# Xainza County

Xainza County, also Shantsa, Shentsa, (Tibetan: ཤན་རྩ་རྫོང; Chinese: 申扎县) is a county within Nagqu of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. In 1999 the county had a population of 16,190.

## Geography

The capital lies at Naktsang Town or Xainza. The county covers an area of 25,546 square kilometres (9,863 sq mi). Until recent times the County extended all the way from the borders of Xinjiang in the north to the Brahmaputra River in the south, covering a larger area than the United Kingdom. It has since been split into two, Shentsa (Xainza) County and the new Nyima County to the east.
   "In this region there are 67 lakes, including some of Tibet's largest: Serling, Dangra Yutso, Ngangtse-tso, Kering-tso, Taktse-tse and Uru-tso. In the northeast there are a number of 6,000 m peaks including Purok Gangri 6,482 metres (21,266 ft) and Norla Gangri 6,136 metres (20,131 ft), not to mention the Kunlun mountains on the Xinjiang border further north. The entire northern region forms part of the Jangtang Nature Reserve. Ten large salt fields testify to the importance of this region for the traditional trading commodity of the Jangtang Plateau."
Lakes in close proximity to the main town are Geren Lake, Mujiu Lake, Anzi Lake, Guomang Lake, Cuo'e and Ziguii Lake, Wuru Lake, Siling Lake and Bangecuo. With an area of 1,865 square kilometres (720 sq mi), Siling Lake is the second largest saltwater lake in the northern Tibetan Plateau and forms part of the Siling Co National Nature Reserve (also Selincuo Reserve or Xainza Nature Reserve). The 400,000 hectares (990,000 acres) reserve was established in 1993 and contains significant populations of black-necked cranes and some 120 species of birds in total. Tibetan sheep, wild donkey, argali, snow leopards, bar-headed goose, etc., also inhabit the county.

### Climate

Xainza has an extreme subarctic climate, bordering on polar. The climate of the county is typical of a plateau climate zone, with thin, cold air and a dry climate, with 279.1 days of frost per year on average. The average annual wind speed is 3.8 m/s (12.5 ft/s), the average annual temperature is 0.4 °C (32.7 °F), and the average annual precipitation is 298.6 millimetres (11.76 in).
Climate data for Xainza, elevation 4,672 m (15,328 ft), (1991–2020 normals) :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 12.5 (54.5) | 11.0 (51.8) | 15.4 (59.7) | 22.9 (73.2) | 25.7 (78.3) | 31.0 (87.8) | 25.0 (77.0) | 28.0 (82.4) | 26.0 (78.8) | 21.0 (69.8) | 17.8 (64.0) | 11.5 (52.7) | 31.0 (87.8) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −2.0 (28.4) | −0.4 (31.3) | 3.0 (37.4) | 6.7 (44.1) | 11.3 (52.3) | 15.9 (60.6) | 16.4 (61.5) | 15.5 (59.9) | 13.7 (56.7) | 8.1 (46.6) | 2.8 (37.0) | −0.2 (31.6) | 7.6 (45.6) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −9.4 (15.1) | −7.6 (18.3) | −4.1 (24.6) | −0.1 (31.8) | 4.5 (40.1) | 9.0 (48.2) | 10.2 (50.4) | 9.5 (49.1) | 7.4 (45.3) | 1.1 (34.0) | −4.6 (23.7) | −7.8 (18.0) | 0.7 (33.2) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −16.3 (2.7) | −14.5 (5.9) | −10.9 (12.4) | −6.2 (20.8) | −1.5 (29.3) | 3.2 (37.8) | 5.3 (41.5) | 4.8 (40.6) | 2.3 (36.1) | −4.7 (23.5) | −11.2 (11.8) | −14.8 (5.4) | −5.4 (22.3) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −30.9 (−23.6) | −28.5 (−19.3) | −23.0 (−9.4) | −18.8 (−1.8) | −17.0 (1.4) | −8.1 (17.4) | −7.0 (19.4) | −4.0 (24.8) | −11.0 (12.2) | −16.9 (1.6) | −23.4 (−10.1) | −30.0 (−22.0) | −30.9 (−23.6) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 1.4 (0.06) | 1.2 (0.05) | 2.3 (0.09) | 6.6 (0.26) | 20.5 (0.81) | 54.2 (2.13) | 97.1 (3.82) | 102.6 (4.04) | 47.9 (1.89) | 7.9 (0.31) | 1.7 (0.07) | 1.2 (0.05) | 344.6 (13.58) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 2.3 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 5.0 | 9.2 | 14.9 | 20.5 | 21.4 | 14.8 | 3.9 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 99.4 |
| Average snowy days | 3.9 | 4.4 | 5.6 | 8.6 | 12.7 | 5.5 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 5.2 | 5.1 | 2.5 | 2.7 | 57.8 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 31 | 29 | 30 | 37 | 44 | 52 | 61 | 64 | 59 | 41 | 34 | 29 | 43 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 223.9 | 216.9 | 255.2 | 261.6 | 282.0 | 255.6 | 227.4 | 213.9 | 242.3 | 274.1 | 248.5 | 236.1 | 2,937.5 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 69 | 69 | 68 | 67 | 66 | 60 | 53 | 53 | 66 | 79 | 79 | 75 | 67 |
| Source 1: China Meteorological Administration ||||||||||||||
| Source 2: Météo Climat ||||||||||||||

