# Datong Hui and Tu Autonomous County

Datong Hui and Tu Autonomous County, Datong County, or Serkhog County (simplified Chinese: 大通回族土族自治县; traditional Chinese: 大通回族土族自治縣; pinyin: Dàtōng Huízú Tǔzú Zìzhìxiàn; Tibetan: རྟ་ཐང་ཧུའེ་རིགས་ཧོར་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་རྫོང; or more frequently Tibetan: གསེར་ཁོག་རྫོང; Monguor: Daatun Hui szarbaten Mongghul szarbaten njeenaa daglagu xan; Xiao'erjing: دَاتْو خُوِذُو تُوذُو ذِجِشِیًا‎) is an autonomous county of Hui and Tu peoples in Qinghai Province, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Xining, the capital of Qinghai.
Since 2009, a folk music "Flower Festival" has been held annually in late July on "Mount Laoye" (2928 m) in Datong town.

## Subdivisions

Datong County is divided into 9 towns, 9 townships, and 2 ethnic townships:
* Qiaotou Town (桥头镇)
* Chengguan Town (城关镇)
* Tar Town (塔尔镇)
* Huangjiazhai Town (黄家寨镇)
* Changning Town (长宁镇)
* Jingyang Town (景阳镇)
* Duolin Town (多林镇)
* Xinzhuang Town (新庄镇)
* Qinglin Township (青林乡)
* Xunrang Township (逊让乡)
* Jile Township (极乐乡)
* Shishan Township (石山乡)
* Baoku Township (宝库乡)
* Xiegou Township (斜沟乡)
* Liangjiao Township (良教乡)
* Hualin Township (桦林乡)
* Xangba Tibetan Ethnic Township (向化藏族乡, ཞང་དཔའ་བོད་རིགས་ཞང་།)
* Shobê Tibetan Ethnic Township (朔北藏族乡, ཧྲོ་པེ་བོད་རིགས་ཞང་།)

## Climate

Climate data for Datong, elevation 2,450 m (8,040 ft), (1991–2020 normals) :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 0.9 (33.6) | 4.8 (40.6) | 9.7 (49.5) | 15.2 (59.4) | 18.7 (65.7) | 21.4 (70.5) | 23.4 (74.1) | 22.5 (72.5) | 18.2 (64.8) | 13.1 (55.6) | 7.4 (45.3) | 2.2 (36.0) | 13.1 (55.6) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −8.4 (16.9) | −4.1 (24.6) | 1.5 (34.7) | 7.2 (45.0) | 11.2 (52.2) | 14.2 (57.6) | 16.2 (61.2) | 15.3 (59.5) | 11.2 (52.2) | 5.6 (42.1) | −1.0 (30.2) | −6.9 (19.6) | 5.2 (41.3) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −15.7 (3.7) | −11.3 (11.7) | −4.9 (23.2) | 0.3 (32.5) | 4.4 (39.9) | 7.8 (46.0) | 10.1 (50.2) | 9.8 (49.6) | 6.3 (43.3) | 0.4 (32.7) | −6.9 (19.6) | −13.8 (7.2) | −1.1 (30.0) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 2.1 (0.08) | 2.1 (0.08) | 14.5 (0.57) | 33.1 (1.30) | 66.1 (2.60) | 86.1 (3.39) | 99.4 (3.91) | 115.1 (4.53) | 82.8 (3.26) | 28.5 (1.12) | 5 (0.2) | 1.4 (0.06) | 536.2 (21.1) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 3.7 | 4.2 | 6.5 | 8.2 | 13.0 | 16.5 | 17.1 | 17.4 | 16.5 | 9.1 | 3.5 | 3.1 | 118.8 |
| Average snowy days | 5.8 | 6.9 | 9.4 | 5.9 | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.0 | 5.3 | 5.1 | 42.5 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 51 | 47 | 48 | 50 | 56 | 64 | 69 | 72 | 74 | 67 | 60 | 55 | 59 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 200.9 | 200.2 | 227.4 | 230.9 | 237.1 | 218.6 | 221.9 | 211.1 | 175.8 | 196.1 | 204.1 | 197.9 | 2,522 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 65 | 65 | 61 | 58 | 54 | 50 | 50 | 51 | 48 | 57 | 68 | 66 | 58 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration ||||||||||||||

## Transportation

* China National Highway 227
* Xining–Datong Expressway (Ningda Expressway)
* Xining–Datong Railway (Ningda Railway, 宁大铁路), a 39-km long dead-end railway branch constructed in 1966-1968 and primarily serving a local coal mine. In the past, passenger service operated on the line, but ceased in 2008.
* Lanzhou–Xinjiang High-Speed Railway (Datong West Station; 36°57′58″N 101°40′19″E﻿ / ﻿36.966168°N 101.672054°E﻿ / 36.966168; 101.672054), opened in December 2014. Very limited service.