Nyingchi (Wylie: nying khri grong khyer, THL: nying tri drong khyer, ZYPY: nyingchi chongkyêr), also known as Linzhi (Chinese: 林芝; pinyin: Linzhi) or Nyingtri, is a prefecture-level city in the southeast of the Tibet Autonomous Region in China. The administrative seat of Nyingchi is Bayi District.

Nyingchi
林芝市 · ཉིང་ཁྲི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།
An intersection in Bayi, Bayi District, Nyingchi
An intersection in Bayi, Bayi District, Nyingchi
Location of Nyingchi Prefecture within China.png
Location of Nyingchi Prefecture within China.png
Coordinates (Nyingchi municipal government): 29°38′56″N 94°21′41″E / 29.6488°N 94.3614°E / 29.6488; 94.3614
CountryPeople's Republic of China
Autonomous regionTibet
City seatBayi District (Bayi Town)
Area
 • Total
116,175 km2 (44,855 sq mi)
Population
 • Total
200,000
 • Density1.7/km2 (4.5/sq mi)
GDP[1]
 • TotalCN¥ 10.4 billion
US$ 1.7 billion
 • Per capitaCN¥ 49,039
US$ 7,873
Time zoneUTC+8 (China Standard)
ISO 3166 codeCN-XZ-04
Nyingchi
Chinese name
Chinese林芝
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinLínzhī
Tibetan name
Tibetanཉིང་ཁྲི་ས།
Transcriptions
Wylienying khri
Tibetan PinyinNyingchi

Nyingchi is the location of Buchu Monastery.

Economy

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Tourism

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Nyingchi mountains

The average elevation of Nyingchi is 3,040 meters (9,974 feet), which is the lowest compared with the other prefectures in Tibet. The relatively low elevation compared to other regions of the Tibetan plateau yields a lower risk of altitude sickness. Guangdong province announced in 2012 that it plans to invest more than RMB 400 million (US$63 million) in Nyingchi's tourism industry. According to the plan, Guangdong will help build 22 "prosperous model villages" in Nyingchi in counties such as Bomê and Zayü.[2]

Transportation

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Nyingchi Mainling Airport

It takes about 5 hours to travel from Lhasa to Nyingchi by a highway opened at the end of 2018.[3] Nyingchi is connected to Lhasa by the 435-kilometer Lhasa–Nyingchi railway, completed in 2021. The journey from Lhasa by train takes 2.5 hours.[4]

The Linzhi Milin Airport was opened in Nyingchi in March 2017, which may be used to support both commercial air traffic and the People's Liberation Army Air Force.[5]

Climate

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Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as subtropical highland (Cwb).[6]

Climate data for Nyingchi, elevation 2,992 m (9,816 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1981–2010)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 19.4
(66.9)
20.2
(68.4)
24.0
(75.2)
25.3
(77.5)
28.0
(82.4)
29.0
(84.2)
31.4
(88.5)
29.6
(85.3)
30.2
(86.4)
24.5
(76.1)
19.9
(67.8)
16.7
(62.1)
31.4
(88.5)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 8.9
(48.0)
10.9
(51.6)
13.8
(56.8)
17.0
(62.6)
19.7
(67.5)
21.7
(71.1)
22.5
(72.5)
22.4
(72.3)
20.7
(69.3)
17.5
(63.5)
14.0
(57.2)
10.3
(50.5)
16.6
(61.9)
Daily mean °C (°F) 1.1
(34.0)
3.3
(37.9)
6.3
(43.3)
9.3
(48.7)
12.4
(54.3)
15.4
(59.7)
16.5
(61.7)
16.0
(60.8)
14.3
(57.7)
10.5
(50.9)
5.8
(42.4)
2.0
(35.6)
9.4
(48.9)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) −4.6
(23.7)
−2.1
(28.2)
1.2
(34.2)
4.3
(39.7)
7.5
(45.5)
11.2
(52.2)
12.5
(54.5)
12.0
(53.6)
10.4
(50.7)
5.8
(42.4)
−0.1
(31.8)
−3.8
(25.2)
4.5
(40.1)
Record low °C (°F) −15.3
(4.5)
−13.3
(8.1)
−10.1
(13.8)
−4.6
(23.7)
−1.6
(29.1)
3.0
(37.4)
3.9
(39.0)
2.9
(37.2)
−1.0
(30.2)
−5.0
(23.0)
−10.4
(13.3)
−15.3
(4.5)
−15.3
(4.5)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 2.0
(0.08)
4.1
(0.16)
21.2
(0.83)
47.9
(1.89)
80.1
(3.15)
125.2
(4.93)
137.4
(5.41)
128.2
(5.05)
110.3
(4.34)
37.3
(1.47)
4.3
(0.17)
0.7
(0.03)
698.7
(27.51)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) 3.1 5.2 11.3 16.9 19.9 23.7 23.1 21.1 20.7 12.8 3.3 1.5 162.6
Average snowy days 7.3 10.8 8.4 1.2 0.2 0 0 0 0 0.1 1.8 4.0 33.8
Average relative humidity (%) 49 51 57 62 65 72 75 75 75 65 55 51 63
Mean monthly sunshine hours 189.5 157.3 167.0 158.0 161.2 122.1 131.3 141.2 132.8 166.4 191.3 201.3 1,919.4
Percent possible sunshine 58 50 45 41 38 29 31 35 36 48 60 64 45
Source: China Meteorological Administration[7][8]

