# Dulan County

Dulan County (Mongolian: ᠳᠤᠯᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠰᠢᠶᠠᠨ; Tibetan: ཏུའུ་ལན་རྫོང་; Chinese: 都兰县) is a county of east-central Qinghai province, China. It is under the administration of Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

## Climate

With an elevation of around 3,200 metres (10,000 ft), Dulan County has a subalpine semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk), with long, very cold and winters, and warm summers. Average low temperatures are below freezing from early/mid October to mid/late April; however, due to the wide diurnal temperature variation, only December and January have an average high that is below freezing. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 60% in July to 81% in November, the county seat is very sunny, receiving 3,092 hours of bright sunshine annually; relative humidity in all months is below 50% and is for seven months below 40%. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −9.6 °C (14.7 °F) in January to 15.2 °C (59.4 °F) in July, while the annual mean is 3.41 °C (38.1 °F). Over 70% of the annual precipitation of 218 mm (8.58 in) is delivered from May to August.
Climate data for Dulan County, elevation 3,189 m (10,463 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1971–2010) :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 11.7 (53.1) | 15.9 (60.6) | 20.0 (68.0) | 27.1 (80.8) | 28.0 (82.4) | 28.9 (84.0) | 31.8 (89.2) | 32.2 (90.0) | 30.3 (86.5) | 23.3 (73.9) | 16.1 (61.0) | 11.5 (52.7) | 32.2 (90.0) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −2.0 (28.4) | 1.6 (34.9) | 6.1 (43.0) | 12.0 (53.6) | 16.2 (61.2) | 19.4 (66.9) | 22.0 (71.6) | 21.8 (71.2) | 17.5 (63.5) | 10.6 (51.1) | 4.4 (39.9) | −0.6 (30.9) | 10.8 (51.4) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −9.4 (15.1) | −5.5 (22.1) | −0.6 (30.9) | 5.1 (41.2) | 9.5 (49.1) | 13.0 (55.4) | 15.3 (59.5) | 14.8 (58.6) | 10.3 (50.5) | 3.3 (37.9) | −3.1 (26.4) | −8.1 (17.4) | 3.7 (38.7) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −14.7 (5.5) | −11 (12) | −6.1 (21.0) | −1.1 (30.0) | 3.0 (37.4) | 6.9 (44.4) | 9.4 (48.9) | 8.7 (47.7) | 4.5 (40.1) | −2.0 (28.4) | −8.0 (17.6) | −13.2 (8.2) | −2.0 (28.4) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −26.4 (−15.5) | −22.2 (−8.0) | −18.1 (−0.6) | −12.6 (9.3) | −6.7 (19.9) | −1.3 (29.7) | 0.6 (33.1) | 0.2 (32.4) | −4.8 (23.4) | −12.6 (9.3) | −18.8 (−1.8) | −25.7 (−14.3) | −26.4 (−15.5) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 4.2 (0.17) | 5.8 (0.23) | 7.6 (0.30) | 9.1 (0.36) | 31.1 (1.22) | 51.7 (2.04) | 57.5 (2.26) | 29.2 (1.15) | 19.3 (0.76) | 5.9 (0.23) | 5.2 (0.20) | 2.5 (0.10) | 229.1 (9.02) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 4.3 | 3.8 | 4.5 | 3.9 | 7.4 | 10.6 | 11.4 | 8.6 | 6.1 | 2.8 | 2.6 | 3.2 | 69.2 |
| Average snowy days | 5.6 | 5.4 | 6.4 | 4.9 | 3.8 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0 | 0.3 | 2.9 | 3.6 | 4.3 | 37.9 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 41 | 36 | 33 | 30 | 37 | 48 | 51 | 47 | 45 | 37 | 37 | 38 | 40 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 225.1 | 213.5 | 247.1 | 268.5 | 269.6 | 246.8 | 254.9 | 258.6 | 242.4 | 264.7 | 238.8 | 227.6 | 2,957.6 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 72 | 69 | 66 | 68 | 62 | 57 | 58 | 62 | 66 | 77 | 79 | 76 | 68 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration ||||||||||||||
Climate data for Nuomuhong, Dulan (1991–2020 normals) :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −0.5 (31.1) | 4.5 (40.1) | 9.8 (49.6) | 15.9 (60.6) | 20.5 (68.9) | 24.1 (75.4) | 26.5 (79.7) | 25.9 (78.6) | 21.5 (70.7) | 14.3 (57.7) | 6.5 (43.7) | 0.4 (32.7) | 14.1 (57.4) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −8.9 (16.0) | −4.1 (24.6) | 1.6 (34.9) | 7.8 (46.0) | 12.6 (54.7) | 16.4 (61.5) | 18.5 (65.3) | 17.5 (63.5) | 12.9 (55.2) | 5.3 (41.5) | −2.4 (27.7) | −8.0 (17.6) | 5.8 (42.4) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −15.4 (4.3) | −11.1 (12.0) | −5.6 (21.9) | 0.3 (32.5) | 5.2 (41.4) | 9.5 (49.1) | 11.8 (53.2) | 10.9 (51.6) | 6.4 (43.5) | −1.5 (29.3) | −8.9 (16.0) | −14.4 (6.1) | −1.1 (30.1) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 1.1 (0.04) | 0.7 (0.03) | 0.8 (0.03) | 1.4 (0.06) | 7.5 (0.30) | 14.0 (0.55) | 12.8 (0.50) | 7.5 (0.30) | 4.9 (0.19) | 0.6 (0.02) | 0.3 (0.01) | 0.5 (0.02) | 52.1 (2.05) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 1.9 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 2.9 | 5.3 | 6.3 | 4.5 | 3.2 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 29.2 |
| Average snowy days | 2.8 | 1.9 | 2.6 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.6 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 12.6 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 39 | 30 | 26 | 24 | 29 | 39 | 44 | 41 | 39 | 33 | 34 | 38 | 35 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 223.8 | 220.3 | 264.6 | 284.0 | 288.3 | 262.7 | 267.3 | 264.7 | 244.4 | 259.3 | 243.9 | 227.1 | 3,050.4 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 72 | 71 | 71 | 72 | 66 | 60 | 61 | 64 | 67 | 76 | 81 | 76 | 70 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration ||||||||||||||

