Chamdo, officially Qamdo[2][3] (Tibetan: ཆབ་མདོ, Wylie: chab mdo, ZYPY: qamdo) and also known in Chinese as Changdu (Chinese: 昌都; pinyin: Chang Du),[4] is a prefecture-level city in the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Its seat is the town of Chengguan in Karuo District. Chamdo is Tibet's third largest city after Lhasa and Shigatse.[5]
Qamdo 昌都市 ཆབ་མདོ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར། | |
|---|---|
 Mekong River to the south of Chamdo Town | |
.png) Location of Qamdo Prefecture within China | |
| Coordinates (Qamdo municipal government): 31°08′35″N 97°10′12″E / 31.143°N 97.170°E | |
| Country | People's Republic of China |
| Autonomous region | Tibet |
| County-level divisions |
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| Prefecture seat | Karub District (Chengguan) |
| Area | |
| • Total | 110,154 km2 (42,531 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 3,240 m (10,630 ft) |
| Population (2019) | |
| • Total | 798,067 |
| • Density | 7.2/km2 (19/sq mi) |
| GDP[1] | |
| • Total | CN¥ 27.9 billion US$ 4.3 billion |
| • Per capita | CN¥ 36,574 US$ 5,668 |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (China Standard) |
| ISO 3166 code | CN-XZ-03 |
| Qamdo | |||||||
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 "Qamdo" in Chinese characters | |||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||
| Chinese | 昌都 | ||||||
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| Tibetan name | |||||||
| Tibetan | ཆབ་མདོ། | ||||||
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Chamdo is divided into 11 county-level divisions: one district and ten counties. The main district is Karuo District. Other counties include Jonda County, Gonjo County, Riwoche County, Dengqen County, Zhag'yab County, Baxoi County, Zognang County, Maarkam County, Lhorong County, and Banbar County.
History
On 11 July 2014 Chamdo Prefecture was upgraded into a prefecture-level city.[6]
Languages
Languages spoken in Chamdo include Khams Tibetan and the Chamdo languages of Lamo, Larong, and Drag-yab.[7]
Transportation
Air
Changdu Bangda Airport, opened in 1994, is located 126 kilometres (78 miles) from Chengguan Town in Karub District. The long commute (2.5 hours by mountain road) is the result of no flat land closer to the city being available to construct an airport.
Road
China National Highway 214 and China National Highway 317 are the main roads in and out of Chamdo.
Subdivisions
The city is subdivided into 11 county-level divisions: 1 district and 10 counties
| Map | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Hanzi | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie | Population (2010 Census) | Area (km2) | Density (/km2) | |
| Karuo District | 卡若区 | Kǎruò Qū | མཁར་རོ་ཆུས། | mkhar ro chus | 116,500 | 10,794 | 10.79 | |
| Jomda County | 江达县 | Jiāngdá Xiàn | འཇོ་མདའ་རྫོང་། | 'jo mda' rdzong | 76,026 | 13,164 | 5.77 | |
| Gonjo County | 贡觉县 | Gòngjué Xiàn | གོ་འཇོ་རྫོང་། | go 'jo rdzong | 40,434 | 6,323 | 6.39 | |
| Riwoqê County | 类乌齐县 | Lèiwūqí Xiàn | རི་བོ་ཆེ་རྫོང་། | ri bo che rdzong | 49,870 | 6,355 | 7.84 | |
| Dêngqên County | 丁青县 | Dīngqīng Xiàn | སྟེང་ཆེན་རྫོང་། | steng chen rdzong | 69,888 | 12,408 | 5.63 | |
| Zhag'yab County | 察雅县 | Cháyǎ Xiàn | བྲག་གཡབ་རྫོང་། | brag g-yab rdzong | 56,789 | 8,251 | 6.88 | |
| Baxoi County | 八宿县 | Bāsù Xiàn | དཔའ་ཤོད་རྫོང་། | dpa' shod rdzong | 39,021 | 12,336 | 3.16 | |
| Zogang County | 左贡县 | Zuǒgòng Xiàn | མཛོ་སྒང་རྫོང་། | mdzo sgang rdzong | 44,320 | 11,837 | 3.74 | |
| Markam County | 芒康县 | Mángkāng Xiàn | སྨར་ཁམས་རྫོང་། | smar khams rdzong | 81,399 | 11,576 | 7.03 | |
| Lhorong County | 洛隆县 | Luòlóng Xiàn | ལྷོ་རོང་རྫོང་། | lho rong rdzong | 47,491 | 8,048 | 5.90 | |
| Banbar County | 边坝县 | Biānbà Xiàn | དཔལ་འབར་རྫོང་། | dpal 'bar rdzong | 35,767 | 8,774 | 4.07 | |
Climate
Chamdo has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dwb) in the Karub District and an alpine subarctic climate (Köppen: Dwc) in other counties.
