Gertse County
County in Tibet, China
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gertse County[7] (Tibetan: སྒེར་རྩེ་རྫོང་།), Gêrzê County[6][8][9][10] or Gaize County (Chinese: 改则县)[11] is a county located in Ngari Prefecture in the northwest of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China, bordering Xinjiang to the north.[3]
Gertse County
སྒེར་རྩེ་རྫོང་། • 改则县 Gêrzê, Gaize, Kai-tse | |
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 Map showing Gêrzê County (purple, upper right) in Ngari Prefecture | |
.png) Location of Gêrzê County (red) within Ngari Prefecture (yellow) and the Tibet A.R. | |
  Gêrzê Location of the seat in the Tibet A.R.  Gêrzê Gêrzê (Tibet)  Gêrzê Gêrzê (China) | |
| Coordinates: 32.301°N 84.059°E | |
| Country | China |
| Autonomous region | Tibet |
| Prefecture | Ngari |
| Established date[1][2][3][4] | October 1960 |
| County seat | Gêrzê[3] |
| Township-level divisions[1] | 1 town, 6 townships |
| Area | |
• Total | 135,025 km2 (52,133 sq mi) |
| Population (2020)[5] | |
• Total | 25,327 |
| • Density | 0.18757/km2 (0.48581/sq mi) |
| Ethnic groups | |
| • Major ethnic groups | Tibetan[4] |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (China Standard) |
| Postal code | 859200[6] |
| Website | gz |
| Gertse County | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 改则县 | ||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 改則縣 | ||||||||
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| Tibetan name | |||||||||
| Tibetan | སྒེར་རྩེ་རྫོང་། | ||||||||
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Name
History
The area was originally inhabited by nomadic tribes.[3]
In the aftermath of the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China in the early 1950s, People's Liberation Army troops were stationed in Gêrzê.[12]
On May 3, 1960, the Gêrzê County Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was established. On October 1, 1960, the Gêrzê County government was established.[1][2][3][4]
At 2:01 AM on February 21, 2020, a 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck in Gêrzê County (epicenter: 34.56°N 85.68°E).[13]
At 2:12 AM on March 10, 2020, a 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck in Gêrzê County (epicenter: 32.84°N 85.52°E) followed by a 3.7 magnitude and a 3.4 magnitude aftershock. No casualties were reported.[14]
On May 8, 2020, eight suspects were arrested and eighty-nine antelope skins were confiscated in connection with reported Tibetan antelope poaching in the county.[15]
Geography
Gêrzê County is bordered to the north by Keriya County (Yutian) in Hotan Prefecture (Hetian), Xinjiang and to the west by Rutog County.[16] There are numerous lakes in Gêrzê County including Tong Tso. Thermal springs in Gêrzê County include Lugu[9] (70 °C; 33°24′24″N 84°08′12″E; altitude 4,528 m (14,856 ft)), Nagezhong (60 °C; 32°18′N 84°12′E; altitude 4,550 m (14,930 ft)) and Yarlhaingari (60 °C; 33°00′48″N 86°01′36″E; altitude 4,880 m (16,010 ft)).[17]
Climate
Gêrzê County has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: BSk), with strong dry-winter subarctic climate tendencies (Köppen: Dwc).