### Geology

The county has been geologically well assessed in publications. Xainza contains an Ordovician to Silurian stratigraphic succession and the area is part of the Xainza-Jiali Fault Zone. Significant Triassic clastic deposits with gypsum beds and volcanic clastics have been found between Xainza and Coqên. Early Devonian (Pragian-Emsian) rocks in Xainza County are said to "yield a shallow-marine, carbonate-platform fauna of corals, brachiopods, dacryoconarids, nautiloids and conodonts."

#### Lakes

* Tso Ngön

## Economy

Animal husbandry is the chief source of income in the county. Jiagang Hydropower Station was built in the 1990s and as of 2008 serves about 20,000 nomadic households across the county. Gold mining in the county has reportedly affected water quality and some area of grassland. An alluvial gold mine which generated "5 million yuan (US$617,300) of the county's 8.5-million budgetary income" was slated to be shut down in 2005. Other reserves include iron, lead, copper, salt, borax and phosphorus. The county has a reported geothermal resources area of about 100,000 square meters and is rich in fish resources.

## Administrative divisions

The county contains 2 towns and 6 townships.
   "The county capital of Shentsa is located at Naktsang (Shentsa), 805 km from Lumaringpo in Gertse county, and 232 km from Palgon. However, due to the vastness of this region, there is a third administrative centre at Tsonyi (Twin Lakes) in the north. Naktsang (Shentsa) to Tsonyi is 442 km."
| Name | Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie |
| Towns |||||
| Xainza Town (Shantsa, Naktsang) | 申扎镇 | Shēnzhā zhèn | ཤན་རྩ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | shan rtsa grong rdal |
| Xungmai Town | 雄梅镇 | Xióngméi zhèn | གཞུང་སྨད་གྲོང་རྡལ། | gzhung smad grong rdal |
| Townships |||||
| Zhago Township | 下过乡 | Xiàguò xiāng | བཞ་སྒོ་ཤང་། | bzha sgor shang |
| Khyak Township | 卡乡 | Kǎ xiāng | འཁྱག་ཤང་། | 'khyag shang |
| Patra Township | 巴扎乡 | Bāzhā xiāng | པ་བཀྲ་ཤང་། | pa bkra shang |
| Tarma Township | 塔尔玛乡 | Tǎ'ěrmǎ xiāng | ཐར་མ་ཤང་། | thar ma shang |
| Mepa Township | 买巴乡 | Mǎibā xiāng | སྨད་པ་ཤང་། | smad pa shang |
| Mar'yo Township | 马跃乡 | Mǎyuè xiāng | མར་ཡོ་ཤང་། | mar yo shang |