Shiquanhe 狮泉河镇 ·སེང་གེ་ཁ་འབབ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | |
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| Sênggêzangbo | |
 The main square in Shiquanhe | |
  Shiquanhe Location of Shiquanhe in Tibet Autonomous Region Show map of Tibet Shiquanhe Location of Shiquanhe in Ngari Prefecture Show map of Ngari Shiquanhe Location of Shiquanhe in China Show map of China | |
| Coordinates (Shiquanhe town government):32°29′35″N80°06′06″E / 32.4930°N 80.1017°E /32.4930; 80.1017 | |
| Country | People's Republic of China |
| Region | Tibet Autonomous Region |
| Prefecture | Ngari |
| County | Gar |
| Elevation | 4,255 m (13,960 ft) |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (CST) |
| Postal code | 859000 |
| Shiquanhe | |||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 狮泉河 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 獅泉河 | ||||||
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| Tibetan name | |||||||
| Tibetan | སེང་གེ་ཁ་འབབ་གྲོང་རྡལ།་ | ||||||
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Shiquanhe (Chinese:狮泉河镇;lit. 'Lion Spring River Town'), known in Tibetan asSênggêkanbab (Tibetan:སེང་གེ་ཁ་འབབ་,Wylie:seng ge kha 'bab,THL:seng gé kha bap) orSênggêzangbo, is the maintown and administrative seat ofNgari Prefecture,[1]Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Shiquanhe is located on the bank ofSênggê Zangbo, thesource stream of theIndus River, close to its confluence with theGartang River.
This modern Chinese-built town is named after theSengge Zangbo river, the main headwater of theIndus River, on whose banks it is located. It is called "Sengge Zangbo" or "Sengge Khabab" in Tibetan and "Shiquanhe" in Chinese.[a]
Being the headquarters ofNgari Prefecture (which is known in Chinese under the Sinicized form of its name, Ali Prefecture), the town is also commonly known in English asNgari orAli (Chinese:阿里; pinyin:Ālǐ) Town; this is what many guidebooks use as the primary name for the town.[2]In Tibetan, Ngari is only the name for the prefecture, and not the town.
Being the county seat of theGar County, it is also referred to asGar (simplified Chinese:噶尔;traditional Chinese:噶爾;pinyin:Ga'er). it may be labeled that way on maps.[3]
When the Ngari Prefecture was established by thePeople's Republic of China in 1959, its capital was atGünsa (or Gar Gunsa), at the settlement calledGar Chongsar (སྒར་གྲོང་གསར), which is now the location of theNgari Gunsa Airport.
In 1965, the capital was moved from Günsa to the newly built Shiquanhe town in 1965, due to the extremely difficult living conditions at the former. At that time, Shiquanhe had a population of 400 people.[1]
Shiquanhe is a modern Chinese-style town, situated at the confluence of the Sengge River and the Longchu River.[4] According to a government-affiliated source, the population of Shiquanhe had grown from just over 1,500 to over 20,000 in 30 years (1978–2008), and people there now "enjoy their life because the city has been equipped with culture and commerce facilities".[5] Western guidebook writers have referred to the place as a "concrete monstrosity of a town".[2]
Shiquanhe has a lion statue in the middle of the town.[2] It has high-rise buildings, restaurants, general stores and nightclubs.[4] There are several primary schools and a secondary school.[1]It also has two banks, one of which, theAgricultural Bank of China, near the army post west of the roundabout, has foreign exchange facilities. There is also a post and telecom office.[2]
Even though Shiquanhe is a modern town, its location has been of significant importance in history. Not only is it situated in a wide valley of Sengge Zangbo with an abundance of cultivable land, it also lies along a trade route betweenGar Gunsa andRudok, which continues on toLadakh in the west via thePangong Lake, and, in the other direction, toLhasa via theMayum La pass. The region was historically known asRala (Chinese:热拉). (See Strachey's map.)
During the TibetanEra of Fragmentation in the 10th century,Kyide Nyimagon, a descendant of emperorLangdarma, came to Ngari in the midst of chaos in Central Tibet and started a new kingdom in Rala. He is said to have started by building aKharmar (reddish fort) in the region, also calledRalajong.[6][b] Later he expanded into theSutlej Valley andBurang by marrying a princess of Burang.[8] This kingdom came to be known asGuge-Purang.
By the 17th century, Ladakh annexed the entire kingdom of Guge and invited retaliation from Central Tibet under the5th Dalai Lama. The large of army ofGaldan Chhewang, Tibet's general, encamped in the Gar Valley.[9] The first clash with the Ladakhi forces took place near the confluence of theGartang and Sengge Zangbo, with the locations Langmar and Rala mentioned in the sources.[10] The Ladakhis were defeated and Galdan Chhewang pursued them to Ladakh, leading to theTibet–Ladakh–Mughal War and theTreaty of Tingmosgang.
