Mohe County

Mohe County 漠河县
—  County  —
Location of Mohe County (red) in Da Hinggan Ling Prefecture (yellow), Heilongjiang province, and the PRC
Coordinates: 52°58′N 122°32′E / 52.967°N 122.533°E / 52.967; 122.533Coordinates: 52°58′N 122°32′E / 52.967°N 122.533°E / 52.967; 122.533
Country	People's Republic of China
Province	Heilongjiang
Prefecture	Da Hinggan Ling
County seat	Xilinji (西林吉镇)
Area
- Total	18,233 km2 (7,039.8 sq mi)
Elevation	435 m (1,427 ft)
Population
- Total	83,465
- Density	4.6/km2 (11.9/sq mi)
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+8)
Postal code	165300
Website	http://www.hlmohe.gov.cn/

Mohe County (simplified Chinese: 漠河县; traditional Chinese: 漠河縣; pinyin: Mòhé Xiàn) is the northernmost county in China, located in the Northeast's Heilongjiang province. The county is named after the Mohe, a Tungusic people of ancient Manchuria. A village, the northernmost settlement in China, at the latitude of 53° 29' N known as China's "Arctic Village" (北极村) lies in this county, on the Amur River, which forms the border with Russia. Here, the astronomical phenomenon of aurora borealis attracts domestic and foreign tourists to this village.^[1]

Geography and climate

Mohe is located in the far northwest of Heilongjiang, the northernmost province of China. It is located at latitude 52° 10'−53° 33' N and 121° 07'−124° 20' E. It forms a border with Russia's Amur Oblast and Zabaykalsky Krai, where the Amur River flows for 245 kilometres (152 mi). The county spans 150 kilometres (93 mi) from north to south and has a total area of 18,233 square kilometres (7,040 sq mi), occupying 21.6% of the prefecture's (Da Hinggan Ling) area and 3.9% of the provincial (Heilongjiang) area. This creates a population density of only 4.64 persons/km² (12.0 persons/sqmi).

Mohe, by virtue of its far northern location, is one of the few locations in China with a subarctic climate (Köppen Dwc), with long, severe winters, and short, warm summers. Winter begins in early to mid-October and lasts until late April, and temperatures then are normally the coldest in all of China. Average temperatures stay below freezing for a total of nearly seven months of the year, and the frost-free period is just short of 90 days. Monthly averages range from −29.8 °C (−21.6 °F) in January to 18.4 °C (65.1 °F) in July, with an annual mean of −4.29 °C (24.3 °F), so that the county is only a little south of the line of continuous permafrost. Extreme temperatures have ranged from −52.3 to 39.3 °C (-62 to 103 °F). ^[2]

Climate data for Mohe County (1971−2000)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	−21.5 (−6.7)	−13 (8.6)	−3.1 (26.4)	7.7 (45.9)	17.5 (63.5)	24.2 (75.6)	25.8 (78.4)	23.1 (73.6)	16.4 (61.5)	5.1 (41.2)	−10.6 (12.9)	−21.2 (−6.2)	4.2
Average low °C (°F)	−36.2 (−33.2)	−33.1 (−27.6)	−24.3 (−11.7)	−7.5 (18.5)	0.3 (32.5)	7.5 (45.5)	11.7 (53.1)	9.4 (48.9)	1.4 (34.5)	−9.9 (14.2)	−25.3 (−13.5)	−34 (−29.2)	−11.7
Precipitation mm (inches)	5.0 (0.197)	4.4 (0.173)	6.9 (0.272)	23.8 (0.937)	32.9 (1.295)	67.6 (2.661)	99.1 (3.902)	107.2 (4.22)	50.1 (1.972)	15.7 (0.618)	12.5 (0.492)	7.4 (0.291)	432.6 (17.031)
Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)	7.6	5.7	4.6	7.7	9.3	14.9	16.2	16.2	11.6	5.6	8.7	9.3	117.4
Source: Weather.com.cn

Sources

1. ^ Xinhua, accessed 1, July 2010.
2. ^ Extreme Temperatures Around the World - world highest lowest temperatures. Accessed 2010-11-02

External links

• Mohe County People's Government website (Chinese)