Zayu County
Zayul County[2][lower-alpha 1] (Tibetan: རྫ་ཡུལ་རྫོང, Wylie: rdza yul rdzong, THL: dza yül dzong)[3][4] or Zayü County (Chinese: 察隅县; pinyin: Cháyú Xiàn)[3] is a county in the Nyingchi Prefecture in the southeastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China.
Zayul County
察隅县 • རྫ་ཡུལ་རྫོང་། | |
|---|---|
| Zayü County | |
.png.webp) Location of Zayul County (red) within the Nyingchi Prefecture (yellow) and the Tibet Autonomous Region | |
  Zayul Location in the Tibet Autonomous Region | |
| Coordinates: 28°39′40″N 97°28′01″E | |
| Country | People's Republic of China |
| Autonomous region | Tibet |
| Prefecture-level city | Nyingchi |
| Area | |
| • Total | 31,305 km2 (12,087 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 2,330 m (7,640 ft) |
| Population (2010)[1] | |
| • Total | 27,255 |
| • Density | 0.87/km2 (2.3/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (China Standard) |
The historical Zayul region is marked by the basin of the Zayul River, with its two branches: Rongto Chu (or the western Zayul River) and Zayul Chu (or the eastern Zayul River). The two branches join together near the town of Rima. After the junction, the Zayul river enters India's Arunachal Pradesh where it is called Lohit.
The Zayul county borders India and Burma to the south and China's Yunnan province to the southeast. To the northeast lies the Pome County and to the northwest the Medog County. Its headquarters of the county is Kyigang, referred to as the Zayul Town .[3]
In 1950, Zayul County was the epicenter of a devastating earthquake.
Geography
Zayul County is located in an area of highly varying topography, lying just south of the Tibetan Plateau in the mountainous region east of the Himalayas where the Transhimalayas transition to the Hengduan Mountains. Specifically, the county straddles the southern parts of the Baxoila Range, the eastern parts of the Kangri Karpo mountains, and the eastern parts of the Mishmi Hills.[5] Elevations generally decrease from northwest to southeast, with a maximal variation of 3,600 metres (11,800 ft): in the county, areas near the southern border have an elevation of 1,400 metres (4,600 ft),[6] while there are 10 peaks over 5,000 metres (16,000 ft),[6] the highest being Kawagarbo in the Meili Xue Shan at 6,740 metres (22,110 ft). The county has an average elevation of 2,300 metres (7,500 ft).[6] The primary rivers are the Zayul River through the central parts of the county and Nu River (Salween) in the east.
The county has an area of 31,305 square kilometres (12,087 sq mi).[6] Besides India, Burma, and Yunnan, it borders Zogang County to the north and Mêdog County to the southwest.
Climate
Owing to its moderate elevation (for Tibet), Zayul County has a subtropical highland climate (Köppen Cwb), a rarity in Tibet, with mild and quite dry winters, and warm, rainy summers. The rainy season lasts from March to September, and June through August each average more than 20 days of rainfall per month. The monthly daily average temperature ranges from 4.7 °C (40.5 °F) in January to 19 °C (66.2 °F) in July, and the annual mean is 12.1 °C (53.8 °F). The frost-free period is 280 days annually. Here, the diurnal temperature range is not large, maxing out at 16.8 °C (30.2 °F) in November. Its climate is well-suited to support a variety of agricultural and forestry products.[6]
| Climate data for Zayü (1981−2010) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 21.7 (71.1) |
22.0 (71.6) |
26.7 (80.1) |
28.9 (84.0) |
30.2 (86.4) |
32.3 (90.1) |
32.6 (90.7) |
31.1 (88.0) |
31.5 (88.7) |
29.5 (85.1) |
22.8 (73.0) |
19.8 (67.6) |
32.6 (90.7) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 12.0 (53.6) |
12.6 (54.7) |
14.2 (57.6) |
17.0 (62.6) |
21.8 (71.2) |
24.4 (75.9) |
24.9 (76.8) |
25.1 (77.2) |
23.7 (74.7) |
20.6 (69.1) |
16.8 (62.2) |
13.4 (56.1) |
18.9 (66.0) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 4.7 (40.5) |
6.0 (42.8) |
8.1 (46.6) |
10.7 (51.3) |
15.2 (59.4) |
18.3 (64.9) |
19.0 (66.2) |
18.9 (66.0) |
17.4 (63.3) |
13.2 (55.8) |
8.5 (47.3) |
5.3 (41.5) |
12.1 (53.8) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −0.2 (31.6) |
1.4 (34.5) |
3.8 (38.8) |
6.5 (43.7) |
10.6 (51.1) |
14.4 (57.9) |
15.3 (59.5) |
15.1 (59.2) |
13.8 (56.8) |
8.7 (47.7) |
3.4 (38.1) |
0.2 (32.4) |
7.8 (45.9) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −5.5 (22.1) |
−5.0 (23.0) |
−2.4 (27.7) |
−0.2 (31.6) |
2.5 (36.5) |
8.0 (46.4) |
9.5 (49.1) |
8.5 (47.3) |
6.0 (42.8) |
0.9 (33.6) |
−2.9 (26.8) |
−4.4 (24.1) |
−5.5 (22.1) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 15.2 (0.60) |
30.5 (1.20) |
89.2 (3.51) |
129.5 (5.10) |
81.8 (3.22) |
71.4 (2.81) |
109 (4.3) |
101.9 (4.01) |
76.9 (3.03) |
59.0 (2.32) |
17.3 (0.68) |
10.7 (0.42) |
792.4 (31.2) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 6.2 | 10.6 | 17.4 | 18.4 | 17.9 | 20.4 | 22.3 | 22.7 | 19.0 | 11.8 | 5.4 | 3.0 | 175.1 |
| Source: Weather China[6] | |||||||||||||
Environment
The central parts of Zayul County contain a large isolated section of the Northeastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests throughout the Zayul River valley and its tributaries.[7] The highland areas of Zayul contain Eastern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows.[8] The eastern parts of the county are classified as Nujiang Langcang Gorge alpine conifer and mixed forests.[9] There are, however, extremely dry areas within the Nu Valley in Zayul that support mostly succulents.
