Kangding

This article is about the metropolitan area of Kangding County. For the administrative division, see Kangding County.

Kangding 康定 དར་མདོ་ Darzêdo Dardo Tachienlu · Tatsienlu
—  Sub-provincial city  —
Chinese transcription(s)
– Characters	康定
– Pinyin	Kāngdìng
Tibetan transcription(s)
– Tibetan script	དར་མདོ་
– Wylie	dar-rtse-mdo
– Tibetan pinyin	Darzêdo
View of Kangding City
Kangding Location in Sichuan
Coordinates: 30°03′19″N 101°57′53″E / 30.05528°N 101.96472°E / 30.05528; 101.96472Coordinates: 30°03′19″N 101°57′53″E / 30.05528°N 101.96472°E / 30.05528; 101.96472
County	People's Republic of China
Province	Sichuan
Prefecture	Garzê
Government
– CPC Party Chief
– Mayor
Elevation	2,560 m (8,399 ft)
Population
– Major Nationalities	Han Tibetan
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+8)
Postal code	610000
Website	http://www.kangding.gov.cn

Kangding or Darzêdo is a city and the location of the seat of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in western Sichuan province of Southwest China. The area that the city occupies is administratively part of Kangding County, and it has around 100,000 inhabitants.

Names

Kangding (Chinese: 康定; pinyin: Kāngdìng; Wade–Giles: K'ang-ting) is also known as Darzêdo (Tibetan: དར་རྩེ་མདོ།, Wylie: dar-rtse-mdo, ZYPY: Darzêdo) or Dardo (Tibetan: དར་མདོ།, Wylie: dar mdo, ZYPY: Dardo). Historically, the town was known as Tachienlu or Tatsienlu (traditional Chinese: 打箭爐; simplified Chinese: 打箭炉; pinyin: Dǎjiànlú) from the Chinese transliteration of the Tibetan name Dartsedo.

History

Kangding was for many centuries an important trading town where Chinese brick tea was carried by porters from Chengdu and other centres to trade for Tibetan wool.^[1]

On July 1, 1786 an earthquake of 7.4 on the Richter magnitude scale ruined nearly the entire city.^{[citation needed]}

"Tachienlu is surely sui generis; there can be no other town quite like it. Situated eight thousand four hundred feet above the sea, it seems to lie at the bottom of a well, the surrounding snow-capped mountains towering perhaps fifteen thousand feet in the air above the little town which, small as it is, has hardly room to stand, while outside the wall there is scarcely a foot of level ground. It is wedged into the angle where three valleys come together, the Tar and the Chen rivers meeting just below the town to form the Tarchendo, and our first view of the place as we turned the cliff corner that here bars the gorge, was very striking, grey walls and curly roofs standing out sharply from the flanking hillsides."^[2]

During time of the Republic of China administration, Kangding was the capital of the now-defunct province of Xikang.

Description

Kangding is located in a valley of the Tibetan Plateau about 210 kilometres (130 mi) west-southwest of Chengdu, the provincial capital, and 100 kilometres (62 mi) west of Ya'an. It is a city populated by significant proportions of both Tibetans and Han, and is part of the historical Tibetan region of Kham. A raging river splits the city, thus the constant sound of water emanates throughout much of the city. The city features a sizable city square where young and old alike gather in the early hours of the morning to do Tai Chi, play badminton, or socialise. This square comes alive on the weekends as well, when families tend to populate it. Traditional Tibetan and Sichuanese restaurants are easily found throughout the city. A Tibetan Buddhist monastery sits on the mountains overlooking the city, and is accessible by cable car. As of October 2006, a stone amphitheatre is under construction at the upper monastery.

It is a fast growing city, with a rapidly developing tourist infrastructure, including a scenic cable car imported from Germany.

In 2008 the PRC government opened an airport at Kangding in the province of Sichuan, with a 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) runway, announcing that it would be the second-highest in the world, at 4,280 metres (14,040 ft) above sea level.^[3][4]

The folk song Kangding Qingge enjoys popularity throughout China.

