Xainza County, also Shantsa, Shentsa, (; ) is a county within

Nagqu Nagqu (also Naqu, Nakchu, or Nagchu; ; ) is a prefecture-level city in the north of the Chinese autonomous region of Tibet. On May 7, 2018, the former Nagqu Prefecture was officially declared the sixth prefecture-level city in Tibet after Lhasa, ...

of the

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. In 1999 the county had a population of 16,190.

Geography

The capital lies at

Naktsang Town :''not to be confused with Naktsang Town in the Haa District of southwestern Bhutan'' Xainza (also Naktsang,Dorje (2009), p. 397. Xainza Town or Shantsa) is a town and township-level administrative unit and seat of Shentsa County or Xainza County, ...

or Xainza. The county covers an area of . Until recent times the County extended all the way from the borders of

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 northwes ...

in the north to the Brahmaputra River in the south, covering a larger area than the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. It has since been split into two, Shentsa (Xainza) County and the new Nyima County to the east.Dorje (2009), p. 396.

"In this region there are 67 lakes, including some of Tibet's largest: Serling, Dangra Yutso, Ngangtse-tso, Kering-tso, Taktse-tse and Uru-tso. In the northeast there are a number of 6,000 m peaks including Purok Gangri and Norla Gangri , not to mention the
Kunlun mountains The Kunlun Mountains ( zh, s=昆仑山, t=崑崙山, p=Kūnlún Shān, ; ug, كۇئېنلۇن تاغ تىزمىسى / قۇرۇم تاغ تىزمىسى ) constitute one of the longest mountain chains in Asia, extending for more than . In the bro ...
on the Xinjiang border further north. The entire northern region forms part of the Jangtang Nature Reserve. Ten large salt fields testify to the importance of this region for the traditional trading commodity of the Jangtang Plateau."

Lakes in close proximity to the main town are Geren Lake, Mujiu Lake, Anzi Lake, Guomang Lake, Cuo'e and Ziguii Lake, Wuru Lake, Siling Lake and

Bangecuo Bangecuo (also spelled as Bangor Co) is a graben basin salt lakeWang, Can; Wang, Hailei; Song, Gao; Zheng, Mianping (February 2019)"Grain size of surface sediments in Selin Co (central Tibet) linked to water depth and offshore distance" ''Journal ...

. With an area of , Siling Lake is the second largest saltwater lake in the northern

Tibetan Plateau The Tibetan Plateau (, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or the Qing–Zang Plateau () or as the Himalayan Plateau in India, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central, South and East Asia covering most of the Ti ...

and forms part of the

Siling Co National Nature Reserve Siling Lake (; ), (also known as Qilin) is a lake in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China to the north of Xainza. Doijiang is located near the lake. Administratively it belongs to Xainza County and Baingoin County of the Nagqu. Bangecuo is anot ...

(also Selincuo Reserve or Xainza Nature Reserve). The reserve was established in 1993 and contains significant populations of black-necked cranes and some 120 species of birds in total. Tibetan sheep, wild donkey, argali,

snow leopard The snow leopard (''Panthera uncia''), also known as the ounce, is a felid in the genus '' Panthera'' native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because the global population is es ...

bar-headed goose The bar-headed goose (''Anser indicus'') is a goose that breeds in Central Asia in colonies of thousands near mountain lakes and winters in South Asia, as far south as peninsular India. It lays three to eight eggs at a time in a ground nest. It ...

, etc., also inhabit the county.

Climate

Xainza has an extreme

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, g ...

, bordering on

polar Polar may refer to: Geography Polar may refer to: * Geographical pole, either of two fixed points on the surface of a rotating body or planet, at 90 degrees from the equator, based on the axis around which a body rotates *Polar climate, the cli ...

. The climate of the county is typical of a plateau climate zone, with thin, cold air and a dry climate, with 279.1 days of frost per year on average. The average annual wind speed is 3.8 m/s (12.5 ft/s), the average annual temperature is , and the average annual precipitation is .

Geology

The county has been geologically well assessed in publications. Xainza contains an

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. T ...

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleoz ...

stratigraphic Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithostra ...

succession and the area is part of the Xainza-Jiali Fault Zone. Significant

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest per ...

clastic deposits with

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywa ...

beds and volcanic clastics have been found between Xainza and Coqên. Early Devonian (Pragian-Emsian) rocks in Xainza County are said to "yield a shallow-marine, carbonate-platform fauna of

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...

brachiopod Brachiopods (), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, w ...

s, dacryoconarids,

nautiloid Nautiloids are a group of marine cephalopods (Mollusca) which originated in the Late Cambrian and are represented today by the living ''Nautilus'' and '' Allonautilus''. Fossil nautiloids are diverse and speciose, with over 2,500 recorded specie ...

s and

conodont Conodonts ( Greek ''kōnos'', " cone", + ''odont'', "tooth") are an extinct group of agnathan (jawless) vertebrates resembling eels, classified in the class Conodonta. For many years, they were known only from their tooth-like oral elements, whi ...

s."

Economy

Animal husbandry is the chief source of income in the county. Jiagang Hydropower Station was built in the 1990s and as of 2008 serves about 20,000 nomadic households across the county. Gold mining in the county has reportedly affected water quality and some area of grassland. An

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. ...

gold mine which generated "5 million yuan (US$617,300) of the county's 8.5-million budgetary income" was slated to be shut down in 2005. Other reserves include iron, lead, copper, salt, borax and phosphorus. The county has a reported geothermal resources area of about 100,000 square meters and is rich in fish resources.

Townships

The county contains the following towns and townships, 8 township-level divisions in total. These in turn are divided into 73 village committees.

"The county capital of Shentsa is located at Naktsang (Shentsa), 805 km from Lumaringpo in Gertse county, and 232 km from Palgon. However, due to the vastness of this region, there is a third administrative centre at Tsonyi (Twin Lakes) in the north. Naktsang (Shentsa) to Tsonyi is 442 km."

* Xainza Town (ཤན་རྩ་, 申扎镇), *

Xiongmei Xiongmei (; bo, ???) is a town of Xainza County, in central Tibet Autonomous Region, China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by popula ...

Town (གཞུང་སྨད་, 雄梅镇) * Mar'yo Township (མར་ཡོ་, 马跃乡) * Mepa Township (སྨད་པ་, 买巴乡) * Tarma Township (ཐར་མ་, 塔尔玛乡) * Zhago Township (བཞ་སྒོ་, 下过乡) * Khyak Township (འཁྱག་, 恰乡) * Patra Township (པ་བཀྲ་, 巴扎乡)

References

Citations

Sources

* Dorje, Gyurme. (2009) ''Footprint Tibet Handbook''. 4th Edition. Bath, U.K.

External links

Hudong EncyclopediaPhoto of Xainza TownPhoto of Xainza Nature ReservePhoto of Xainza Nature ReservePhoto of Japgang Power Station
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