Shigatse

Shigatse, officially known as Xigazê (Tibetan: གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་, Wylie: gzhis ka rtse, ZYPY: xigazê; Chinese: 日喀则; pinyin: Rìkāzé),[2][3] is a prefecture-level city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Its area of jurisdiction, with an area of 182,000 km2 (70,271 sq mi), corresponds to the historical Tsang region of Tibet.

Xigazê
གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར། · 日喀则市
Shigatse
Prefecture-level city
Shigatse Dzong
Shigatse Dzong
Nickname: 
Gateway to Everest
Shigatse City (orange) in Tibet Autonomous Region (light orange)
Shigatse City (orange) in Tibet Autonomous Region (light orange)
Coordinates: 29°16′01″N 88°52′52″E
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
 (2020)
 • Total798,153
 • Density4.4/km2 (11/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+8 (China Standard)
ISO 3166 codeCN-XZ-02
GDP (Nominal)[1]2010
 - Total¥32.3 billion
$4.6 billion
 - Per Capita¥49,440
$5,860
 - GrowthIncrease 8.1%
Shigatse
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese日喀则
Traditional Chinese日喀則
Hanyu PinyinRìkāzé
Tibetan name
Tibetanགཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་
CITS Shigatse Individual Travel Sign

Overview

The administrative center of the prefecture-level city is the Samzhubzê District. It is roughly equivalent to the historical 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.[4]

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).[5]

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

Transport

Rail

The Lhasa–Xigazê Railway connects Xigazê Railway Station with Lhasa and further connects with Qinghai via Qinghai–Tibet Railway. It takes about three hours to travel between Lhasa and Shigatse by train. It is possible to get back to Lhasa within the same day by train.[6]

Air

Rikaze 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.[7]

Rikaze Dingri Airport opened in December 2022.[8]

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
Samzhubzê District 桑珠孜区 Sāngzhūzī Qū བསམ་འགྲུབ་རྩེ་ཆུས། bsam 'grub rtse chus 120,374 3,654 32.94
Rural
Namling County 南木林县 Nánmùlín Xiàn རྣམ་གླིང་རྫོང་། rnam gling rdzong 74,930 8,113 9.23
Gyantse County 江孜县 Jiāngzī Xiàn རྒྱལ་རྩེ་རྫོང་། rgyal rtse rdzong 63,503 3,859 16.45
Tingri County 定日县 Dìngrì Xiàn དིང་རི་རྫོང་། ding ri rdzong 50,818 13,859 3.66
Sa'gya County 萨迦县 Sàjiā Xiàn ས་སྐྱ་རྫོང་། sa skya rdzong 47,304 7,510 6.29
Lhatse County 拉孜县 Lāzī Xiàn ལྷ་རྩེ་རྫོང་། lha rtse rdzong 49,286 4,505 10.94
Ngamring County 昂仁县 Ángrén Xiàn ངམ་རིང་རྫོང་། ngam ring rdzong 51,472 20,105 2.56
Xaitongmoin County 谢通门县 Xiètōngmén Xiàn བཞད་མཐོང་སྨོན་རྫོང་། bzhad mthong smon rdzong 42,280 13,960 3.02
Bainang County 白朗县 Báilǎng Xiàn པ་སྣམ་རྫོང་། pa snam rdzong 42,551 2,806 15.16
Rinbung County 仁布县 Rénbù Xiàn རིན་སྤུངས་རྫོང་། rin spungs rdzong 27,826 2,123 13.10
Kangmar County 康马县 Kāngmǎ Xiàn ཁང་དམར་རྫོང་། khang dmar rdzong 20,522 6,165 3.32
Dinggyê County 定结县 Dìngjié Xiàn གཏིང་སྐྱེས་རྫོང་། gding skyes rdzong 20,319 5,816 3.49
Zhongba County 仲巴县 Zhòngbā Xiàn འབྲོང་པ་རྫོང་། 'brong pa rdzong 22,147 43,594 0.50
Yadong County 亚东县 Yàdōng Xiàn གྲོ་མོ་རྫོང་། gro mo rdzong 12,920 4,306 3.00
Gyirong County 吉隆县 Jílóng Xiàn སྐྱིད་གྲོང་རྫོང་། skyid grong rdzong 14,972 9,009 1.66
Nyalam County 聂拉木县 Nièlāmù Xiàn གཉའ་ལམ་རྫོང་། gnya' lam rdzong 17,568 7,903 2.22
Saga County 萨嘎县 Sàgā Xiàn ས་དགའ་རྫོང་། sa dga' rdzong 14,036 12,411 1.13
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 (1991–2020 normals)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 7.0
(44.6)		 9.0
(48.2)		 12.5
(54.5)		 16.0
(60.8)		 19.9
(67.8)		 22.9
(73.2)		 21.8
(71.2)		 21.0
(69.8)		 20.0
(68.0)		 16.7
(62.1)		 11.9
(53.4)		 8.4
(47.1)		 15.6
(60.1)
Daily mean °C (°F) −2.6
(27.3)		 0.5
(32.9)		 4.6
(40.3)		 8.1
(46.6)		 12.0
(53.6)		 15.3
(59.5)		 14.9
(58.8)		 14.1
(57.4)		 12.6
(54.7)		 7.4
(45.3)		 1.2
(34.2)		 −2.5
(27.5)		 7.1
(44.8)
Average low °C (°F) −12.2
(10.0)		 −8.9
(16.0)		 −4.0
(24.8)		 0.4
(32.7)		 4.5
(40.1)		 8.6
(47.5)		 9.8
(49.6)		 9.2
(48.6)		 6.8
(44.2)		 −0.8
(30.6)		 −8.0
(17.6)		 −11.9
(10.6)		 −0.5
(31.0)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 0.1
(0.00)		 0.4
(0.02)		 0.6
(0.02)		 5.2
(0.20)		 20.7
(0.81)		 66.0
(2.60)		 149.8
(5.90)		 145.2
(5.72)		 52.0
(2.05)		 3.7
(0.15)		 0.5
(0.02)		 0.5
(0.02)		 444.7
(17.51)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) 0.3 0.4 0.8 2.6 6.1 12.6 20.2 20.7 12.5 1.8 0.3 0.1 78.4
Average snowy days 0.6 1.2 1.7 4.3 1.6 0.1 0 0 0 0.6 0.6 0.4 11.1
Average relative humidity (%) 28 25 25 32 40 50 64 68 61 44 34 33 42
Mean monthly sunshine hours 260.4 244.0 280.0 278.5 301.8 278.6 227.4 222.5 247.5 286.3 276.5 267.8 3,171.3
Percent possible sunshine 80 77 75 72 71 67 54 55 68 82 87 84 73
Source: China Meteorological Administration[9][10]

See also

References
  1. "日喀则市2019年国民经济和社会发展统计公报" (in Chinese). 12 March 2021. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Mapping the Tibetan World. Yukyasu Osada, Gavin Allwright, and Atushi Kanamaru. 1st edition 200. Reprint 2004. Kotan Books, Japan, pp. 109, 113.
  5. 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.
  6. "Shigatse Travel" ChinaTour.net Archived 16 August 2015 at Wikiwix Accessed 21 April 2013
  7. "Tibet's Xigaze Airport begins operations - People's Daily Online". Archived from the original on 7 November 2010. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
  8. "公司动态：公司重点保障项目——日喀则定日机场顺利通过行业验收". weixin.qq.com. 中航质. 12 December 2022. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  9. 中国气象数据网 – WeatherBk Data (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  10. 中国气象数据网 (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 27 September 2023.

Further reading
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