The Rutog Town (), called Rituzhen in Chinese (; ),
KNAB place name database. is a town and the seat of Rutog County in the far western

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), often shortened to Tibet in English or Xizang in Pinyin, Hanyu Pinyin, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China. It was established in 1965 to replace the ...

. It is also a major military base for China near the disputed border with India allowing it to press its claims militarily. The town was built around in 1999 by the Chinese administration of Tibet on the China National Highway 219.: "Further south the road skirts around the eastern end of Lake Palgon angongand soon after arrives at new Rutok Xian, where a permit checkpoint awaits the unwary. The old town of Rutok, overlooked by a ruined hilltop dzong (fort) and a recently restored monastery, is about 10 km west of the road and a few kilometres to the south of the new town." Prior to that, the seat of the county was at Rudok or Rutog Dzong, about 10 km northwest, which had been its capital for more than a thousand years. The new Rutog Town is located 120 kilometres by road northwest of

Shiquanhe Shiquanhe (), known in Tibetan as Sênggêkanbab () or Sênggêzangbo, is the main town (China), town and administrative seat of Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Shiquanhe is located on the bank of Sênggê Zangbo, the river sour ...

(also called Ali or Ngari) and 10 kilometres south of Lake Pangong. The town has a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of about 1000 people.

Town and garrison

Prior to the construction of the town around 1999, the location contained a small Gyelgosang community (; ) of the Derub village (). Lacking a river of its own, it is watered by a canal dug from the Maga Tsangpo river at Derub. Tibetologist Gyurme Dorje states that the newly built town is basically a Chinese military garrison, as does the Lonely Planet guide. The town serves as a base for China's military operations against India along the disputed Sino-Indian border in

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

and the associated "salami tactics". Normally able to accommodate 5,000 troops, the camp's capacity was expanded to house 15,000 to 18,000 troops by 2021. Satellite imagery indicated that China broke ground in August 2019,Sushant Singh
From Ladakh to Eastern Sector, Latest Satellite Images Show Additional Chinese Pressure on India
India Cable, 21 December 2021. and started extending the facilities in the waterless valley to the northeast of the town. New garrison facilities, radar stations, surface-to-air missile sites, heliports and tank drills have been constructed.Saikiran Kannan
China consolidates Rutog base near Pangong Tso to house disengaged PLA troops
India Today, 22 February 2021.

Township

The extended township of Rutog contains the Old Rudok town and the valley of Shaldat and Spanggur lakes towards the Ladakh border. It is bounded in the north by the Pangong lake and in the south by the Maga Tsangpo basin. The valley contains villages such as Chulung 'Ogma (), Recho (or Retso; ) and Shingzhang () at the southeastern end of Spanggur Lake.

Transportation

The China National Highway 219 (G219) connects Rutog to

, the capital of the

Ngari Prefecture Ngari Prefecture () or Ali Prefecture ( zh, s=阿里地区 , t=阿里地區 , p=Ālǐ Dìqū) is a prefecture of China's Tibet Autonomous Region covering Western Tibet, whose traditional name is Ngari Khorsum. Its administrative centre and large ...

, Gar Günsa, the home of Ngari Gunsa Airport, and other venues to the southeast. In the north, the highway passes through the disputed

Aksai Chin Aksai Chin is a region administered by China partly in Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang, and partly in Rutog County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet, and constituting the easternmost portion of the larger Kashmir regio ...

region and goes to

Kashgar Kashgar () or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is a city in the Tarim Basin region of southern Xinjiang, China. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, located near the country's border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. For over 2,000 years, Kashgar ...

. The

Lonely Planet Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books. History 20th century Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen Wheeler, Maureen and Tony Wheeler. In 19 ...

guide mentioned in 1999 that the visitors coming from Kashgar were required to have a permit to enter Rutog. At Derub, a road called Musi Xian branches off from G219 towards the Spanggur Lake near the Indian border. Yeban Xian branches off from Musi Xian near Shaldat Lake and heads to the Indus Valley and, via Demchok, into the Tsamda County. At the northeastern end of the Pangong Lake, another offshoot of G219 called Banying Xian heads to the Chinese military base at Kongka La. In addition, China has recently started constructing a bridge over the Pangong Lake near the Khurnak Plain. This is intended to link up Musi Xian and Banying Xian, so that China can move troops and resources speedily across the two sides of the Pangong Lake.Tarushi Aswani
China’s Bridge Over the Pangong Tso in Ladakh
The Diplomat, 16 January 2022.

Notes

References

Bibliography