Zoigê County

Zoigê County or Ruo'ergai County (Tibetan: མཛོད་དགེ་རྫོང་།, Wylie: mdzod dge rdzong, ZYPY: Zoigê Zong; Chinese: 若尔盖县; pinyin: Ruò'ěrgài Xiàn) is a county of Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan, China, bordering Gansu to the north. It is the northernmost county of the province. It is part of the Tibetan traditional region of Amdo.

Zoigê County 若尔盖县 · མཛོད་དགེ་རྫོང་། · Zuxxjji Ruo'ergai
County
Baozuo township in Zoigê County
Zoigê County (pink) in Ngawa Prefecture (yellow) and Sichuan
Zoigê Location of the seat in Sichuan Show map of Sichuan Zoigê Zoigê (China) Show map of China
Coordinates (Zoigê County Cultural Pavilion (若尔盖县文化馆)): 33°34′30″N 102°57′43″E
Country	China
Province	Sichuan
Autonomous prefecture	Ngawa
County seat	Dagcagoin
Area
• Total	10,620 km2 (4,100 sq mi)
Population  (2020)[1]
• Total	76,712
• Density	7.2/km2 (19/sq mi)
• Major nationalities	Tibetan - 90.4%
Time zone	UTC+8 (China Standard)
Postal code	624500
Area code	0837
Website	www.ruoergai.gov.cn

Zoigê County
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	若尔盖县
Traditional Chinese	若爾蓋縣
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Ruò'ěrgài Xiàn
Tibetan name
Tibetan	མཛོད་དགེ་རྫོང་།
Transcriptions Wylie mdzod dge rdzong Tibetan Pinyin Zoigê Zong
Qiang name
Qiang	Zuxxjji

It has an area of 10,620 km² (4,100 sq mi) and a population of 69,900, 90.4% of which are Tibetan people.^[2]

Governance

Ruo'ergai County Public Security Bureau (Chinese: 若尔盖县公安局) is the primary law enforcement agency of Ruo'ergai county. It operates police stations in Baigyi town [zh], Qoijê Township [zh] and Pabso Township [zh].^[3]

On 14 July 2022, the Ruo'ergai County Public Security Bureau began a major operation to crack down on firearms and explosives, seizing a total of 198 firearms, 4,300 rounds of ammunition, 10 hand grenades, 20 kg of explosives and an improvised mortar.^[4]

The Ruo'ergai County Fire and Rescue Battalion (Chinese: 若尔盖县消防救援大队) provides fire and rescue services in Ruo'ergai county.^[5]

Geography

Ruo'ergai County is found in the easternmost sections of the Tibetan Plateau. The county is primarily a highland basin made up of the Zoigê Marsh between the Min Mountains and Amne Machin. The western border of the county, shared with Maqu County in Gansu, is formed by the first major bend of the Yellow River where it changes course nearly 180 degrees and heads back towards Qinghai.

Climate

Ruo'ergai has an alpine subarctic climate (Köppen Dwc), featuring very cold nights even in summertime, and very cold winters with extreme diurnal temperature ranges. Snow can fall any time of the year and usually does not melt until summer due to repeated nightly freezing even when maxima are above 0 °C (32 °F). Therefore, access to Ruo'ergai is heavily restricted during the winter months from late October to early May. Sitting at an altitude of more than 11,000 feet, high-altitude sickness is another common problem for tourists.

