Haidong Prefecture

For other uses, see Haedong (disambiguation).

Haidong Prefecture 海东地区
—  Prefecture  —
The territory of Haidong prefecture-level city (yellow) within Qinghai
Country	China
Province	Qinghai
Prefecture seat	Ping'an County
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+8)

Haidong Prefecture (simplified Chinese: 海东地区; traditional Chinese: 海東地區; pinyin: Hǎidōng Dìqū; Wylie: Haitung) is a prefecture of Qinghai province in Western China. Its name literally means "east of the (Qinghai) Lake."

Geography

Haidong is the easternmost division of Qinghai province. It is bounded by Xining, the provincial capital, to the West, the Datong River Valley to the north, Gansu to the east, and the Yellow River to the south. Mountain ranges tower above the district of which the main valley is the one of the Huang Shui (Tib. Tsong Chu), a major tributary of the Yellow River. This valley stretcehs from west to east and makes up - together with the area around Xining, the landscape which is called Tsongkha ("Onion Valley") by Tibetans. It has a total area of 13,100 square kilometres (5,100 sq mi)

Administrative divisions

Map	#	Name	Hanzi	Hanyu Pinyin	Population (2003 est.)	Area (km²)	Density (/km²)
	1	Ping'an County	平安县	Píng'ān Xiàn	110,000	750	147
	2	Ledu County	乐都县	Lèdū Xiàn	280,000	2,821	99
	3	Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County	民和回族 土族自治县	Mínhé Huízú Tǔzú Zìzhìxiàn	370,000	1,780	208
	4	Huzhu Tu Autonomous County	互助土族 自治县	Hùzhù Tǔzú Zìzhìxiàn	370,000	3,321	111
	5	Hualong Hui Autonomous County	化隆回族 自治县	Huàlóng Huízú Zìzhìxiàn	230,000	2,740	84
	6	Xunhua Salar Autonomous County	循化撒拉族 自治县	Xúnhuà Sǎlāzú Zìzhìxiàn	110,000	1,749	63

Demographics

As of 2005, the total population of Haidong is approximately 1,480,000. It is the most densely populated area of Qinghai, with almost a third of the province's population (its surface makes up only two percent of Qinghai).

Further reading

• A. Gruschke: The Cultural Monuments of Tibet’s Outer Provinces: Amdo - Volume 1. The Qinghai Part of Amdo, White Lotus Press, Bangkok 2001. ISBN 974-480-049-6
• Tsering Shakya: The Dragon in the Land of Snows. A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947, London 1999, ISBN 0-14-019615-3