Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

Hainan Prefecture 海南州 · 海南藏族自治州 · མཚོ་ལྷོ་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ
Qinghai Lake
Location of Hainan Prefecture in Qinghai
Country	People's Republic of China
Province	Qinghai
Named for	South of Qinghai Lake
Prefecture seat	Gonghe County (Qabqa)
Area
• Autonomous prefecture	44,546.21 km2 (17,199.39 sq mi)
• Water	2,981.55 km2 (1,151.18 sq mi)
Highest elevation	5,305 m (17,405 ft)
Lowest elevation	2,168 m (7,113 ft)
Population  (2020)
• Autonomous prefecture	446,996
• Density	10/km2 (26/sq mi)
• Rural	267,100
GDP[1]
• Autonomous prefecture	CN¥ 14.0 billion US$ 2.3 billion
• Per capita	CN¥ 30,379 US$ 4,878
Time zone	UTC+8 (China Standard)
ISO 3166 code	CN-QH-25
Website	www.hainanzhou.gov.cn

Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, formerly known as Tsolho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture^[2] (Chinese: 海南藏族自治州; Tibetan: མཚོ་ལྷོ་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་), is an autonomous prefecture of Northeastern Qinghai Province in Western China. The prefecture has an area of 45,895 square kilometres (17,720 sq mi) and its seat is located in Gonghe County. Its name literally means "south of (Qinghai) Lake."^[3]

History

The land of Hainan prefecture was originally inhabited by the Qiang and Rong people. During the Western Han it was incorporated in the Chinese dynasties. In 60 BC, Guide County was established, then called Guan County. It was governed under Jincheng (present day Lanzhou).^[3]

Demographics

In 2019, the prefecture had 478,000 inhabitants, with 331,995 belonging to ethnic minorities. The following is a list of ethnic groups in the prefecture, as of 2019.^[4]

Administrative divisions

Hainan Prefecture was established in 1953.^[5] The prefecture is subdivided into 5 county-level divisions (5 counties):

Map
Gonghe County Tongde County Guide County Xinghai County Guinan County
Name	Hanzi	Hanyu Pinyin	Tibetan	Wylie Tibetan Pinyin	Population (2010 Census)	Area (km2)	Density (/km2)
Gonghe County	共和县	Gònghé Xiàn	གསེར་ཆེན་རྫོང་	gser chen rdzong Gêrqên Zong	122,966	16,050	7.66
Tongde County	同德县	Tóngdé Xiàn	འབའ་རྫོང་	'ba' rdzong Pa Zong	64,369	6,494	9.91
Guide County	贵德县	Guìdé Xiàn	ཁྲི་ཀ་རྫོང་	thri ka rdzong Triga Zong	101,771	3,600	28.26
Xinghai County	兴海县	Xīnghǎi Xiàn	བྲག་དཀར་རྫོང་	brag dkar rdzong Zhag'gar Zong	76,025	13,158	5.77
Guinan County	贵南县	Guìnán Xiàn	མང་རྫོང་	mang rdzong Mang Zong	76,560	6,593	11.61

Geography

Hainan is rather mountainous, with the Gonghe basin in the middle of the area. The elevation ranges from 5305 m to 2168 m, averaging 3000 m. The largest lake is Qinghai Lake, and the prefecture is traversed by the Yellow River.

Most of the land, 78.67%, is natural grassland used for grazing. 2.19% is cultivated for agriculture, 4.14% is forest, 6.69% is covered by water and rivers, 0.53% by residential area and industry and the remaining 7.7% consists of barren areas such as glaciers, swamps and desert.^[3]

Economy

Hainan's economy is specialized in animal husbandry, hydropower and tourism.^[3]

See also

• Longyangxia Dam

References

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

External links

• Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Government Website

36°17′N 100°37′E / 36.29°N 100.62°E / 36.29; 100.62