Kangding contains some Buddhist monasteries of note, including Nanwu Si Monastery, Anque Monastery and Jinggang Monastery.

Climate

Kangding has a monsoon-influenced climate, lying in the transition between a humid continental (Dwb) and a subtropical highland climate (Cwb) on the Köppen system. Despite the elevation of 2,560 metres (8,400 ft), nighttime temperatures average at most 10.5 °C (18.9 °F) cooler than daytime highs. From April to September, rain is a very common occurrence, with around two-thirds of the days receiving some rainfall; in addition, 77% of the annual precipitation is delivered from May to September. Monthly daily average temperatures range from −2.2 °C (28.0 °F) in January to 15.5 °C (59.9 °F) in July; the annual mean is 7.09 °C (44.8 °F). Over the course of the year, there are 177 frost-free days and 1738 hours of sunshine.

Climate data for Kangding
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	22.2 (72.0)	23.2 (73.8)	26.0 (78.8)	26.8 (80.2)	29.4 (84.9)	26.5 (79.7)	26.7 (80.1)	27.5 (81.5)	25.5 (77.9)	23.5 (74.3)	20.5 (68.9)	17.7 (63.9)	29.4 (84.9)
Average high °C (°F)	3.5 (38.3)	5.1 (41.2)	9.5 (49.1)	13.8 (56.8)	16.3 (61.3)	17.9 (64.2)	20.2 (68.4)	20.4 (68.7)	16.3 (61.3)	12.2 (54.0)	8.6 (47.5)	5.1 (41.2)	12.4
Average low °C (°F)	−5.9 (21.4)	−4.3 (24.3)	−0.8 (30.6)	3.3 (37.9)	6.9 (44.4)	9.9 (49.8)	12.0 (53.6)	11.8 (53.2)	8.8 (47.8)	4.6 (40.3)	−0.2 (31.6)	−4.3 (24.3)	3.5
Record low °C (°F)	−13.3 (8.1)	−13.8 (7.2)	−11.2 (11.8)	−3.8 (25.2)	−1.3 (29.7)	0.6 (33.1)	2.7 (36.9)	1.0 (33.8)	0.1 (32.2)	−3.2 (26.2)	−8.3 (17.1)	−14.1 (6.6)	−14.1 (6.6)
Precipitation mm (inches)	5.5 (0.217)	11.6 (0.457)	33.3 (1.311)	57.3 (2.256)	107.4 (4.228)	169.4 (6.669)	123.2 (4.85)	103.9 (4.091)	135.0 (5.315)	63.7 (2.508)	16.5 (0.65)	5.4 (0.213)	832.2 (32.764)
Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)	6.5	9.8	12.5	17.4	20.4	23.1	21.8	19.7	20.1	14.8	7.7	5.2	179.0
Source: Weather China

Administration

Administratively, the city of Kangding is not an official township-level division within the Kangding County,^[5], but rather the metropolitan area of the county, consisting of the town of Lucheng and several other villages.

Transport

• China National Highway 318

Nanwu Si Monastery

References

Notes

1. ^ Leffman, et al (2005), p. 946.
2. ^ Kendall (1913), pp. 122-123.
3. ^ Aviation Week & Space Technology Vol 169 No 17, "Second-Highest Airport", p. 26
4. ^ "World's second highest airport opens in SW China" Kamaid. Oct. 22, 2008
5. ^ "2009年康定县行政区划" (in Simplified Chinese). xzqh.org. http://www.xzqh.org/html/2010/1215/21786.html. Retrieved 2011-04-22. 

Bibliography

• Dorje, Gyurme (1999). Footprint Tibet Handbook with Bhutan. 2nd Edition. Footprint Handbooks, Bath, England. ISBN 1 900949 33 4.
• Kendall, Elizabeth (1913). A Wayfarer in China: Impressions of a trip across West China and Mongolia. The Riverside Press, Cambridge. Boston and New York.
• Leffman, David, et al. (2005). The Rough Guide to China. 4th Edition. Rough Guides, New York, London, Delhi. ISBN 978-1-84353-479-2.