# Lhorong County

Lhorong County (Tibetan: ལྷོ་རོང་རྫོང་།, Chinese: 洛隆县) is a county of Chamdo in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. The county covers an area of 8,108 km$^2$ (3,131 sq mi) and has a population of around 40,000 as of 2003. The word Lhorong means "valley in the south" or "river in the south" in Tibetan.

## Geography and climate

Lhorong County is located in the northeast of the Tibet Autonomous Region, in the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and contains some 100 kilometres or 60 miles of the Nu River (Salween River). The Nu River flows through Tibet into Gongshan Dulong and Nu Autonomous County of Yunnan Province. It later flows through Lushui County and into Burma, eventually into the Indian Ocean. Lhorong County lies to the south-west of the Qamdo Prefecture. Banbar County lies to the northwest, Baxoi County lies across the river to the east, Banbar County to the west, Dêngqên County to the north, and Riwoqê County to the northeast. From east to west the county is 127 kilometers and from north to south the greatest distance of is 105 kilometres. A county has a total area of 8048.4 square kikometres. The total population is around 36,000 people (1999), with estimates in 2003 being around 40,000. Other rivers of Lhorong County include the Jalan Song, Maqu, and the Zhuoma Lang. The county also contains numerous small lakes which the locals compare to 21 fairies.
Not untypically for the "river region" of Tibet, the county has a dry-winter humid continental climate (Köppen Dwb), bordering on a cool semi-arid climate (BSk). The average annual temperature is 6.1 °C or 43.0 °F, the midsummer (July) average 14.5 °C or 58.1 °F, and the midwinter (January) mean −3.5 °C or 25.7 °F. The country experiences 2,500 hours of sunshine annually on average, with a frost-free period of 120 days or so. The annual average rainfall is 416.1 millimetres or 16.38 inches.
Climate data for Lhorong, elevation 3,612 m (11,850 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1981–present) :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 19.6 (67.3) | 17.0 (62.6) | 19.1 (66.4) | 20.8 (69.4) | 25.6 (78.1) | 27.3 (81.1) | 30.6 (87.1) | 28.8 (83.8) | 27.4 (81.3) | 22.7 (72.9) | 19.0 (66.2) | 16.5 (61.7) | 30.6 (87.1) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 5.1 (41.2) | 6.7 (44.1) | 9.6 (49.3) | 13.2 (55.8) | 17.1 (62.8) | 20.7 (69.3) | 22.3 (72.1) | 22.0 (71.6) | 20.0 (68.0) | 14.5 (58.1) | 9.9 (49.8) | 6.7 (44.1) | 14.0 (57.2) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −3.5 (25.7) | −1.0 (30.2) | 2.2 (36.0) | 5.6 (42.1) | 9.8 (49.6) | 13.6 (56.5) | 15.0 (59.0) | 14.3 (57.7) | 12.2 (54.0) | 6.8 (44.2) | 1.2 (34.2) | −2.6 (27.3) | 6.1 (43.0) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −10.9 (12.4) | −8.0 (17.6) | −4.1 (24.6) | −0.5 (31.1) | 3.6 (38.5) | 7.9 (46.2) | 9.5 (49.1) | 8.8 (47.8) | 6.4 (43.5) | 0.8 (33.4) | −5.8 (21.6) | −10.1 (13.8) | −0.2 (31.6) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −22.1 (−7.8) | −20.6 (−5.1) | −18.1 (−0.6) | −10.0 (14.0) | −5.8 (21.6) | −0.6 (30.9) | 0.6 (33.1) | 0.3 (32.5) | −2.2 (28.0) | −9.3 (15.3) | −18.2 (−0.8) | −21.9 (−7.4) | −22.1 (−7.8) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 2.4 (0.09) | 7.2 (0.28) | 14.1 (0.56) | 27.7 (1.09) | 43.6 (1.72) | 61.1 (2.41) | 80.4 (3.17) | 76.8 (3.02) | 59.5 (2.34) | 34.7 (1.37) | 6.9 (0.27) | 1.7 (0.07) | 416.1 (16.39) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 2.0 | 4.5 | 8.0 | 11.3 | 11.8 | 13.9 | 16.8 | 16.4 | 13.2 | 8.5 | 4.4 | 2.1 | 112.9 |
| Average snowy days | 3.8 | 6.8 | 11.4 | 13.1 | 3.2 | 0.1 | 0 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 5.7 | 6.5 | 3.6 | 54.7 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 42 | 43 | 48 | 52 | 52 | 57 | 61 | 62 | 60 | 56 | 49 | 43 | 52 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 217.5 | 204.9 | 223.1 | 212.6 | 236.5 | 203.7 | 185.6 | 184.9 | 203.7 | 218.3 | 215.5 | 214.2 | 2,520.5 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 67 | 65 | 60 | 55 | 56 | 48 | 43 | 46 | 56 | 63 | 69 | 68 | 58 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration ||||||||||||||

## Subdivisions

Lhorong County contains 4 towns and 7 townships.
| Name | Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie |
| Towns |||||
| Dzito Town (Lhorong) | 孜托镇 | Zītuō zhèn | རྫི་ཐོ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | rdzi tho grong rdal |
| Xobando Town | 硕督镇 | Shuòdū zhèn | ཤོ་པ་མདོ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | sho pa mdo grong rdal |
| Khangsar Town | 康沙镇 | Kāngshā zhèn | ཁང་གསར་གྲོང་རྡལ། | khang gsar grong rdal |
| Marri Town | 马利镇 | Mǎlì zhèn | དམར་རི་གྲོང་རྡལ། | dmar ri grong rdal |
| Townships |||||
| Dakrong Township | 达龙乡 | Dálóng xiāng | གདགས་རོང་ཤང་། | gdags rong shang |
| Shingrong Township | 新荣乡 | Xīnróng xiāng | ཤིང་རོང་ཤང་། | shing rong shang |
| Pedak Township | 白达乡 | Báidá xiāng | པད་གདགས་ཤང་། | pad gdags shang |
| Yülzhi Township | 玉西乡 | Yùxī xiāng | ཡུལ་བཞི་ཤང་། | yul bzhi shang |
| Nagchok Township | 腊久乡 | Làjiǔ xiāng | ནག་ལྕོག་ཤང་། | nag lcog shang |
| Ngülshö Township | 俄西乡 | Éxī xiāng | རྔུལ་ཤོད་ཤང་། | rngul shod shang |
| Kungye Sumdo Township | 中亦乡 | Zhōngyì xiāng | ཀུང་ཡས་གསུམ་མདོ་ཤང་། | kung yas gsum mdo shang |