Lenghu () is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Mangnai Mangnai also known as Mang'ai or Mangya () is a county-level city in the northwest of Qinghai Province, China, bordering Xinjiang to the north and west. It is under the administration of Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. It is one of ...

Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (; mn, ᠬᠠᠶᠢᠰᠢ ᠶᠢᠨ ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ ᠲᠥᠪᠡᠳ ᠦᠨᠳᠦᠰᠦᠲᠡᠨ ᠦ ᠥᠪᠡᠷᠲᠡᠭᠡᠨ ᠵᠠᠰᠠᠬᠤ ᠵᠧᠦ; bo, མཚོ་ནུབ་� ...

. It is located in the northwest of

Qinghai Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...

province, China, bordering Gansu to the north/northeast and

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

to the northwest.

History

In 2018, the Mangnai and Lenghu administrative zones merged to established the county-level city of

Geography

Lenghu borders

Da Qaidam Da Qaidam is an administrative committee in Haixi Prefecture in northwestern Qinghai province, China. It borders Gansu province to the north. The area administered as is divided between the two towns of Qaidam itself also called Xitieshan T ...

to the east,

to the west,

Aksai Kazakh Autonomous County Aksay Kazakh Autonomous County is an autonomous county under the prefecture-level city of Jiuquan in Gansu Province, China. The county borders Qinghai Province to the south and Xinjiang to the west. The westernmost county-level division of Gans ...

( Gansu) to the north, and

Ruoqiang County Ruoqiang County () as the official romanized name, also transliterated from Uyghur as Qakilik County (; ), is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China under the administration of the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture. It co ...

(

) to the northwest, and is part of the northwestern Qaidam Basin in an area dotted frequently by

yardang A yardang is a streamlined protuberance carved from bedrock or any consolidated or semiconsolidated material by the dual action of wind abrasion by dust and sand and deflation (the removal of loose material by wind turbulence.) Yardangs become ...

Climate

As with most of northwestern Qinghai, Lenghu has an

arid climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in deser ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

'' BWk''), with long, cold winters, and warm summers. It is the driest locale in the country, with only of precipitation annually, and it is not uncommon for months to pass by without any rainfall, though underground water resources are plentiful. The monthly 24-hour average temperature drops to in January and rises to in July, while the annual mean is ;

diurnal temperature variation In meteorology, diurnal temperature variation is the variation between a high air temperature and a low temperature that occurs during the same day. Temperature lag Temperature lag is an important factor in diurnal temperature variation: peak da ...

is wide, averaging annually. The area is also extremely sunny; with monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 72% in July to 85% in October, the area receives 3,443 hours of bright sunshine annually.

References

Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture {{Qinghai-geo-stub