Barkam (, , Qiang: Bbadh kangw seqea) is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

in and the seat of the

county-level city A county-level city () is a County-level divisions of China, county-level administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China. County-level cities have judiciary, judicial but no legislature, legislative rights over their own local or ...

of Barkam, in the

Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, also known as Aba (; Qiang language, Qiang: ; zh, s=阿坝藏族羌族自治州, t=阿壩藏族羌族自治州), is an autonomous prefecture of northwestern Sichuan, bordering Gansu to the north and ...

, in the northwest of

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Toponymy

Barkam comes from the Tibetan "place of strong fire" and, by extension, "place of prosperity".

History

On December 18, 2019, the Department of Civil Affairs of Sichuan Province approved the merger of the now-defunct

of into the town of Barkam.

Climate

Due to its elevation, Barkam lies in the transition between a

subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring c ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Cwb'') and

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(Köppen ''Dwb''), with strong

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

al influences; winters are frosty and summers warm with frequent rain. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from in December and January to in July, while the annual mean is . Nearly two-thirds of the annual precipitation of occurs from June to September. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 36% in June to 65% in December, the town receives 2,133 hours of bright sunshine annually.

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, also known as thermal inertia, is an important factor in diur ...

is large, averaging annually.

Administrative divisions

The

of Barkam administers the following 3 residential communities () and 11 administrative villages (): * Majiang Community () * Meigu Community () * Dasa Community () * Adi Village () * Chabei Village () * Muye Village () * E'erya Village () * Mola Village () * Yingboluo Village () * Benzhen Village () * Dengjia Village () * Nazu Village () * Xisuo Village () * Chami Village ()

Demographics

As of the

2010 Chinese Census The 2010 Chinese census, officially the Sixth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国第六次全国人口普查), was conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China wi ...

, before it absorbed the now-defunct

of , Barkam had a population of 29,535. The combined population of Barkam and Zhuokeji totaled 30,547. Barkam had a population of 25,337 as of the 2000 Chinese Census.

References

Towns in Sichuan Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture {{Sichuan-geo-stub