Gertse County

Gertse County^[8] (Tibetan: སྒེར་རྩེ་རྫོང་།), Gêrzê County^{[7][9][10][11]} or Gaize County (Chinese: 改则县)^[12] is a county located in Ngari Prefecture in the northwest of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China, bordering Xinjiang to the north.^[3]

Gertse County སྒེར་རྩེ་རྫོང་། • 改则县 Gêrzê, Gaize, Kai-tse
County
Tong Tso
Map showing Gêrzê County (purple, upper right) in Ngari Prefecture
Location of Gêrzê County (red) within Ngari Prefecture (yellow) and the Tibet A.R.
Gêrzê Location of the seat in the Tibet A.R. Show map of Ngari Gêrzê Gêrzê (Tibet) Show map of Tibet Gêrzê Gêrzê (China) Show map of China
Coordinates: 32.301°N 84.059°E / 32.301; 84.059
Country	China
Autonomous region	Tibet
Prefecture	Ngari
Established date[1][2][3][4]	October 1960
County seat	Gêrzê[3]
Township-level divisions[1]	1 town, 6 townships
Area [1]
• Total	135,025 km2 (52,133 sq mi)
Elevation [5]	over 4,500 m (over 14,800 ft)
Population  (2020)[6]
• Total	25,327
• Density	0.19/km2 (0.49/sq mi)
Ethnic groups
• Major ethnic groups	Tibetan[4]
Time zone	UTC+8 (China Standard)
Postal code	859200[7]
Website	gz.al.gov.cn (in Chinese)

Gertse County
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	改则县
Traditional Chinese	改則縣
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Gǎizé Xiàn
Tibetan name
Tibetan	སྒེར་རྩེ་རྫོང་།
Transcriptions Wylie sger rtse rdzong THL ger tsé dzong Tibetan Pinyin Gêrzê Zong

Name

Gêrzê is the Tibetan word for a special type of local-style dwelling built on the peak of a mountain.^[1]

History

The area was originally inhabited by nomadic tribes.^[3]

In the aftermath of the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China in the early 1950s, People's Liberation Army troops were stationed in Gêrzê.^[13]

On May 3, 1960, the Gêrzê County Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was established. On October 1, 1960, the Gêrzê County government was established.^[1][2][3][4]

At 2:01 AM on February 21, 2020, a 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck in Gêrzê County (epicenter: 34.56°N 85.68°E / 34.56; 85.68).^[14]

At 2:12 AM on March 10, 2020, a 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck in Gêrzê County (epicenter: 32.84°N 85.52°E / 32.84; 85.52) followed by a 3.7 magnitude and a 3.4 magnitude aftershock. No casualties were reported.^[5]

On May 8, 2020, eight suspects were arrested and eighty-nine antelope skins were confiscated in connection with reported Tibetan antelope poaching in the county.^[15]

Geography

Gêrzê County is bordered to the north by Keriya County (Yutian) in Hotan Prefecture (Hetian), Xinjiang and to the west by Rutog County.^[16] There are numerous lakes in Gêrzê County including Tong Tso. Thermal springs in Gêrzê County include Lugu^[10] (70 °C; 33°24′24″N 84°08′12″E; altitude 4,528 m (14,856 ft)), Nagezhong (60 °C; 32°18′N 84°12′E; altitude 4,550 m (14,930 ft)) and Yarlhaingari (60 °C; 33°00′48″N 86°01′36″E; altitude 4,880 m (16,010 ft)).^[17]

Climate

Gêrzê County has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: BSk), with strong dry-winter subarctic climate tendencies (Köppen: Dwc).