Flora and fauna

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Basum Lake in Gongbo'gyamda County
 
View of the Nyang River near Nyingchi

"According to local forestry officials, Nyingchi hosts the country's largest primitive forest region that covers 26.4 billion cubic metres, storing over 800 million cubic metres of wood."[9] The forests of Bomi, Zayu and Loyu have ancient dragon spruces which reach heights of over 80 metres and diameters of 2.5 metres. Wildlife species include "the Bengal tiger, leopard, bear, snub-nosed monkey, antelope and lesser panda."[9]

"There are over 2,000 species of higher plants, including some 100 species of xylophyta, 165 species of medical herbs and fungus. Crops include "rice, peanut, apple, orange, banana, lemon." Agricultural products include medicinal materials, "edible fungus, orange, tangerine, sugar cane, honey peach, apple, pear, grape, walnut and other fruits." [9]

Administrative subdivisions

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The two counties of Zayü (察隅县) and Mêdog (墨脱县), collectively known as part of South Tibet, are considered by the Chinese government to be under Chinese jurisdiction.

Map
# Name Hanzi Hanyu Pinyin Tibetan Wylie Population (2010 Census) Area (km²) Density (/km²)
1 Bayi District 巴宜区 Bāyí Qū བྲག་ཡིབ་ཆུས། brag yib chus 54,702 8,536 6.40
2 Gongbo'gyamda County 工布江达县 Gōngbùjiāngdá Xiàn ཀོང་པོ་རྒྱ་མདའ་རྫོང་། kong po rgya mda' rdzong 29,929 12,960 2.30
3 Mainling City 米林市 Mǐlín Shì སྨན་གླིང་གྲོང་ཁྱེར། sman gling grong khyer 22,834 9,507 2.40
4 Mêdog County 墨脱县 Mòtuō Xiàn མེ་ཏོག་རྫོང་། me tog rdzong 10,963 31,394 0.34
5 Bomê County 波密县 Bōmì Xiàn སྤོ་མེས་རྫོང་། spo mes rdzong 33,480 16,770 1.99
6 Zayü County 察隅县 Cháyú Xiàn རྫ་ཡུལ་རྫོང་། rdza yul rdzong 27,255 31,305 0.87
7 Nang County 朗县 Lǎng Xiàn སྣང་རྫོང་། snang rdzong 15,946 4,114 3.87

Sister cities

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  Pokhara, Nepal

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "山南市2019年国民经济和社会发展统计公报" (in Chinese). 12 March 2021. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  2. ^ "China plans 'Swiss makeover' for tourism in southeast Tibet". CNN Travel. 2012-06-29. Archived from the original on 2020-12-19. Retrieved 2013-10-20.
  3. ^ An "Attractive" Highway from Lhasa to Nyingchi Will Be Open Archived 2019-06-30 at the Wayback Machine, China Tibet Train Tours, October 23, 2018
  4. ^ "Tibet's first bullet train line enters service". CNN. 30 June 2021.
  5. ^ Singh, Mandeep (March 28, 2017). "A Quick Note On Rising People's Liberation Army Air Force Activities in Tibet". Delhi Defence Review. Retrieved March 29, 2017. In March 2017, China opened an airport in Nyingchi, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), only 30 kilometers from the Line of Actual control (LAC) with India. This is the second largest airport in TAR and is closer to LAC than any other airport in the region. While the airport terminal is meant for civil aviation, it is known that Chinese airports, especially those in TAR, are essentially 'dual-use' – meant for both civil and military use. As Xinhua had announced in 2015, China is carrying out an 'integration' of civil-military airports in order to 'strengthen aviation safety and combat support capabilities'. This will include joint maintenance of airport support facilities, joint flight safety support and joint airport management. Incidentally, one of the first airports to implement the aforesaid 'integration' was the Lhasa Gonggar Airport in TAR, having completed the process in 2015 itself. It can therefore be said that Nyingchi airport gives the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) an additional operational base in TAR, and one that is right opposite the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh Overall, this development is in keeping with the recent increase in the tempo of PLAAF activities in TAR.[dead link]
  6. ^ "Temperature, Climate graph, Climate table for Nyingchi". Climate-Data.org. Archived from the original on 2017-06-10. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  7. ^ 中国气象数据网 – WeatherBk Data (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  8. ^ 中国气象数据网 (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  9. ^ a b c "Tibet travel guide of Nyingchi Region, Bayi Town". Archived from the original on 2014-08-08. Retrieved 2013-10-20.
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