Shangri-La County
| Xamgyi'nyilha County Shangri-La / Xianggelila County 香格里拉县 |
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| — County — | |
| 香格里拉县 Xamgyi'nyilha County |
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 Shangri-La (Xamgyi'nyilha)
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| Coordinates: 27°50′N 99°42′E / 27.833°N 99.7°E | |
| Country | People's Republic of China |
| Province | Yunnan |
| Prefecture | Dêqên |
| Area | |
| • Total | 11,613 km2 (4,484 sq mi) |
| Population | |
| • Total | 130,000 |
| • Density | 11.2/km2 (29.0/sq mi) |
| Time zone | China Standard (UTC+8) |
| Postal code | 674400 |
| Area code(s) | 0887 |
| Website | http://www.xianggelila.org/ |
| Shangri-La County | |||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 香格里拉县 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 香格里拉縣 | ||||||
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| Former Chinese names | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 中甸县 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 中甸縣 | ||||||
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| Tibetan name | |||||||
| Tibetan | རྒྱལ་ཐང་རྫོང་ | ||||||
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Shangri-La (Xamgyi'nyilha) County is a primarily Tibetan county in northwestern Yunnan province, Southwest China and is the location of the seat of the Dêqên Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
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[edit] Name
The county was formerly called Zhongdian County (Chinese: 中甸县 Zhōngdiàn Xiàn) but was renamed in 2001 after the fictional land of Shangri-La in the 1933 James Hilton novel Lost Horizon, in an effort to promote tourism in the area. The local Tibetan population previously referred to it by the name Gyalthang (Tibetan: རྒྱལ་ཐང་རྫོང་), which is the Tibetan name for Jiantang Town (建塘镇 Jiàntáng Zhèn), the county seat.
[edit] Towns
[edit] Climate
Shangri-La has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dwb), with influences from the monsoon and the high elevation. Winters are chilly but sunny, with nighttime lows often dropping below −15 °C (5 °F), while summers are cool, with daytime highs of around 19 °C (66 °F), and feature frequent rain; more than 70% of the annual precipitation is delivered from June to September. Except during the summer, nights are usually sharply cooler than the days. Despite the dryness of the winter, the small amount of precipitation is generally sufficient to cause major transportation dislocations and isolate the area between November and March.
| Climate data for Shangri-La (1971−2000) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 18.3 (64.9) |
16.2 (61.2) |
21.5 (70.7) |
22.7 (72.9) |
24.2 (75.6) |
25.6 (78.1) |
25.4 (77.7) |
25.1 (77.2) |
23.8 (74.8) |
20.9 (69.6) |
18.8 (65.8) |
17.9 (64.2) |
25.6 (78.1) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 6.3 (43.3) |
6.7 (44.1) |
9.2 (48.6) |
12.5 (54.5) |
17.0 (62.6) |
19.2 (66.6) |
19.3 (66.7) |
18.9 (66.0) |
17.4 (63.3) |
14.7 (58.5) |
11.0 (51.8) |
8.2 (46.8) |
13.4 (56.1) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −11.2 (11.8) |
−7.4 (18.7) |
−3.6 (25.5) |
−0.5 (31.1) |
3.4 (38.1) |
8.4 (47.1) |
9.8 (49.6) |
9.1 (48.4) |
7.4 (45.3) |
1.3 (34.3) |
−5.8 (21.6) |
−10.6 (12.9) |
0.0 (32.0) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −23.9 (−11.0) |
−20.2 (−4.4) |
−17.5 (0.5) |
−10 (14) |
−7.4 (18.7) |
−2.1 (28.2) |
1.1 (34.0) |
1.0 (33.8) |
−3 (27) |
−11.1 (12.0) |
−16.5 (2.3) |
−27.4 (−17.3) |
−27.4 (−17.3) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 7.8 (0.307) |
14.4 (0.567) |
34.8 (1.37) |
32.4 (1.276) |
25.9 (1.02) |
80.2 (3.157) |
157.4 (6.197) |
151.3 (5.957) |
80.6 (3.173) |
44.5 (1.752) |
12.7 (0.5) |
4.9 (0.193) |
646.9 (25.469) |
| Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 4.2 | 6.6 | 9.3 | 11.1 | 11.5 | 17.9 | 23.2 | 23.1 | 19.3 | 10.1 | 4.0 | 2.1 | 142.4 |
| Source: Weather China | |||||||||||||
[edit] National park
- Pudacuo National Park, the first national park in China to meet IUCN standards, also incorporates the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas World Heritage Site.
[edit] Transport
- The town's airport is Diqing Airport. Covering an area of 225 hectares, it is one of the biggest airports in the northwest of Yunnan Province. There are flights to Kunming, Chengdu, Lhasa, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
- Many travelers use the county town as a gateway into Tibet, either travelling many days overland by jeep to Lhasa, or by flying from the city's airport. However, the town itself is a tourist destination, primarily due to the nearby Gandan Sumtseling Monastery (Chinese: 松赞林寺 Sōngzànlín Sì), Pudacuo National Park, and Tiger Leaping Gorge.
- China National Highway 214
[edit] See also
- Shangri-La
- Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas - UNESCO World Heritage Site
[edit] External links
- Shangri-La County Official Website
- Shangrila from Wikitravel
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Zhongdian |
Coordinates: 27°50′N 99°42.1′E / 27.833°N 99.7017°E
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