Shigatse

Xigazê
日喀则市གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།
Prefecture-level city
Nickname(s): Gateway to Everest

Shigatse City (orange) in Tibet Autonomous Region (light-orange)
Country  PRC
Region Tibet
Area
  Total 182,000 km2 (70,000 sq mi)
Population
  Total 703,292
  Density 3.9/km2 (10/sq mi)
Time zone China Standard (UTC+8)
Shigatse
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese 日喀则
Traditional Chinese 日喀則
Tibetan name
Tibetan གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་གྲོང

Shigatse, officially known as Xigazê, is a prefecture-level city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, with an area of 182,000 km2 (70,271 sq mi). It is located within the historical Tsang province of Tibet.

Overview

The administrative center of the prefecture-level city is the Samzhubzê District. It is roughly equivalent to the ancient Shigatse urban center, the second-largest city in Tibet, located about 280 km (174 miles) southwest of Lhasa and home to the massive and magnificent Tashilhunpo Monastery, traditionally the seat of the Panchen Lama.[1]

Some of the towns included 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).[2]

Transport

Rail

The Lhasa–Xigazê Railway connects Xigazê Railway Station with Lhasa and further connects with Qinghai via Qinghai–Tibet Railway.It takes about 3 hours to travel between Lhasa and Shigatse by train. It can be returned from Lhasa within one day. [3]

Air

Shigatse Peace Airport began operations on 30 October 2010 after an Airbus A319 landed safely, This makes it Tibet's fifth commercial airport. It is located 43 kilometres from Samzhubzê District at Jangdam Township at an altitude of 3,782 metres. The airport is designed to handle up to 230,000 passengers annually by 2020.[4]

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
1 Samzhubzê District 桑珠孜区 Sāngzhūzī Qū བསམ་འགྲུབ་རྩེ་ཆུས། bsam 'grub rtse chus 120,374 3,654 32.94
Rural
2 Namling County 南木林县 Nánmùlín Xiàn རྣམ་གླིང་རྫོང་ rnam gling rdzong 74,930 8,113 9.23
3 Gyantse County 江孜县 Jiāngzī Xiàn རྒྱལ་རྩེ་རྫོང་ rgyal rtse rdzong 63,503 3,859 16.45
4 Tingri County 定日县 Dìngrì Xiàn དིང་རི་རྫོང་ ding ri rdzong 50,818 13,859 3.66
5 Sa'gya County 萨迦县 Sàjiā Xiàn ས་སྐྱ་རྫོང་ sa skya rdzong 47,304 7,510 6.29
6 Lhatse County 拉孜县 Lāzī Xiàn ལྷ་རྩེ་རྫོང་ lha rtse rdzong 49,286 4,505 10.94
7 Ngamring County 昂仁县 Ángrén Xiàn ངམ་རིང་རྫོང་ ngam ring rdzong 51,472 20,105 2.56
8 Xaitongmoin County 谢通门县 Xiètōngmén Xiàn བཞད་མཐོང་སྨོན་རྫོང་ bzhad mthong smon rdzong 42,280 13,960 3.02
9 Bainang County 白朗县 Báilǎng Xiàn པ་སྣམ་རྫོང་ pa snam rdzong 42,551 2,806 15.16
10 Rinbung County 仁布县 Rénbù Xiàn རིན་སྤུངས་རྫོང་ rin spungs rdzong 27,826 2,123 13.10
11 Kangmar County 康马县 Kāngmǎ Xiàn ཁང་དམར་རྫོང་ khang dmar rdzong 20,522 6,165 3.32
12 Dinggyê County 定结县 Dìngjié Xiàn གདིང་སྐྱེས་རྫོང་ gding skyes rdzong 20,319 5,816 3.49
13 Zhongba County 仲巴县 Zhòngbā Xiàn འབྲོང་པ་རྫོང་ 'brong pa rdzong 22,147 43,594 0.50
14 Yadong County 亚东县 Yàdōng Xiàn གྲོ་མོ་རྫོང་ gro mo rdzong 12,920 4,306 3.00
15 Gyirong County 吉隆县 Jílóng Xiàn སྐྱིད་གྲོང་རྫོང་ skyid grong rdzong 14,972 9,009 1.66
16 Nyalam County 聂拉木县 Nièlāmù Xiàn གཉའ་ལམ་རྫོང་ gnya' lam rdzong 17,568 7,903 2.22
17 Saga County 萨嘎县 Sàgā Xiàn ས་དགའ་རྫོང་ sa dga' rdzong 14,036 12,411 1.13
18 Gamba County 岗巴县 Gǎngbā Xiàn གམ་པ་རྫོང་ gam pa rdzong 10,464 3,936 2.65

Gallery

References

  1. Mapping the Tibetan World. Yukyasu Osada, Gavin Allwright, and Atushi Kanamaru. 1st edition 200. Reprint 2004. Kotan Books, Japan, pp. 109, 113.
  2. Li, Zhe. "西藏日喀则成为中国最年轻地级市". http://news.china.com.cn/. 中国网. Retrieved 13 July 2014. External link in |website= (help)
  3. "Shigatse Travel" ChinaTour.net Accessed 2013-4-21
  4. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/7184049.html

External links

Media related to Shigatse at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 29°16′01″N 88°52′52″E / 29.267°N 88.881°E / 29.267; 88.881

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