## Administrative divisions

Dulan County is divided into 4 towns and 4 townships.
| Name | Simplified Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie | Mongolian (traditional script) | Mongolian (Cyrillic) | Administrative division code |
| Towns ||||||||
| Qagan Us Town (Chahanwusu, Cahainwusu) | 察汉乌苏镇 | Cháhànwūsū Zhèn | ཚ་ཧན་བུའུ་སུའུ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | tsha han bu'u su'u grong rdal | ᠴᠠᠭᠠᠨ᠋ᠤᠰᠤᠨ ᠪᠠᠯᠭᠠᠰᠤ | Цагааносон балгас | 632822100 |
| Xangdê Town (Xiangride, Dorboljin) | 香日德镇 | Xiāngrìdé Zhèn | ཤངས་སྡེ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | shangs sde grong rdal | ᠳᠥᠷᠪᠡᠯᠵᠢᠨ ᠪᠠᠯᠭᠠᠰᠤ | Дөрвөлжин балгас | 632822101 |
| Xarag Town (Xaruha, Xarrika, Xiariha) | 夏日哈镇 | Xiàrìhā Zhèn | ཤ་རུ་ཧ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | sha ru ha grong rdal | | | 632822102 |
| Zongja Town (Juun, Zongjia) | 宗加镇 | Zōngjiā Zhèn | ཙོང་ཇ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | tsong ja grong rdal | ᠵᠡᠭᠦᠨ ᠪᠠᠯᠭᠠᠰᠤ | Зүүн балгас | 632822103 |
| Townships ||||||||
| Qukoi Township (Reshui) | 热水乡 | Rèshuǐ Xiāng | ཆུ་ཁོལ་ཞང་། | chu khol zhang | | | 632822200 |
| Xang Township (Xiangjia) | 香加乡 | Xiāngjiā Xiāng | | | ᠱᠠᠩ ᠰᠤᠮᠤ | Шан сум | 632822201 |
| Guru Township (Guri, Gugri, Gouli) | 沟里乡 | Gōulǐ Xiāng | རྒུ་རུ་ཞང་། | rgu ru zhang | | | 632822202 |
| Barun Township (Balung, Balong) | 巴隆乡 | Bālóng Xiāng | པ་ལུང་ཞང་། | pa lung zhang | ᠪᠠᠷᠠᠭᠤᠨ ᠰᠤᠮᠤ | Баруун сум | 632822203 |

## Transport

* China National Highway 109