Ngari Gunsa Airport, near the town of Shiquanhe, started operations on 1 July 2010, becoming the fourth civil airport in Tibet.[11]Air China operates two flights a week fromChengdu to Ngari Gunsa viaLhasa, on Tuesdays and Fridays.[12]
Shiquanhe has a colddesert climate (Köppen climate classification:BWk) with short, very mild summers and very cold, dry winters.
| Climate data for Shiquanhe, elevation 4,279 m (14,039 ft), (1991–2020 normals) | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 6.4 (43.5) | 9.5 (49.1) | 14.5 (58.1) | 15.7 (60.3) | 20.5 (68.9) | 25.2 (77.4) | 32.1 (89.8) | 26.4 (79.5) | 23.7 (74.7) | 16.7 (62.1) | 12.7 (54.9) | 7.1 (44.8) | 32.1 (89.8) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −4.0 (24.8) | −1.8 (28.8) | 2.7 (36.9) | 8.1 (46.6) | 13.0 (55.4) | 18.5 (65.3) | 22.0 (71.6) | 20.8 (69.4) | 16.8 (62.2) | 8.8 (47.8) | 3.6 (38.5) | −0.6 (30.9) | 9.0 (48.2) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −11.7 (10.9) | −9.0 (15.8) | −4.4 (24.1) | 0.9 (33.6) | 5.7 (42.3) | 11.3 (52.3) | 15.0 (59.0) | 14.2 (57.6) | 9.9 (49.8) | 1.3 (34.3) | −4.7 (23.5) | −9.0 (15.8) | 1.6 (34.9) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −19.3 (−2.7) | −16.6 (2.1) | −12.3 (9.9) | −7.0 (19.4) | −2.0 (28.4) | 4.1 (39.4) | 8.5 (47.3) | 8.1 (46.6) | 2.8 (37.0) | −7.0 (19.4) | −13.0 (8.6) | −17.1 (1.2) | −5.9 (21.4) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −36.7 (−34.1) | −30.2 (−22.4) | −25.3 (−13.5) | −17.9 (−0.2) | −11.2 (11.8) | −6.6 (20.1) | −0.6 (30.9) | −0.4 (31.3) | −10.0 (14.0) | −17.0 (1.4) | −23.5 (−10.3) | −32.9 (−27.2) | −36.7 (−34.1) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 1.6 (0.06) | 1.7 (0.07) | 1.1 (0.04) | 1.3 (0.05) | 2.9 (0.11) | 5.8 (0.23) | 22.9 (0.90) | 25.3 (1.00) | 5.5 (0.22) | 1.7 (0.07) | 0.2 (0.01) | 0.6 (0.02) | 70.6 (2.78) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 0.1 mm) | 1.8 | 2.0 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 2.0 | 2.8 | 7.0 | 8.7 | 3.1 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 31.3 |
| Average snowy days | 3.9 | 4.3 | 3.6 | 3.5 | 4.8 | 2.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 1.6 | 27.6 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 34 | 33 | 29 | 27 | 28 | 30 | 37 | 42 | 34 | 24 | 24 | 26 | 31 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 250.1 | 241.3 | 299.1 | 304.9 | 332.8 | 333.6 | 309.9 | 289.9 | 299.7 | 311.1 | 274.7 | 262.6 | 3,509.7 |
| Percentagepossible sunshine | 78 | 77 | 80 | 78 | 77 | 78 | 72 | 71 | 82 | 90 | 88 | 85 | 80 |
| Source:China Meteorological Administration[13][14][15] all-time extreme temperature[16] | |||||||||||||
China, Japan, and South Korea are currently in talks to construct a large high-altitude observatory on a ridge 25 km (16 mi) south of Shiquanhe, which was selected after a series of site surveys through Tibet and western China for candidate sites. Atmospheric conditions from the site's elevation 5,050 m (16,570 ft) above sea level have been roughly characterized, initial facilities (including two small domes) have been built, and a 25 cm pathfinder telescope project is in place as of 2012, with 50 and 60 cm telescopes planned for 2013 and 2014 and a 3 m telescope in the indefinite future: but the ambitions for the site include the possibilities of megaprojects like a 30 m-class competitor to E-ELT and a 10–20 m class spectrometer as a sequel toLAMOST.[17][unreliable source?][18]
Also planned for the site[19] is the Ali CMB Polarization Telescope (AliCPT) for studying the polarization of thecosmic microwave background(CMB).[20] This location is, during winter, as high and dry (and thus good for observations as) the South Pole location of the similarBICEP and Keck Array telescopes,[19] with the tremendous logistical advantage of being 30 minutes' drive from the airport and city.[20]: 7
Construction has begun on the telescope, codenamed Ngari No.1, and it is expected to enter operations in 2023.[21]It is subsequently officially named AliCPT-1.
AliCPT-1 will be deployed in the middle latitude of the Northern Hemisphere, on the site of Ngari(Ali) Prefecture of Tibet, on a high peak of the Gangdise mountain, 32°18'38"N, 80°01'50"E at 5,250 m (17,220 ft) above sea level (B1 site), Fig. 7. The B1 site is located 20 km away from theNgari Gunsa Airport, with convenient transportation. The closest city, Shiquanhe located at 4,255 m (13,960 ft) above sea level, is only 30 km away from the B1 site.After several years of construction, the B1 site provides excellent conditions for carrying outCMB experiments. Infrastructure construction is complete, such as road construction, and has been connected to the city electricity power supply. AliCPT-1 will be operated from a new observatory building built by the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP), 850 m2 including the operation hall and additional rooms. The site is equipped with three weather stations monitoring pressure, wind speed and direction, and temperature. Grid power, already ready for operation, is the main power source on site; solar panels, a diesel power generator, and a UPS power backup system are also in place. The site is also equipped with high-speed wired data service, full environmental heater/air conditioner units, and all the facilities needed to assemble and operate the receiver, including a crane and a workshop in a high-bay room. For human safety, an on-site oxygen system is present.[22]
Construction has started for the first telescope, code-named Ngari No.1, 30 km south of Shiquanhe Town in Ngari Prefecture, said Yao Yongqiang, chief researcher with the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The telescope, located 5,250 meters above sea level, will detect and gather precise data on primordial gravitational waves in the Northern Hemisphere. It is expected to be operational by 2023.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)| County-level divisions |  | |
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