| Kangding 康定 དར་མདོ་ Darzêdo Dardo Tachienlu · Tatsienlu |
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|---|---|
| — Sub-provincial city — | |
| Chinese transcription(s) | |
| • Characters | 康定 |
| • Pinyin | Kāngdìng |
| Tibetan transcription(s) | |
| • Tibetan script | དར་མདོ་ |
| • Wylie | dar-rtse-mdo |
| • Tibetan pinyin | Darzêdo |
| View of Kangding City | |
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Kangding
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| Coordinates: | |
| County | People's Republic of China |
| Province | Sichuan |
| Prefecture | Garzê |
| Government | |
| • CPC Party Chief | |
| • Mayor | |
| Elevation | 2,560 m (8,399 ft) |
| Population | |
| • Major Nationalities | Han Tibetan |
| Time zone | China Standard (UTC+8) |
| Postal code | 610000 |
| Website | http://www.kangding.gov.cn |
Kangding or Darzêdo is a city and the location of the seat of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in western Sichuan province of Southwest China. The area that the city occupies is administratively part of Kangding County, and it has around 100,000 inhabitants.
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Kangding (Chinese: 康定; pinyin: Kāngdìng; Wade–Giles: K'ang-ting) is also known as Darzêdo (Tibetan: དར་རྩེ་མདོ།, Wylie: dar-rtse-mdo, ZYPY: Darzêdo) or Dardo (Tibetan: དར་མདོ།, Wylie: dar mdo, ZYPY: Dardo). Historically, the town was known as Tachienlu or Tatsienlu (traditional Chinese: 打箭爐; simplified Chinese: 打箭炉; pinyin: Dǎjiànlú) from the Chinese transliteration of the Tibetan name Dartsedo.
Kangding was for many centuries an important trading town where Chinese brick tea was carried by porters from Chengdu and other centres to trade for Tibetan wool.[1]
On July 1, 1786 an earthquake of 7.4 on the Richter magnitude scale ruined nearly the entire city.[2]
During time of the Republic of China administration, Kangding was the capital of the now-defunct province of Xikang.
Kangding is located in a valley of the Tibetan Plateau about 210 kilometres (130 mi) west-southwest of Chengdu, the provincial capital, and 100 kilometres (62 mi) west of Ya'an. It is a city populated by significant proportions of both Tibetans and Han, and is part of the historical Tibetan region of Kham. A raging river splits the city, thus the constant sound of water emanates throughout much of the city. The city features a sizable city square where young and old alike gather in the early hours of the morning to do Tai Chi, play badminton, or socialise. This square comes alive on the weekends as well, when families tend to populate it. Traditional Tibetan and Sichuanese restaurants are easily found throughout the city. A Tibetan Buddhist monastery sits on the mountains overlooking the city, and is accessible by cable car. As of October 2006, a stone amphitheatre is under construction at the upper monastery.
It is a fast growing city, with a rapidly developing tourist infrastructure, including a scenic cable car imported from Germany.
In 2008 the PRC government opened an airport at Kangding in the province of Sichuan, with a 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) runway, announcing that it would be the second-highest in the world, at 4,280 metres (14,040 ft) above sea level.[4][5]
The folk song Kangding Qingge enjoys popularity throughout China.
Kangding contains some Buddhist monasteries of note, including Nanwu Si Monastery, Anque Monastery and Jinggang Monastery.
Kangding has a monsoon-influenced climate, lying in the transition between a humid continental (Dwb) and a subtropical highland climate (Cwb) on the Köppen system. Despite the elevation of 2,560 metres (8,400 ft), nighttime temperatures average at most 10.5 °C (18.9 °F) cooler than daytime highs. From April to September, rain is a very common occurrence, with around two-thirds of the days receiving some rainfall; in addition, 77% of the annual precipitation is delivered from May to September. Monthly daily average temperatures range from −2.2 °C (28.0 °F) in January to 15.5 °C (59.9 °F) in July; the annual mean is 7.09 °C (44.8 °F). Over the course of the year, there are 177 frost-free days and 1738 hours of sunshine.
| Climate data for Kangding | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 22.2 (72.0) |
23.2 (73.8) |
26.0 (78.8) |
26.8 (80.2) |
29.4 (84.9) |
26.5 (79.7) |
26.7 (80.1) |
27.5 (81.5) |
25.5 (77.9) |
23.5 (74.3) |
20.5 (68.9) |
17.7 (63.9) |
29.4 (84.9) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 3.5 (38.3) |
5.1 (41.2) |
9.5 (49.1) |
13.8 (56.8) |
16.3 (61.3) |
17.9 (64.2) |
20.2 (68.4) |
20.4 (68.7) |
16.3 (61.3) |
12.2 (54.0) |
8.6 (47.5) |
5.1 (41.2) |
12.4 (54.3) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −5.9 (21.4) |
−4.3 (24.3) |
−0.8 (30.6) |
3.3 (37.9) |
6.9 (44.4) |
9.9 (49.8) |
12.0 (53.6) |
11.8 (53.2) |
8.8 (47.8) |
4.6 (40.3) |
−0.2 (31.6) |
−4.3 (24.3) |
3.5 (38.3) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −13.3 (8.1) |
−13.8 (7.2) |
−11.2 (11.8) |
−3.8 (25.2) |
−1.3 (29.7) |
0.6 (33.1) |
2.7 (36.9) |
1.0 (33.8) |
0.1 (32.2) |
−3.2 (26.2) |
−8.3 (17.1) |
−14.1 (6.6) |
−14.1 (6.6) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 5.5 (0.217) |
11.6 (0.457) |
33.3 (1.311) |
57.3 (2.256) |
107.4 (4.228) |
169.4 (6.669) |
123.2 (4.85) |
103.9 (4.091) |
135.0 (5.315) |
63.7 (2.508) |
16.5 (0.65) |
5.4 (0.213) |
832.2 (32.764) |
| Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 6.5 | 9.8 | 12.5 | 17.4 | 20.4 | 23.1 | 21.8 | 19.7 | 20.1 | 14.8 | 7.7 | 5.2 | 179.0 |
| Source: Weather China | |||||||||||||
Administratively, the city of Kangding is not an official township-level division within the Kangding County,[6], but rather the metropolitan area of the county, consisting of the town of Lucheng and several other villages.
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