| Climate data for Gêrzê, elevation 4,279 m (14,039 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) | 8.3 (46.9) |
10.5 (50.9) |
14.5 (58.1) |
15.9 (60.6) |
22.0 (71.6) |
26.1 (79.0) |
27.6 (81.7) |
25.0 (77.0) |
22.6 (72.7) |
17.2 (63.0) |
12.9 (55.2) |
8.3 (46.9) |
27.6 (81.7) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −2.7 (27.1) |
−0.3 (31.5) |
3.8 (38.8) |
8.5 (47.3) |
13.0 (55.4) |
18.2 (64.8) |
20.4 (68.7) |
18.6 (65.5) |
16.2 (61.2) |
8.6 (47.5) |
3.3 (37.9) |
−0.5 (31.1) |
8.9 (48.1) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −11.1 (12.0) |
−8.2 (17.2) |
−4.1 (24.6) |
0.7 (33.3) |
5.2 (41.4) |
10.5 (50.9) |
13.2 (55.8) |
11.9 (53.4) |
9.1 (48.4) |
0.6 (33.1) |
−5.8 (21.6) |
−9.9 (14.2) |
1.0 (33.8) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −20.3 (−4.5) |
−17.6 (0.3) |
−13.4 (7.9) |
−7.9 (17.8) |
−2.7 (27.1) |
3.1 (37.6) |
6.7 (44.1) |
6.2 (43.2) |
2.1 (35.8) |
−7.5 (18.5) |
−14.6 (5.7) |
−19.2 (−2.6) |
−7.1 (19.2) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −44.0 (−47.2) |
−42.4 (−44.3) |
−32.1 (−25.8) |
−20.0 (−4.0) |
−15.7 (3.7) |
−9.2 (15.4) |
−3.3 (26.1) |
−3.6 (25.5) |
−9.5 (14.9) |
−23.5 (−10.3) |
−34.9 (−30.8) |
−44.6 (−48.3) |
−44.6 (−48.3) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 0.9 (0.04) |
0.6 (0.02) |
1.1 (0.04) |
2.2 (0.09) |
8.3 (0.33) |
25.1 (0.99) |
61.8 (2.43) |
71.6 (2.82) |
21.5 (0.85) |
3.7 (0.15) |
0.7 (0.03) |
0.2 (0.01) |
197.7 (7.8) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 1.4 | 1.0 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 3.9 | 7.3 | 13.6 | 15.4 | 6.7 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 55.6 |
| Average snowy days | 3.8 | 3.3 | 4.2 | 4.7 | 7.8 | 4.2 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 2.5 | 2.9 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 37.4 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 27 | 24 | 23 | 27 | 32 | 39 | 47 | 56 | 43 | 29 | 25 | 24 | 33 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 232.4 | 222.9 | 258.2 | 271.1 | 305.2 | 303.0 | 284.1 | 257.4 | 280.4 | 295.7 | 260.1 | 253.0 | 3,223.5 |
| Percentage possible sunshine | 72 | 71 | 69 | 69 | 71 | 71 | 66 | 63 | 77 | 85 | 84 | 81 | 73 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration[18][19] | |||||||||||||
Administrative divisions
Gêrzê county is divided into 1 town and 6 townships:[4][20][2]
| Name | Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Town | ||||
| Gêrzê Town | 改则镇 | Gǎizé zhèn | སྒེར་རྩེ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | sger rtse grong rdal |
| Townships | ||||
| Oma Township[9] | 物玛乡 | Wùmǎ xiāng | འོ་མ་ཤང་། | 'o ma shang |
| Shenchen Township | 先遣乡 | Xiānqiǎn xiāng | ཤན་ཆེན་ཤང་། | shan chen shang |
| Marmê Township | 麻米乡 | Mámǐ xiāng | མར་མེ་ཤང་། | mar me shang |
| Dongco Township | 洞措乡 | Dòngcuò xiāng | སྟོང་མཚོ་ཤང་། | stong mtsho shang |
| Gomo Township[9] | 古姆乡 | Gǔmǔ xiāng | ཁྲ་མདོངས་ཤང་། | kra mdongs shang |
| Chabug Township | 察布乡 | Chábù xiāng | བྲག་པོ་ཤང་། | brag po shang |
Demographics
Economy
The main economic activity in Gêrzê County is animal husbandry[14] which includes the raising of yak, dzo, sheep, goats, and horses. The county also has wild yak, wild donkeys, wild sheep, bears and Tibetan antelope.[3]
Transportation
- Nagqu–Ngari Highway (黑阿公路)[3]
Historical maps
Historical maps including Gêrzê:
Map of the expeditions of Sven Hedin (1906–8) including the modern-day Gêrzê County area (RGS, early 20th century)
Map including Gêrzê (labeled as Kai-tse) (DMA, 1975)
Map including Gêrzê (Kai-tse) (DMA, 1980)
Map of the Gêrzê area (DMA, 1990)