Climate data for Ruo'ergai, elevation 3,441 m (11,289 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1971–2020)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	13.6 (56.5)	16.2 (61.2)	20.2 (68.4)	23.5 (74.3)	23.3 (73.9)	25.6 (78.1)	25.2 (77.4)	26.5 (79.7)	25.6 (78.1)	22.6 (72.7)	16.2 (61.2)	13.6 (56.5)	26.5 (79.7)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)	1.3 (34.3)	3.6 (38.5)	6.4 (43.5)	10.2 (50.4)	13.2 (55.8)	15.6 (60.1)	18.2 (64.8)	18.0 (64.4)	14.7 (58.5)	9.8 (49.6)	5.7 (42.3)	2.2 (36.0)	9.9 (49.9)
Daily mean °C (°F)	−8.9 (16.0)	−5.8 (21.6)	−1.5 (29.3)	2.7 (36.9)	6.2 (43.2)	9.5 (49.1)	11.7 (53.1)	11.1 (52.0)	7.8 (46.0)	2.5 (36.5)	−3.1 (26.4)	−7.7 (18.1)	2.0 (35.7)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)	−17.2 (1.0)	−13.5 (7.7)	−7.5 (18.5)	−3.1 (26.4)	0.5 (32.9)	4.4 (39.9)	6.1 (43.0)	5.4 (41.7)	2.9 (37.2)	−2.3 (27.9)	−9.1 (15.6)	−15.2 (4.6)	−4.1 (24.7)
Record low °C (°F)	−33.6 (−28.5)	−31.8 (−25.2)	−26.0 (−14.8)	−17.2 (1.0)	−11.5 (11.3)	−6.6 (20.1)	−3.7 (25.3)	−5.6 (21.9)	−9.6 (14.7)	−15.5 (4.1)	−23.4 (−10.1)	−28.0 (−18.4)	−33.6 (−28.5)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	5.6 (0.22)	9.7 (0.38)	20.3 (0.80)	35.5 (1.40)	82.7 (3.26)	104.8 (4.13)	124.9 (4.92)	109.9 (4.33)	103.1 (4.06)	55.8 (2.20)	10.1 (0.40)	3.4 (0.13)	665.8 (26.23)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)	5.3	6.8	11.4	14.2	18.7	19.5	17.3	15.7	17.8	15.3	5.7	3.3	151
Average snowy days	7.3	9.1	15.0	14.3	9.0	1.3	0.2	0.3	2.1	12.8	8.0	4.9	84.3
Average relative humidity (%)	54	56	61	65	69	73	75	75	77	74	65	57	67
Mean monthly sunshine hours	213.6	185.0	208.1	211.3	205.8	180.4	219.6	223.6	175.0	180.6	217.0	224.7	2,444.7
Percentage possible sunshine	67	59	56	54	48	42	51	55	48	52	70	73	56
Source 1: China Meteorological Administration[6][7]NOAA[8]
Source 2: Weather China[9]

Transport

• China National Highway 213
• China National Highway 248

Administrative divisions

Ruo'ergai County has 7 towns and 6 townships:^[10]

Name	Simplified Chinese	Hanyu Pinyin	Tibetan	Wylie	Administrative division code
Towns
Dagcagoin Town [zh] (Dazhasi)	达扎寺镇	Dázhāsì Zhèn	སྟག་ཚ་དགོན་གྲོང་རྡལ།	stag tsha dgon grong rdal	513232100
Tanggor town [zh] (Tangke)	唐克镇	Tángkè Zhèn	ཐང་སྐོར་གྲོང་རྡལ།	thang skor grong rdal	513232101
Xagdom Town (Hongxing)	红星镇	Hóngxīng Zhèn	བཞག་སྡོམ་གྲོང་རྡལ།	bzhag sdom grong rdal	513232102
Qammê Town [zh] (Xiaman)	辖曼镇	Xiámàn Zhèn	བྱམས་མེ་གྲོང་རྡལ།	byams me grong rdal	513232103
Baigyi town [zh] (Baxi)	巴西镇	Bāxī Zhèn	དཔལ་སྐྱིད་གྲོང་རྡལ།	dpal skyid grong rdal	513232104
A'gyi town [zh] (Axi)	阿西镇	Āxī Zhèn	ཨ་སྐྱིད་གྲོང་རྡལ།	a skyid grong rdal	513232105
Têwo town [zh] (Tiebu)	铁布镇	Tiěbù Zhèn	ཐེ་བོ་གྲོང་རྡལ།	the bo grong rdal	513232106
Townships
Mêqu Township (Maixi)	麦溪乡	Màixī Xiāng	རྨེ་ཆུ་ཡུལ་ཚོ།	rme chu yul tsho	513232205
Lingwa township [zh] (Nenwa)	嫩哇乡	Nènwā Xiāng	གླིང་བ་ཡུལ་ཚོ།	gling ba yul tsho	513232206
Zhingwa Township [zh] (Zhanwa)	占哇乡	Zhànwā Xiāng	འབྲིང་བ་ཡུལ་ཚོ།	'bring ba yul tsho	513232210
Gyangca Township [zh] (Jiangzha)	降扎乡	Jiàngzhā Xiāng	རྐྱང་ཚ་ཡུལ་ཚོ།	rkyang tsha yul tsho	513232211
Qoijê Township [zh] (Qiuji)	求吉乡	Qiújí Xiāng	ཆོས་རྗེ་ཡུལ་ཚོ།	chos rje yul tsho	513232214
Pabso Township [zh] (Bobso, Baozuo)	包座乡	Bāozuò Xiāng	བབ་བཟོ་ཡུལ་ཚོ།	bab bzo yul tsho	513232215

National priority protected sites

There are two National Priority protected sites in Ruo'ergai County.

• Aba Long March Relics [zh] - added as part of the 6th Batch of National Priority Protected Sites [zh] in 2006^[11]
  • Baozuo battlefield relics [zh]^[12]
  • Baxi Conference Site [zh]^[12]
• Dagcagoin Monastery [zh] - added as part of the 7th Batch of National Priority Protected Sites [zh] in 2013^[13]