Chamdo

"Changdu" redirects here. Not to be confused with Chengdu.
"Qamdo" redirects here. For other uses, see Chamdo (disambiguation).
This article is about the city known as Chamdo. For the town, see Chengguan, Chamdo. For the county formerly known as Chamdo, see Karuo District.
Qamdo
昌都市
ཆབ་མདོ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།
Prefecture-level city
Mekong River to the south of Chamdo Town
Mekong River to the south of Chamdo Town
Location of Qamdo Prefecture within China
Location of Qamdo Prefecture within China
Coordinates (Qamdo municipal government): 31°08′35″N 97°10′12″E / 31.143°N 97.170°E / 31.143; 97.170
CountryPeople's Republic of China
Autonomous regionTibet
County-level divisions
  • 1 district
  • 10 counties
Prefecture seatKarub District (Chengguan)
Area
 • Total
110,154 km2 (42,531 sq mi)
Elevation
3,240 m (10,630 ft)
Population
 (2019)
 • Total
798,067
 • Density7.2/km2 (19/sq mi)
GDP[1]
 • TotalCN¥ 27.9 billion
US$ 4.3 billion
 • Per capitaCN¥ 36,574
US$ 5,668
Time zoneUTC+8 (China Standard)
ISO 3166 codeCN-XZ-03
Qamdo
"Qamdo" in Chinese characters
Chinese name
Chinese昌都
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinChāngdū
Tibetan name
Tibetanཆབ་མདོ།
Transcriptions
Wyliechab mdo
Tibetan PinyinQamdo

Chamdo, officially Qamdo[2][3] (Tibetan: ཆབ་མདོ, Wylie: chab mdo, ZYPY: qamdo) and also known in Chinese as Changdu (Chinese: 昌都; pinyin: Chang Du),[4] is a prefecture-level city in the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Its seat is the town of Chengguan in Karuo District. Chamdo is Tibet's third largest city after Lhasa and Shigatse.[5]

Chamdo is divided into 11 county-level divisions: one district and ten counties. The main district is Karuo District. Other counties include Jonda County, Gonjo County, Riwoche County, Dengqen County, Zhag'yab County, Baxoi County, Zognang County, Maarkam County, Lhorong County, and Banbar County.

History

On 11 July 2014 Chamdo Prefecture was upgraded into a prefecture-level city.[6]

Languages

Languages spoken in Chamdo include Khams Tibetan and the Chamdo languages of Lamo, Larong, and Drag-yab.[7]

Transportation

Air

Changdu Bangda Airport, opened in 1994, is located 126 kilometres (78 miles) from Chengguan Town in Karub District. The long commute (2.5 hours by mountain road) is the result of no flat land closer to the city being available to construct an airport.

Road

China National Highway 214 and China National Highway 317 are the main roads in and out of Chamdo.

Subdivisions

Aerial view of Banbar County, Chamdo.

The city is subdivided into 11 county-level divisions: 1 district and 10 counties.

Map
Name Hanzi Hanyu Pinyin Tibetan Wylie Population (2010 Census) Area (km2) Density (/km2)
Karuo District 卡若区 Kǎruò Qū མཁར་རོ་ཆུས། mkhar ro chus 116,500 10,794 10.79
Jomda County 江达县 Jiāngdá Xiàn འཇོ་མདའ་རྫོང་། 'jo mda' rdzong 76,026 13,164 5.77
Gonjo County 贡觉县 Gòngjué Xiàn གོ་འཇོ་རྫོང་། go 'jo rdzong 40,434 6,323 6.39
Riwoqê County 类乌齐县 Lèiwūqí Xiàn རི་བོ་ཆེ་རྫོང་། ri bo che rdzong 49,870 6,355 7.84
Dêngqên County 丁青县 Dīngqīng Xiàn སྟེང་ཆེན་རྫོང་། steng chen rdzong 69,888 12,408 5.63
Zhag'yab County 察雅县 Cháyǎ Xiàn བྲག་གཡབ་རྫོང་། brag g-yab rdzong 56,789 8,251 6.88
Baxoi County 八宿县 Bāsù Xiàn དཔའ་ཤོད་རྫོང་། dpa' shod rdzong 39,021 12,336 3.16
Zogang County 左贡县 Zuǒgòng Xiàn མཛོ་སྒང་རྫོང་། mdzo sgang rdzong 44,320 11,837 3.74
Markam County 芒康县 Mángkāng Xiàn སྨར་ཁམས་རྫོང་། smar khams rdzong 81,399 11,576 7.03
Lhorong County 洛隆县 Luòlóng Xiàn ལྷོ་རོང་རྫོང་། lho rong rdzong 47,491 8,048 5.90
Banbar County 边坝县 Biānbà Xiàn དཔལ་འབར་རྫོང་། dpal 'bar rdzong 35,767 8,774 4.07

Climate

Chamdo has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dwb) in the Karub District and an alpine subarctic climate (Köppen: Dwc) in other counties.