Gecko Hemiphyllodactylus zayuensis, named after Zayul, is only known from the county.[10]
Administrative divisions
The Zayul County has administration over three towns and three townships:
- Zayul Town (Chinese: 竹瓦根镇; pinyin: Zhúwǎgēn Zhèn) 28.6647°N 97.4663°E - County seat,
- Xiachayu (Lower Zayul) (Tibetan: རྫ་ཡུལ་རོང་སྨད, Wylie: rdza yul rong smad; Chinese: 下察隅镇; pinyin: Xià Cháyú Zhèn) 28°29′N 97°01′E
- Shangzayü (Upper Zayul) (Tibetan: རྫ་ཡུལ་རོང་སྟོད, Wylie: rdza yul rong stod; Chinese: 上察隅镇; pinyin: Shàng Cháyú Zhèn) 28°43′N 96°46′E
- Goyul Township (Tibetan: མགོ་ཡུལ་ཤང, Wylie: mgo yul shang; Chinese: 古玉乡; pinyin: Gǔyù Xiāng) 29.15°N 97.22°E
- Golag Township (Tibetan: མགོ་ལག, Wylie: mgo lag; Chinese: 古拉乡; pinyin: Gǔlā Xiāng) 29.03°N 97.95°E
- Tsawarong Township (Tibetan: ཚ་བ་རོང, Wylie: tsha ba rong shang; Chinese: 察瓦龙乡; pinyin: Cháwǎlóng Xiāng) 28.48°N 98.46°E
The town of Rima (Tibetan: རི་མ, Wylie: ri ma; Chinese: 力馬; pinyin: lì mǎ) 28.4362°N 97.0574°E, on the border with India's Arunachal Pradesh, was once the headquarters of the Zayul region and referred to as the "Zayul Town".[3]
There are also numerous villages scattered throughout the valleys in Zayü County administered by their respective towns or townships. Puzang is part of Upper Zayul and Shaqiong is part of Lower Zayul.
Sino-Indian border dispute
China claims nearly the entire Arunachal Pradesh as being part of Tibet, especially the Walong region in the Zayul River valley below Rima. The area was one of the theatres of the 1962 Sino-Indian War.
Notes
- Alternative spellings include Dzayul, Chayul and Tsayul, as well as their Chinese variants Zayü, Chayu and Tsayu.[3]
References
- "Cháyú Xiàn". City Population. Thomas Brinkhoff. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
- Lamb, The McMahon Line, Vol. 2 (1966), p. 275; Mehra, The McMahon Line and After (1974), p. 74
- Nyingchi Prefecture-Level City, KNAB, retrieved 5 July 2021.
- THL’s Online Tibetan Transliteration Converter and THL’s Online Tibetan Phonetics Converter, invoked 31 August 2022.
- Atlas of China. Beijing, China: SinoMaps Press. 2006. ISBN 9787503141782.
- 察隅 - 气象数据 -中国气象数据网 (in Chinese (China)). Weather China. Retrieved 2012-06-17.
- "Northeastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests". Global Species. Myers Enterprises II. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
- "Eastern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows". Global Species. Myers Enterprises II. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
- "Nujiang Langcang Gorge alpine conifer and mixed forests". Global Species. Myers Enterprises II. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
- Hemiphyllodactylus zayuensis at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 2 February 2022.
Bibliography
- Kingdon Ward, F.; Smith, Malcolm (November 1934), "The Himalaya East of the Tsangpo", The Geographical Journal, 84 (5): 369–394, doi:10.2307/1786924, JSTOR 1786924
- Lamb, Alastair (1966), The McMahon Line: a Study in the Relations Between, India, China and Tibet, 1904 to 1914, Vol. 2: Hardinge, McMahon and the Simla Conference, Routledge & K. Paul
- Mehra, Parshotam (1974), The McMahon Line and After: A Study of the Triangular Contest on India's North-eastern Frontier Between Britain, China and Tibet, 1904-47, Macmillan, ISBN 9780333157374 – via archive.org
External links
- Zayul County, OpenStreetMap, retrieved 2 October 2022.
- Zayul river basin, OpenStreetMap, retrieved 2 October 2022.
