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 | ||||||
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| Tibetan name | |||||||
| Tibetan | གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་གྲོང | ||||||
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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
Mountains in Shigatse Prefecture
Monastery along the road from Shigatse to Mount Everest
Photo of the Shigatse abbot taken around 1910
See also
Shigatse Photovoltaic Power Plant
References
- ↑ Mapping the Tibetan World. Yukyasu Osada, Gavin Allwright, and Atushi Kanamaru. 1st edition 200. Reprint 2004. Kotan Books, Japan, pp. 109, 113.
- ↑ 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) - ↑ "Shigatse Travel" ChinaTour.net Accessed 2013-4-21
- ↑ http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/7184049.html
External links
Media related to Shigatse at Wikimedia Commons
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Coordinates: 29°16′01″N 88°52′52″E / 29.267°N 88.881°E