Climate data for Gêrzê, elevation 4,279 m (14,039 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)	8.3 (46.9)	10.5 (50.9)	14.5 (58.1)	15.9 (60.6)	22.0 (71.6)	26.1 (79.0)	27.6 (81.7)	25.0 (77.0)	22.6 (72.7)	17.2 (63.0)	12.9 (55.2)	8.3 (46.9)	27.6 (81.7)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)	−2.7 (27.1)	−0.3 (31.5)	3.8 (38.8)	8.5 (47.3)	13.0 (55.4)	18.2 (64.8)	20.4 (68.7)	18.6 (65.5)	16.2 (61.2)	8.6 (47.5)	3.3 (37.9)	−0.5 (31.1)	8.9 (48.1)
Daily mean °C (°F)	−11.1 (12.0)	−8.2 (17.2)	−4.1 (24.6)	0.7 (33.3)	5.2 (41.4)	10.5 (50.9)	13.2 (55.8)	11.9 (53.4)	9.1 (48.4)	0.6 (33.1)	−5.8 (21.6)	−9.9 (14.2)	1.0 (33.8)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)	−20.3 (−4.5)	−17.6 (0.3)	−13.4 (7.9)	−7.9 (17.8)	−2.7 (27.1)	3.1 (37.6)	6.7 (44.1)	6.2 (43.2)	2.1 (35.8)	−7.5 (18.5)	−14.6 (5.7)	−19.2 (−2.6)	−7.1 (19.2)
Record low °C (°F)	−44.0 (−47.2)	−42.4 (−44.3)	−32.1 (−25.8)	−20.0 (−4.0)	−15.7 (3.7)	−9.2 (15.4)	−3.3 (26.1)	−3.6 (25.5)	−9.5 (14.9)	−23.5 (−10.3)	−34.9 (−30.8)	−44.6 (−48.3)	−44.6 (−48.3)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	0.9 (0.04)	0.6 (0.02)	1.1 (0.04)	2.2 (0.09)	8.3 (0.33)	25.1 (0.99)	61.8 (2.43)	71.6 (2.82)	21.5 (0.85)	3.7 (0.15)	0.7 (0.03)	0.2 (0.01)	197.7 (7.8)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)	1.4	1.0	1.6	1.9	3.9	7.3	13.6	15.4	6.7	1.6	0.7	0.5	55.6
Average snowy days	3.8	3.3	4.2	4.7	7.8	4.2	0.7	0.4	2.5	2.9	1.5	1.4	37.4
Average relative humidity (%)	27	24	23	27	32	39	47	56	43	29	25	24	33
Mean monthly sunshine hours	232.4	222.9	258.2	271.1	305.2	303.0	284.1	257.4	280.4	295.7	260.1	253.0	3,223.5
Percentage possible sunshine	72	71	69	69	71	71	66	63	77	85	84	81	73
Source: China Meteorological Administration[18][19]

Administrative divisions

Gêrzê county is divided into 1 town and 6 townships:^[4][20][2]

Name	Chinese	Hanyu Pinyin	Tibetan	Wylie
Town
Gêrzê Town	改则镇	Gǎizé zhèn	སྒེར་རྩེ་གྲོང་རྡལ།	sger rtse grong rdal
Townships
Oma Township[10]	物玛乡	Wùmǎ xiāng	འོ་མ་ཤང་།	'o ma shang
Shenchen Township	先遣乡	Xiānqiǎn xiāng	ཤན་ཆེན་ཤང་།	shan chen shang
Marmê Township	麻米乡	Mámǐ xiāng	མར་མེ་ཤང་།	mar me shang
Dongco Township	洞措乡	Dòngcuò xiāng	སྟོང་མཚོ་ཤང་།	stong mtsho shang
Gomo Township[10]	古姆乡	Gǔmǔ xiāng	ཁྲ་མདོངས་ཤང་།	kra mdongs shang
Chabug Township	察布乡	Chábù xiāng	བྲག་པོ་ཤང་།	brag po shang

Demographics

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
2000	17,502	—
2010	22,177	+2.40%
[4]

As of 1996^[update], the residents of the county were Tibetan.^[4] In 1999, the population of the county was 16,623.^[21]

Economy

The main economic activity in Gêrzê County is animal husbandry^[5] which includes the raising of yak, dzo, sheep, goats, and horses. The county also has wild yak, wild donkeys, wild sheep, bears and Tibetan antelope.^[3]

Transportation

• Nagqu–Ngari Highway (黑阿公路)^[3]

Historical maps

Historical maps including Gêrzê:

• 
  Map of the expeditions of Sven Hedin (1906–8) including the modern-day Gêrzê County area (RGS, early 20th century)
• 
  Map including Gêrzê (labeled as Kai-tse) (DMA, 1975)
• 
  Map including Gêrzê (Kai-tse) (DMA, 1980)
• 
  Map of the Gêrzê area (DMA, 1990)

Maps of the modern-day Gêrzê County area, 1970s

See also

• Chang Tang Nature Reserve