Golog (Golok or Guoluo) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture ( zh, c=果洛藏族自治州 , p=Guǒluò Zàngzú Zìzhìzhōu; ) is an

autonomous prefecture Autonomous prefectures ( zh, c=自治州, p=zìzhìzhōu) are one type of autonomous administrative divisions of China, autonomous administrative division in China, existing at the Prefecture-level divisions of China, prefectural level, with eith ...

occupying the southeastern corner of

Qinghai Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...

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 ...

. The prefecture has an

area Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...

of and its

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

is located in Maqên County. Due to its special geographical location and natural environment, the entire autonomous preference has been included in the Chinese largest natural environmental protection area — the Sanjiangyuan National Park.

Geography

Golog Prefecture is located in the southeastern part of

, in the upper basin of the

Yellow River The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...

. Gyaring Lake and Ngoring Lake on the western edge of the prefecture are considered to be the source of the

. However, these lakes do receive water from rivers that flow from locations even further west, in Qumarleb County of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The lay of the land of the prefecture is largely determined by the Amne Machin mountain range (max elevation 6,282 m), which runs in the general northwest- to-southeast direction across the entire prefecture, and beyond. The existence of the ridge results in one of the great bends of the

, which first flows for several hundreds of kilometers toward the east and southeast along through the entire Golog Prefecture, along the southern side of the Amne Machin Range, until it reaches the borders of Gansu and Sichuan; it and then turns almost 180 degrees and flows toward the northwest for through several prefectures of the northeastern Qinghai, forming a section of the northeastern border of the Golog prefecture. Several sections of the Sanjiangyuan ("Sources of Three Rivers") National Nature Reserve are within the prefecture.

Climate

Demographics

According to the 2000

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, Guoluo has 137,940 inhabitants with a population density of 1.81 inhabitants/km².

Ethnic groups in Guoluo, 2000 census

Subdivisions

The prefecture is subdivided into six county-level divisions: six

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

Transport

Construction for Guoluo Maqin Airport began in September 2012 and the airport opened on 1 July 2016. of new roads are expected to be built by 2015.

References

External links

Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
{{authority control Tibetan autonomous prefectures Amdo Prefecture-level divisions of Qinghai