| Climate data for Chamdo (Karuo District, 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1981–2010) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 21.8 (71.2) | 21.4 (70.5) | 26.1 (79.0) | 28.1 (82.6) | 29.5 (85.1) | 32.7 (90.9) | 32.0 (89.6) | 30.8 (87.4) | 30.5 (86.9) | 27.7 (81.9) | 22.3 (72.1) | 20.2 (68.4) | 32.7 (90.9) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 8.8 (47.8) | 10.7 (51.3) | 13.5 (56.3) | 16.9 (62.4) | 21.0 (69.8) | 23.8 (74.8) | 24.3 (75.7) | 23.9 (75.0) | 21.9 (71.4) | 17.5 (63.5) | 13.2 (55.8) | 10.0 (50.0) | 17.1 (62.8) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −1.5 (29.3) | 1.4 (34.5) | 4.8 (40.6) | 8.3 (46.9) | 12.4 (54.3) | 15.6 (60.1) | 16.4 (61.5) | 15.8 (60.4) | 13.4 (56.1) | 8.4 (47.1) | 2.8 (37.0) | −1.1 (30.0) | 8.1 (46.5) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −9.4 (15.1) | −6.4 (20.5) | −2.3 (27.9) | 1.7 (35.1) | 5.7 (42.3) | 9.5 (49.1) | 10.9 (51.6) | 10.3 (50.5) | 7.7 (45.9) | 2.1 (35.8) | −4.6 (23.7) | −8.9 (16.0) | 1.4 (34.5) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −19.4 (−2.9) | −17.4 (0.7) | −13.0 (8.6) | −7.7 (18.1) | −4.0 (24.8) | 1.1 (34.0) | 2.9 (37.2) | 1.1 (34.0) | −0.9 (30.4) | −7.0 (19.4) | −13.6 (7.5) | −20.7 (−5.3) | −20.7 (−5.3) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 1.6 (0.06) | 4.0 (0.16) | 10.5 (0.41) | 23.9 (0.94) | 42.2 (1.66) | 80.7 (3.18) | 110.7 (4.36) | 102.8 (4.05) | 75.2 (2.96) | 33.1 (1.30) | 4.8 (0.19) | 1.3 (0.05) | 490.8 (19.32) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 2.2 | 3.6 | 6.3 | 11.3 | 13.5 | 18.6 | 19.9 | 18.9 | 17.0 | 9.8 | 2.9 | 1.3 | 125.3 |
| Average snowy days | 3.9 | 7.3 | 11.0 | 6.9 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 2.9 | 4.8 | 2.9 | 40.5 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 34 | 35 | 40 | 47 | 49 | 58 | 65 | 66 | 66 | 58 | 45 | 37 | 50 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 204.1 | 184.8 | 202.9 | 201.4 | 215.1 | 188.9 | 190.2 | 192.6 | 192.4 | 199.0 | 205.0 | 212.3 | 2,388.7 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 63 | 59 | 54 | 52 | 50 | 45 | 44 | 47 | 53 | 57 | 65 | 68 | 55 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration[8][9] | |||||||||||||