| Tanggulashan | |
|---|---|
| — Town — | |
| 唐古拉山镇 | |
|
Tanggulashan
|
|
| Coordinates: | |
| Country | People's Republic of China |
| Province | Qinghai |
| Prefecture | Haixi Prefecture |
| County-level city | Golmud |
| Area | |
| • Total | 47,540.08 km2 (18,355.3 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 4,534 m (14,875 ft) |
| Population (2006) | |
| • Total | 1,286 |
| • Density | 0.027/km2 (0.070/sq mi) |
| Includes only those with Hukou permits | |
| Time zone | China Standard (UTC+8) |
| Postal code | 632801101 |
Tanggulashan (Chinese: 唐古拉山; pinyin: Tánggǔlāshān, "Tanggula Mountains Town"), sometimes simply called Tanggula Town (唐古拉镇), is a town in the southwest of Qinghai province, Western China. It forms the southern exclave of the county-level city of Golmud, in Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Before the local administrative reform of 2005, it was known as Tanggulashan Township (唐古拉山乡).
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Tanggulashan Town as an administrative unit that occupies 47,540 square kilometres (18,360 sq mi) in the southwestern corner of Qinghai province. It borders on the Tibetan Autonomous Region in the south and west, and on Qinghai's Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the east and north. The western "panhandle" of Yushu Prefecture separates Tanggulashan Town from the rest of Haixi Prefecture, making it an exclave of Golmud City and of the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
Tanggulashan Town is around 500 kilometres (310 mi) away (straight-line distance) both from the central city of Golmud and from the town of Gyêgu, the seat Yushu Prefecture, but it has practical road (and rail) connection only with the former.
As the name indicates, Tanggulashan Town is located in the central part of Tanggula Mountains, at the elevations from 4,700 metres (15,400 ft) and up.[1] The most famous local feature is the Geladaindong Peak (at 6,621 metres (21,722 ft) elevation), near which the source of the Yangtze River is considered to be located. The area around the peak is protected as part of the Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve.
Tanggulashan Town is administratively divided into 7 village-level units ("administrative villages" (xingzhengcun) and "communities" (xingzhengshe)).[1] The region is sparsely populated, with the registered population of 1,286 (year 2006) and the actually present population estimated at around 1,900. Most of these people live in several small villages located along the Golmud-Lhasa highway and railway corridor (China National Highway 109 and Qinghai-Tibet Railway).
188 local residents are members of the Communist Party of China.[1]
The main of these settlements, and the one that is marked on the maps at "Tanggulashan Town" (or, earlier, "Tanggulashan Township"; presumably, the place where is local government is based) is located near the highway and railway crossing of the Tuotuo River, which is the headwaters of the Yangtze. This settlement is served by the Tuotuohe railway station.[2] Other settlements in the same highway/railway corridor, further south, are Tongtian Heyan ("Tongtian Riverside"), Yanshiping (雁石坪), Wenquan, and Tanggula Bingzhan ("Tanggula Military Post").[3]
At Tanggula Pass on the southern border of the province, the railway leaves Qinghai for Tibet, and therefore the Tanggula Railway Station, which is located a short distance south of the pass, is actually outside of Tanggula Town, and is already within the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
| Climate data for Tanggulashan | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | −6 (21) |
−4 (24) |
0 (32) |
5 (41) |
8 (46) |
12 (53) |
14 (57) |
13 (55) |
10 (50) |
4 (39) |
−1 (30) |
−5 (23) |
4.0 (39.3) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −24 (−11) |
−21 (−5) |
−17 (1) |
−12 (10) |
−6 (21) |
−1 (30) |
1 (33) |
1 (33) |
−1 (30) |
−10 (14) |
−19 (−2) |
−23 (−9) |
−11.1 (12.1) |
| Precipitation cm (inches) | 0 (0) |
0 (0.1) |
0 (0.1) |
1 (0.2) |
2 (0.6) |
5 (1.9) |
9 (3.4) |
7 (2.6) |
4 (1.6) |
1 (0.4) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
28 (10.9) |
| Source: Weatherbase [4] | |||||||||||||
The traditional occupation of the local residents is livestock (sheep) breeding. According to the local authorities in Golmud, overgrazing is a concern in the area,[5] as it is throughout the southwestern Qinghai.[6] Projects are underway to restrict grazing in some areas, and to reduce the livestock population in Tanggulashan Town to what is thought to be the "scientifically sound" target of 53,600.[5]
Besides overgrazing by livestock, the local pasture land also suffers depredation by rats. After some attempts to poison them (with obvious side effects), in 2009 the local authorities started a campaign to attract birds of prey to the area, hoping that they would help to keep the rat population under control. For this purpose, 830 bird perches were erected in the affected areas.[7]
In 2007, it was reported that a factory producing traditional Tibetan carpets opened in the area, employing about 80 people.[8]