Hoh Xil
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| Hoh Xil | |
|---|---|
| Tibetan name | |
| Tibetan: | ཧོ་ཧོ་ཞི་ལི ཨ་ཆེན་གངས་རྒྱལ |
| Wylie transliteration: | ho ho zhi li a chen gangs rgyal |
| pronunciation in IPA: | [hohoɕili atɕẽkaŋcɛː] |
| official transcription (PRC): | Hohoxili Aqênganggyai |
| THDL: | Hohoshili Achenganggyel |
| other transcriptions: | khu khu zhil |
| Chinese name | |
| traditional: | 可可西里 阿卿貢嘉 |
| simplified: | 可可西里 阿卿贡嘉 |
| Pinyin: | Kěkěxīlǐ Āqīnggòngjiā |
Hoh Xil (Mongolian ᠬᠥᠬᠡ ᠰᠢᠯ Köke sil, Хөх шил Khökh shil "Blue ridge"; Tibetan script ཁུ་ཁུ་ཞིལ།, sinicization 可可西里, pinyin Kěkěxīlǐ; Tibetan ཨ་ཆེན་གངས་རྒྱལ།། Aqên'ganggyai "lord of ten thousand mountains"; Chinese: 阿卿贡嘉; pinyin: Āqīnggòngjiā) is an isolated region in the northwestern part of the Tibetan plateau in China. It is China's least and the world's third-least populated area.
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[edit] Geography
The region covers 83,000 square kilometres at an average elevation of 4,800 meters, stretches in a meridional (east-west) direction between the Tanggula and Kunlun mountain chains in the border areas of Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Northwest China's Qinghai Province and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The southeastern part of the Hoh Xil, drained by the Chumar River, is one of the major headwater sources of the Yangtze River. The rest of the region is endorheic, with drainage to numerous isolated lakes; this area sometimes described by hydrologists as the "Hoh Xil lake district".[1]
45,000 square kilometres of the Hoh Xil region, at an average elevation of 4,600 metres, were designated a national nature reserve in 1995.
[edit] Wildlife
Despite the harsh climate, Hoh Xil is home to more than 230 species of wild animals, 20 of which are under state protection, including the wild yak, wild donkey, white-lip deer, brown bear and the endangered Tibetan antelope or chiru.
The abundant plateau pika, a small burrowing rodent, is the main food of the region's brown bears; the bears also feed on the yak and antelope.[2]
The hitherto little-known region, as well the struggling Tibetan antelope, became household names in China upon the release of the film Kekexili: Mountain Patrol in 2004.
[edit] Transportation
The Qingzang railway and China National Highway 109 run along the eastern boundary of the reserve.[3] The Fenghuoshan Tunnel, presently the world's highest railway tunnel (1338 m long, with the entrances located at the elevation of 4905 above the sea level), is constructed in the area.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Zheng, Mianping (1997), An introduction to saline lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Volume 76 of Monographiae biologicae, Springer, p. 21, ISBN 0792340981, http://books.google.com/books?id=NvD-RMX58cIC&pg=PA21
- ^ Xu Aichun, Jiang Zhigang, Li Chunwang, Guo Jixun, Wu Guosheng, Cai Ping, "Summer Food Habits of Brown Bears in Kekexili Nature Reserve, Qinghai: Tibetan Plateau, China". Ursus, Vol. 17, No. 2 (2006), pp. 132-137
- ^ [1]
- ^ 风火山隧道 (Fenghuoshan Tunnel)
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 35°09′N 91°00′E / 35.15°N 91°E
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