5 (54.5) | 11.0 (51.8) | 15.4 (59.7) | 22.9 (73.2) | 25.7 (78.3) | 31.0 (87.8) | 25.0 (77.0) | 28.0 (82.4) | 26.0 (78.8) | 21.0 (69.8) | 17.8 (64.0) | 11.5 (52.7) | 31.0 (87.8) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −2.0 (28.4) | −0.4 (31.3) | 3.0 (37.4) | 6.7 (44.1) | 11.3 (52.3) | 15.9 (60.6) | 16.4 (61.5) | 15.5 (59.9) | 13.7 (56.7) | 8.1 (46.6) | 2.8 (37.0) | −0.2 (31.6) | 7.6 (45.6) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −9.4 (15.1) | −7.6 (18.3) | −4.1 (24.6) | −0.1 (31.8) | 4.5 (40.1) | 9.0 (48.2) | 10.2 (50.4) | 9.5 (49.1) | 7.4 (45.3) | 1.1 (34.0) | −4.6 (23.7) | −7.8 (18.0) | 0.7 (33.2) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −16.3 (2.7) | −14.5 (5.9) | −10.9 (12.4) | −6.2 (20.8) | −1.5 (29.3) | 3.2 (37.8) | 5.3 (41.5) | 4.8 (40.6) | 2.3 (36.1) | −4.7 (23.5) | −11.2 (11.8) | −14.8 (5.4) | −5.4 (22.3) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −30.9 (−23.6) | −28.5 (−19.3) | −23.0 (−9.4) | −18.8 (−1.8) | −17.0 (1.4) | −8.1 (17.4) | −7.0 (19.4) | −4.0 (24.8) | −11.0 (12.2) | −16.9 (1.6) | −23.4 (−10.1) | −30.0 (−22.0) | −30.9 (−23.6) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 1.4 (0.06) | 1.2 (0.05) | 2.3 (0.09) | 6.6 (0.26) | 20.5 (0.81) | 54.2 (2.13) | 97.1 (3.82) | 102.6 (4.04) | 47.9 (1.89) | 7.9 (0.31) | 1.7 (0.07) | 1.2 (0.05) | 344.6 (13.58) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 0.1 mm) | 2.3 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 5.0 | 9.2 | 14.9 | 20.5 | 21.4 | 14.8 | 3.9 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 99.4 |
| Average snowy days | 3.9 | 4.4 | 5.6 | 8.6 | 12.7 | 5.5 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 5.2 | 5.1 | 2.5 | 2.7 | 57.8 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 31 | 29 | 30 | 37 | 44 | 52 | 61 | 64 | 59 | 41 | 34 | 29 | 43 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 223.9 | 216.9 | 255.2 | 261.6 | 282.0 | 255.6 | 227.4 | 213.9 | 242.3 | 274.1 | 248.5 | 236.1 | 2,937.5 |
| Percentagepossible sunshine | 69 | 69 | 68 | 67 | 66 | 60 | 53 | 53 | 66 | 79 | 79 | 75 | 67 |
| Source 1:China Meteorological Administration[8][9] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Météo Climat[10] | |||||||||||||
The county has been geologically well assessed in publications. Xainza contains anOrdovician toSilurianstratigraphic succession and the area is part of theXainza-Jiali Fault Zone.[11][12] SignificantTriassic clastic deposits withgypsum beds and volcanic clastics have been found between Xainza andCoqên.[13]Early Devonian (Pragian-Emsian) rocks in Xainza County are said to "yield a shallow-marine, carbonate-platform fauna ofcorals,brachiopods,dacryoconarids,nautiloids andconodonts."[14]
Animal husbandry is the chief source of income in the county.[3]Jiagang Hydropower Station was built in the 1990s and as of 2008 serves about 20,000 nomadic households across the county.[15][16] Gold mining in the county has reportedly affected water quality and some area of grassland.[17] Analluvial gold mine which generated "5 million yuan (US$617,300) of the county's 8.5-million budgetary income" was slated to be shut down in 2005.[18] Other reserves include iron, lead, copper, salt, borax and phosphorus.[3] The county has a reported geothermal resources area of about 100,000 square meters and is rich in fish resources.[3]
The county contains 2towns and 6townships.
"The county capital of Shentsa is located at Naktsang (Shentsa), 805 km from Lumaringpo in Gertse county, and 232 km from Palgon. However, due to the vastness of this region, there is a third administrative centre at Tsonyi (Twin Lakes) in the north. Naktsang (Shentsa) to Tsonyi is 442 km."[4]
| Name | Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Towns | ||||
| Xainza Town (Shantsa, Naktsang) | 申扎镇 | Shēnzhā zhèn | ཤན་རྩ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | shan rtsa grong rdal |
| Xungmai Town | 雄梅镇 | Xióngméi zhèn | གཞུང་སྨད་གྲོང་རྡལ། | gzhung smad grong rdal |
| Townships | ||||
| Zhago Township | 下过乡 | Xiàguò xiāng | བཞ་སྒོ་ཤང་། | bzha sgor shang |
| Khyak Township | 卡乡 | Kǎ xiāng | འཁྱག་ཤང་། | 'khyag shang |
| Patra Township | 巴扎乡 | Bāzhā xiāng | པ་བཀྲ་ཤང་། | pa bkra shang |
| Tarma Township | 塔尔玛乡 | Tǎ'ěrmǎ xiāng | ཐར་མ་ཤང་། | thar ma shang |
| Mepa Township | 买巴乡 | Mǎibā xiāng | སྨད་པ་ཤང་། | smad pa shang |
| Mar'yo Township | 马跃乡 | Mǎyuè xiāng | མར་ཡོ་ཤང་། | mar yo shang |
