Xainza County

Xainza County, also Shantsa, Shentsa,[1] (Tibetan: ཤན་རྩ་རྫོང་, Wylie: shan rtsa rdzong ; Chinese: 申扎县; pinyin: Shēnzhā Xiàn) is a county within Nagqu of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. In 1999 the county had a population of 16,190.

Xainza County 申扎县 • ཤན་རྩ་རྫོང་།
County
Location of Xainza County within Tibet
Xainza County Location in Tibet
Coordinates: 31°01′15″N 88°48′02″E
Country	China
Region	Tibet
Prefecture-level city	Nagqu
County seat	Xainza
Area
• Total	25,546 km^2 (9,863 sq mi)
Population  (1999)
• Total	16,190
Time zone	UTC+8 (China Standard)

Geography

The capital lies at Naktsang Town or Xainza.[2] The county covers an area of 25,546 square kilometres (9,863 sq mi).[2] Until recent times the County extended all the way from the borders of Xinjiang in the north to the Brahmaputra River in the south, covering a larger area than the United Kingdom. It has since been split into two, Shentsa (Xainza) County and the new Nyima County to the east.[3]

"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 the Kunlun mountains on the Xinjiang border further north. The entire northern region forms part of the Jangtang Nature Reserve. Ten large salt fields testify to the importance of this region for the traditional trading commodity of the Jangtang Plateau."[3]

Lakes in close proximity to the main town are Geren Lake, Mujiu Lake, Anzi Lake, Guomang Lake, Cuo'e and Ziguii Lake, Wuru Lake and Siling Lake.[4] With an area of 1,865 square kilometres (720 sq mi), Siling Lake is the second largest saltwater lake in the northern Tibetan Plateau and forms part of the Siling Co National Nature Reserve (also Selincuo Reserve or Xainza Nature Reserve).[2] The 400,000 hectares (990,000 acres) reserve was established in 1993 and contains significant populations of black-necked cranes and some 120 species of birds in total.[2][5][6] Tibetan sheep, wild donkey, argali, snow leopards, bar-headed goose, etc., also inhabit the county.[2]

Climate

Xainza has an extreme subarctic climate, bordering on polar. 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.[2] 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).[2]

Climate data for Xainza County, 4670 m asl (1981–2010 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)
Average high °C (°F)	−2.1 (28.2)	−0.9 (30.4)	2.6 (36.7)	6.2 (43.2)	10.7 (51.3)	15.4 (59.7)	16.0 (60.8)	14.9 (58.8)	13.0 (55.4)	7.7 (45.9)	1.9 (35.4)	−0.8 (30.6)	7.1 (44.7)
Daily mean °C (°F)	−9.5 (14.9)	−8.2 (17.2)	−4.4 (24.1)	−0.3 (31.5)	4.3 (39.7)	9.1 (48.4)	10.4 (50.7)	9.6 (49.3)	7.3 (45.1)	1.3 (34.3)	−5.2 (22.6)	−8.4 (16.9)	0.5 (32.9)
Average low °C (°F)	−16.9 (1.6)	−15.4 (4.3)	−11.3 (11.7)	−6.9 (19.6)	−2.1 (28.2)	2.7 (36.9)	4.7 (40.5)	4.2 (39.6)	1.7 (35.1)	−5.0 (23.0)	−12.2 (10.0)	−16.1 (3.0)	−6.0 (21.1)
Record low °C (°F)	−30.9 (−23.6)	−28.5 (−19.3)	−23 (−9)	−18.8 (−1.8)	−17 (1)	−8.1 (17.4)	−7 (19)	−4 (25)	−11 (12)	−16.9 (1.6)	−23.4 (−10.1)	−30 (−22)	−30.9 (−23.6)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	2.7 (0.11)	4.2 (0.17)	3.0 (0.12)	5.6 (0.22)	24.6 (0.97)	52.8 (2.08)	95.0 (3.74)	104.7 (4.12)	55.8 (2.20)	12.8 (0.50)	2.0 (0.08)	1.4 (0.06)	364.6 (14.37)
Average precipitation days	0.3	0.6	0.9	1.8	5.5	9.4	15.8	16.1	11.0	2.9	0.9	0.6	65.8
Source: Météo Climat[7][8]

