Shigatse

Shigatse, officially known as Xigazê[1][2] (Tibetan: གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་ ; Chinese: 日喀则; pinyin: Rìkāzé, is a prefecture-level city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, with an area of 182,000 km2 (70,271 sq mi). It is located within the historical Tsang province of Tibet.

Xigazê

日喀则市 · གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།

Shigatse
Prefecture-level city
Nickname(s): 
Gateway to Everest
Shigatse City (orange) in Tibet Autonomous Region (light-orange)
CountryPeople's Republic of China
Autonomous regionTibet
County-level divisions
  • 1 district
  • 17 counties
Municipal seatSamzhubzê District
Area
 • Total182,000 km2 (70,000 sq mi)
Population
 • Total703,292
 • Density3.9/km2 (10/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+8 (China Standard)
ISO 3166 codeCN-XZ-02
Shigatse
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese日喀则
Traditional Chinese日喀則
Hanyu PinyinRìkāzé
Tibetan name
Tibetanགཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་

Overview
Map including Shigatse (Jih-k'a-tse) (DMA, 1973)

The administrative center of the prefecture-level city is the Samzhubzê District. It is roughly equivalent to the ancient Shigatse urban center, the second-largest city in Tibet, located about 280 km (170 mi) southwest of Lhasa and home to the Tashilhunpo Monastery, traditionally the seat of the Panchen Lama.[3]

Some of the towns in the prefecture are: Gyantse (Gyantse County), Tingri (Tingri County), and Nyalam (Nyalam County).

On 11 July 2014 Shigatse Prefecture was upgraded into a prefecture-level city (the same status as Lhasa).[4]

Transport

Rail

The Lhasa–Xigazê Railway connects Xigazê Railway Station with Lhasa and further connects with Qinghai via Qinghai–Tibet Railway. It takes about 3 hours to travel between Lhasa and Shigatse by train. It is possible to get back to Lhasa within the same day by train.[5]

Air

Shigatse Peace Airport began operations on 30 October 2010 after an Airbus A319 landed safely, making it Tibet's fifth commercial airport. It is located 43 kilometres from Samzhubzê District at Jangdam Township at an elevation of 3,782 metres. The airport will be capable of supporting 230,000 passengers annually by 2020.[6]

Road

China National Highway 318 and China National Highway 219 are the main roads in and out of Shigatse.

Counties
Map # Name Simplified Chinese Hanyu Pinyin Tibetan Wylie Population (2010 Census) Area (km²) Density (/km²)
City proper
1 Samzhubzê District 桑珠孜区 Sāngzhūzī Qū བསམ་འགྲུབ་རྩེ་ཆུས། bsam 'grub rtse chus 120,374 3,654 32.94
Rural
2 Namling County 南木林县 Nánmùlín Xiàn རྣམ་གླིང་རྫོང་། rnam gling rdzong 74,930 8,113 9.23
3 Gyantse County 江孜县 Jiāngzī Xiàn རྒྱལ་རྩེ་རྫོང་། rgyal rtse rdzong 63,503 3,859 16.45
4 Tingri County 定日县 Dìngrì Xiàn དིང་རི་རྫོང་། ding ri rdzong 50,818 13,859 3.66
5 Sa'gya County 萨迦县 Sàjiā Xiàn ས་སྐྱ་རྫོང་། sa skya rdzong 47,304 7,510 6.29
6 Lhatse County 拉孜县 Lāzī Xiàn ལྷ་རྩེ་རྫོང་། lha rtse rdzong 49,286 4,505 10.94
7 Ngamring County 昂仁县 Ángrén Xiàn ངམ་རིང་རྫོང་། ngam ring rdzong 51,472 20,105 2.56
8 Xaitongmoin County 谢通门县 Xiètōngmén Xiàn བཞད་མཐོང་སྨོན་རྫོང་། bzhad mthong smon rdzong 42,280 13,960 3.02
9 Bainang County 白朗县 Báilǎng Xiàn པ་སྣམ་རྫོང་། pa snam rdzong 42,551 2,806 15.16
10 Rinbung County 仁布县 Rénbù Xiàn རིན་སྤུངས་རྫོང་། rin spungs rdzong 27,826 2,123 13.10
11 Kangmar County 康马县 Kāngmǎ Xiàn ཁང་དམར་རྫོང་། khang dmar rdzong 20,522 6,165 3.32
12 Dinggyê County 定结县 Dìngjié Xiàn གཏིང་སྐྱེས་རྫོང་། gding skyes rdzong 20,319 5,816 3.49
13 Zhongba County 仲巴县 Zhòngbā Xiàn འབྲོང་པ་རྫོང་། 'brong pa rdzong 22,147 43,594 0.50
14 Yadong County 亚东县 Yàdōng Xiàn གྲོ་མོ་རྫོང་། gro mo rdzong 12,920 4,306 3.00
15 Gyirong County 吉隆县 Jílóng Xiàn སྐྱིད་གྲོང་རྫོང་། skyid grong rdzong 14,972 9,009 1.66
16 Nyalam County 聂拉木县 Nièlāmù Xiàn གཉའ་ལམ་རྫོང་། gnya' lam rdzong 17,568 7,903 2.22
17 Saga County 萨嘎县 Sàgā Xiàn ས་དགའ་རྫོང་། sa dga' rdzong 14,036 12,411 1.13
18 Kamba County 岗巴县 Gǎngbā Xiàn གམ་པ་རྫོང་། gam pa rdzong 10,464 3,936 2.65