Climate data for Chamdo (Karuo District), elevation 3,315 m (10,876 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1981–2010)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 21.8
(71.2) 		21.4
(70.5) 		26.1
(79.0) 		28.1
(82.6) 		29.5
(85.1) 		32.7
(90.9) 		32.0
(89.6) 		30.8
(87.4) 		30.5
(86.9) 		27.7
(81.9) 		22.3
(72.1) 		20.2
(68.4) 		32.7
(90.9)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 8.8
(47.8) 		10.7
(51.3) 		13.5
(56.3) 		16.9
(62.4) 		21.0
(69.8) 		23.8
(74.8) 		24.3
(75.7) 		23.9
(75.0) 		21.9
(71.4) 		17.5
(63.5) 		13.2
(55.8) 		10.0
(50.0) 		17.1
(62.8)
Daily mean °C (°F) −1.5
(29.3) 		1.4
(34.5) 		4.8
(40.6) 		8.3
(46.9) 		12.4
(54.3) 		15.6
(60.1) 		16.4
(61.5) 		15.8
(60.4) 		13.4
(56.1) 		8.4
(47.1) 		2.8
(37.0) 		−1.1
(30.0) 		8.1
(46.5)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) −9.4
(15.1) 		−6.4
(20.5) 		−2.3
(27.9) 		1.7
(35.1) 		5.7
(42.3) 		9.5
(49.1) 		10.9
(51.6) 		10.3
(50.5) 		7.7
(45.9) 		2.1
(35.8) 		−4.6
(23.7) 		−8.9
(16.0) 		1.4
(34.5)
Record low °C (°F) −19.4
(−2.9) 		−17.4
(0.7) 		−13.0
(8.6) 		−7.7
(18.1) 		−4.0
(24.8) 		1.1
(34.0) 		2.9
(37.2) 		1.1
(34.0) 		−0.9
(30.4) 		−7.0
(19.4) 		−13.6
(7.5) 		−20.7
(−5.3) 		−20.7
(−5.3)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 1.6
(0.06) 		4.0
(0.16) 		10.5
(0.41) 		23.9
(0.94) 		42.2
(1.66) 		80.7
(3.18) 		110.7
(4.36) 		102.8
(4.05) 		75.2
(2.96) 		33.1
(1.30) 		4.8
(0.19) 		1.3
(0.05) 		490.8
(19.32)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) 2.2 3.6 6.3 11.3 13.5 18.6 19.9 18.9 17.0 9.8 2.9 1.3 125.3
Average snowy days 3.9 7.3 11.0 6.9 0.6 0.1 0 0 0.1 2.9 4.8 2.9 40.5
Average relative humidity (%) 34 35 40 47 49 58 65 66 66 58 45 37 50
Mean monthly sunshine hours 204.1 184.8 202.9 201.4 215.1 188.9 190.2 192.6 192.4 199.0 205.0 212.3 2,388.7
Percent possible sunshine 63 59 54 52 50 45 44 47 53 57 65 68 55
Source: China Meteorological Administration[8][9]

References

  1. ^ "2021年昌都市国民经济和社会发展统计公报" (in Chinese). 11 May 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  2. ^ 国家测绘局地名研究所 [National Surveying Bureau Place Names Research Institute] (1997). 中国地名录 [Gazetteer of China]. Beijing: SinoMaps Press. p. 27. ISBN 7-5031-1718-4.
  3. ^ "New city to be established in China's Tibet". The State Council of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua. Archived from the original on 27 July 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  4. ^ Powers, John (2016). "Appendix B". The Buddha Party: How the People's Republic of China Works to Define and Control Tibetan Buddhism (1st ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199358151. PINYIN= Changdu Zhen
  5. ^ Buckley and Straus 1986, p. 215.
  6. ^ Yang, Shoude. 西藏东部昌都地区将撤地设市 已获国务院批复. Xinhua Qinghai (in Chinese (China)). Archived from the original on 6 November 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  7. ^ Tashi Nyima; Hiroyuki Suzuki (2019). "Newly recognised languages in Chamdo: Geography, culture, history, and language". Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 42 (1): 38–81. doi:10.1075/ltba.18004.nyi. ISSN 0731-3500.
  8. ^ 中国气象数据网 – WeatherBk Data (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  9. ^ 中国气象数据网 (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 27 August 2023.