Geology

The county has been geologically well assessed in publications. Xainza contains an Ordovician to Silurian stratigraphic succession and the area is part of the Xainza-Jiali Fault Zone.[9][10] Significant Triassic clastic deposits with gypsum beds and volcanic clastics have been found between Xainza and Coqên.[11] Early Devonian (Pragian-Emsian) rocks in Xainza County are said to "yield a shallow-marine, carbonate-platform fauna of corals, brachiopods, dacryoconarids, nautiloids and conodonts."[12]

Economy

Animal husbandry is the chief source of income in the county.[2] Jiagang Hydropower Station was built in the 1990s and as of 2008 serves about 20,000 nomadic households across the county.[13][14] Gold mining in the county has reportedly affected water quality and some area of grassland.[15] An alluvial 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.[16] Other reserves include iron, lead, copper, salt, borax and phosphorus.[2] The county has a reported geothermal resources area of about 100,000 square meters and is rich in fish resources.[2]

Townships

The county contains the following towns and townships, 8 township-level divisions in total. These in turn are divided into 73 village committees.[2]

"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."[3]

• Xainza Town (ཤན་རྩ་, 申扎镇),
• Xiongmei Town (གཞུང་སྨད་, 雄梅镇)
• Mar'yo Township (མར་ཡོ་, 马跃乡)
• Mepa Township (སྨད་པ་, 买巴乡)
• Tarma Township (ཐར་མ་, 塔尔玛乡)
• Zhago Township (བཞ་སྒོ་, 下过乡)
• Khyak Township (འཁྱག་, 恰乡)
• Patra Township (པ་བཀྲ་, 巴扎乡)

References

Citations

1. Dorje (2009), pp. 396-397
2. 申扎县 (in Chinese). Hudong Encyclopedia. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
3. Dorje (2009), p. 396.
4. Maps (Map). Google Maps.
5. Zheng, Du; Zhang, Qingsong; Wu, Shaohong (2000). Mountain geoecology and sustainable development of the Tibetan Plateau. Springer. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-7923-6688-1. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
6. 安才旦 (1 January 2003). Tibet China: Travel Guide. 五洲传播出版社. p. 44. ISBN 978-7-5085-0374-5. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
7. "Chine climate normals 1981-2010" (in French). Retrieved 11 November 2019.
8. "Weather extremes for Xainza". Météo Climat. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
9. Finney, Stanley Charles; William B. N. Berry (1 May 2010). The Ordovician Earth System. Geological Society of America. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-8137-2466-9. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
10. Shen, Xianjie (December 1996). Crust-Mantle Thermal Structure and Tectonothermal Evolution of the Tibetan Plateau. VSP. p. 10. ISBN 978-90-6764-223-1. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
11. Guangzhi Tu (1986). Advances in science of China: Earth sciences. Science Press. p. 315. ISBN 978-0-471-63125-5. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
12. Oceanic Abstracts. Cambridge Scientific Abstracts. 1987. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
13. United States. Foreign Broadcast Information Service (1994). Daily report: People's Republic of China. Distributed by National Technical Information Service. p. 51. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
14. "Qinghai-Tibet Railway Enhances the Development of Tibet". Tibet Magazine. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
15. British Broadcasting Corporation. Monitoring Service (2000). Summary of world broadcasts: Asia, Pacific. British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
16. "Tibet tries its best to stay a clean land". Asia Africa Intelligence Wire. 2005-09-14. Retrieved 2012-04-07.

Sources

• Dorje, Gyurme. (2009) Footprint Tibet Handbook. 4th Edition. Bath, U.K.

External links

• Hudong Encyclopedia
• Photo of Xainza Town
• Photo of Xainza Nature Reserve
• Photo of Xainza Nature Reserve
• Photo of Japgang Power Station