Sênggêzangbo Town Shiquanhe Town, Seat of Gar |
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Tibetan transcription(s) | |
• Tibetan | སེང་གེ་ཁ་འབབ་ |
• Wylie transliteration | Seng-ge-gTsang-po Kha-'bab |
Chinese transcription(s) | |
• Traditional | |
• Simplified | 阿里 |
• Pinyin | Ālǐ |
Sênggêzangbo Town
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Coordinates: | |
Country | China |
Province | Tibet Autonomous Region |
Prefecture | Ngari Prefecture |
County | |
Time zone | CST (UTC+8) |
Sênggêzangbo Town (Tibetan: Tibetan: སེང་གེ་ཁ་འབབ་, Wylie: seng-ge-gtsang-po kha-'bab, named after Sênggê Zangbo, a river in Ngari), or Shiquanhe Town (Chinese: 狮泉河镇, i.e. "Lion Spring River Town") is a town in Tibet. It is the main town of Ngari Prefecture,[1] and of the Gar County of that prefecture.
Historically the town was also known as Ger.[2] This name, in the form Gar (Chinese: 噶尔; pinyin: Ga'er), is now used to refer to the entire county; however, as the custom with Chinese county seats is, Gar is often used to refer to the county seat as well, and it may be labeled that way on maps.[3]
Being the main town of Ngari Prefecture (which is known in Chinese under the Sinicized form of its name, Ali Prefecture), the town is also commonly known in English as Ali (Chinese: 阿里; pinyin: Ālǐ) Town; this is what many guidebooks use as the primary name for the town.[4] One should note, however, that in Tibetan Ngari is only the name for the prefecture, and not the town.
The name Shiquanhe is originally the name of the river; in Tibetan, it is Sengge Zangbo (in SASM/GNC/SRC transcriptions, sometimes simply Senge Zangbo)[1], Senge Zangbu (Chinese: 森格藏布) or Sengghe Tsangpo (in a transcription used in Western books).[4] The source of that river, a hot spring, supposedly, looks like the lion's mouth; thus the name, interpreted as "river flowing from the lion's mouth".[1][4]
When the Ngari Prefecture of the PRC was established in 1959, its capital was at the place named Kunsa, located elsewhere in Gar County. It was moved from there to Shiquanhe in 1965, due to the extremely difficult living conditions in Kunsa.[1] At that time, Shiquanhe's population was merely 400.[1]
The modern Chinese-style town is situated at the confluence of the Indus and Gar River.[5] 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".[6] Western guidebook writers have referred to the place as a "concrete monstrosity of a town".[4]
The place has several primary schools and a secondary school.[1]
Ali has two banks, but only the Agricultural Bank of China, near the army post west of the roundabout, will change foreign currency. There is also a main post office near the roundabout.
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Ngari Gunsa Airport, near the town of Shiquanhe, started operations on 1st July, 2010, becoming the fourth civil airport in Tibet.[7]
Air China's southwestern branch will operate flight services from Chengdu to Lhasa and on to Ngari – a total of 2,300 km – every Tuesday and Friday. "The flight leaves Chengdu at 5:50 AM and arrives at Lhasa two hours later," Bao Lida, a company press official was quoted as saying. "It leaves Lhasa at 8:40 AM and arrives at Ngari at 10:20 AM." the 1,098 km Lhasa-Ngari flight service would start from 2,590 yuan (About US $400). The report said Air China expects to transport 50-60 passengers in winter and 20-30 passengers in summer during each flight service.[8]
Climate data for Shiquanhe | |||||||||||||
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Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Average high °C (°F) | −4 (24) |
−2 (28) |
1 (33) |
7 (44) |
11 (51) |
18 (64) |
21 (69) |
20 (68) |
15 (59) |
8 (46) |
2 (35) |
−2 (28) |
7.6 (45.8) |
Average low °C (°F) | −20 (−4) |
−17 (1) |
−13 (8) |
−8 (17) |
−4 (24) |
1 (33) |
6 (42) |
6 (42) |
0 (32) |
−9 (15) |
−16 (3) |
−19 (−2) |
−8.0 (17.6) |
Precipitation mm (inches) | 3 (0.1) |
0 (0) |
3 (0.1) |
0 (0) |
3 (0.1) |
3 (0.1) |
20 (0.8) |
28 (1.1) |
5 (0.2) |
3 (0.1) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
66 (2.6) |
Source: Weatherbase [9] |
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