Climate

Shigatse has an elevation-influenced humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: Dwb).

Climate data for Shigatse
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 5.6
(42.1)		 7.9
(46.2)		 10.9
(51.6)		 15.2
(59.4)		 18.9
(66.0)		 22.2
(72.0)		 20.8
(69.4)		 19.7
(67.5)		 18.5
(65.3)		 15.1
(59.2)		 10.3
(50.5)		 6.8
(44.2)		 14.3
(57.8)
Daily mean °C (°F) −3.7
(25.3)		 −0.8
(30.6)		 2.8
(37.0)		 7.3
(45.1)		 11.0
(51.8)		 14.9
(58.8)		 14.7
(58.5)		 13.9
(57.0)		 12.1
(53.8)		 6.9
(44.4)		 1.0
(33.8)		 −2.7
(27.1)		 6.5
(43.6)
Average low °C (°F) −13.0
(8.6)		 −9.4
(15.1)		 −5.3
(22.5)		 −0.7
(30.7)		 3.2
(37.8)		 7.6
(45.7)		 8.7
(47.7)		 8.1
(46.6)		 5.7
(42.3)		 −1.2
(29.8)		 −8.3
(17.1)		 −12.2
(10.0)		 −1.4
(29.5)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 0
(0)		 0
(0)		 2
(0.1)		 3
(0.1)		 15
(0.6)		 60
(2.4)		 129
(5.1)		 146
(5.7)		 58
(2.3)		 7
(0.3)		 2
(0.1)		 0
(0)		 422
(16.7)
Source: Climate-Data.org [7]
  • Sakya Monastery
  • Mountains in Shigatse Prefecture
  • Monastery along the road from Shigatse to Mount Everest
  • Cho Oyu from Tingri
  • Photo of the Shigatse abbot taken around 1910
  • Tibetan Army about 1938 with the dzong or fort in the background- note British-style uniforms and British made rifles

See also

Shigatse Photovoltaic Power Plant

References
  1. Powers, John (2016). The Buddha party : how the People's Republic of China works to define and control Tibetan Buddhism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. Appendix B, page 16. ISBN 9780199358182. OCLC 967694121.
  2. 国家测绘局地名研究所 (1997). 中国地名录 [Gazetteer of China]. Beijing: SinoMaps Press. p. 311. ISBN 7-5031-1718-4.
  3. Mapping the Tibetan World. Yukyasu Osada, Gavin Allwright, and Atushi Kanamaru. 1st edition 200. Reprint 2004. Kotan Books, Japan, pp. 109, 113.
  4. Li, Zhe. 西藏日喀则成为中国最年轻地级市. 中国网. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  5. "Shigatse Travel" ChinaTour.net Archived 2015-08-16 at Wikiwix Accessed 2013-4-21
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-11-07. Retrieved 2010-11-01.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. "Climate: Shigatse - Climate-Data.org". Archived from the original on January 22, 2018. Retrieved January 21, 2018.

Further reading

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.