# Sêrxü County

Sêrxü County (Tibetan: སེར་ཤུལ་རྫོང་།; Chinese: 石渠县), also known as Sershul, Dzachuka, Serxu, or Shiqu is a county of the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the northwest of Sichuan Province, China, bordering Qinghai to the west and the Tibet Autonomous Region to the southwest.

## Geography

Sêrxü (sershul) County is situated at the northwest corner of Sichuan province, and is also the westernmost county-level division of the province. Its area is approximately 25,000 km$^2$, mainly covered by grasslands. The average elevation is 4,200 m above sea level.
The area is predominantly covered by grasslands used for nomadic herding. The population is around 68,000, 96% of whom are ethnic Tibetan.
By the end of 1997, there was an estimated livestock population of 581,470. These were mainly yaks, sheep, goats, and horses, but there was a small number of pigs. The human population of Shiqu County was approximately 63,400, 96.8% of which were ethnic Tibetans. There were 49,100 herdsmen, representing 77.6% of the population.
Sershul District villages include: Ariksar, Bumser, Changma, Dezhongma, Dzagyel, Geming, Gotsa, Junyung, Jowo, Kabshi, Kilung, Kyewu, Sershul Gompa, Serxu Dzong, Shaksa, Tromsa Genma, Tseboum Soumdo, Tsemkhog, Ombo and Wathul.
Sershul District has several monasteries, including: Ju Mohar, Sershul Monastery, Bumser Gonpo, Ariksar, Dzagyel, Changma, Trikar, Kabshi and Jowo; and the Gsumge Mani Stone Castle, a religious complex built out of mani stone tablets.

## Administrative divisions

Sêrxü County is divided into 7 towns and 14 townships:
| Name | Simplified Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie | Administrative division code |
| Towns ||||||
| Jugar Town (Niga) | 尼呷镇 | Nígā Zhèn | འཇུ་སྒར་གྲོང་རྡལ། | 'ju sgar grong rdal | 513332100 |
| Loqug Town (Loqung) | 洛须镇 | Luòxū Zhèn | ལོ་ཕྱུག་གྲོང་རྡལ། | lo phyug grong rdal | 513332101 |
| Sêrxü Town (Sênxü, Sexu) | 色须镇 | Sèxū Zhèn | སེར་ཤུལ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | ser shul grong rdal | 513332102 |
| Qagca Town (Xiazha) | 虾扎镇 | Xiāzhā Zhèn | ཕྱག་ཚ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | phyag tsha grong rdal | 513332103 |
| Woinbo Town (Wenbo) | 温波镇 | Wēnbō Zhèn | དབོན་པོ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | dbon po grong rdal | 513332104 |
| Bumnying Town (Mengyi) | 蒙宜镇 | Méngyí Zhèn | འབུམ་རྙིང་གྲོང་རྡལ། | 'bum rnying grong rdal | 513332105 |
| Arigza Town (Arizha) | 阿日扎镇 | Ārìzhā Zhèn | ཨ་རིག་རྫ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | a rig rdza grong rdal | 513332106 |
| Townships ||||||
| Zênda Township (Zhenda) | 真达乡 | Zhēndá Xiāng | རྩེ་མདའ་ཤང་། | rtse mda' shang | 513332200 |
| Pênda Township (Benda) | 奔达乡 | Bēndá Xiāng | བེ་མདའ་ཤང་། | be mda' shang | 513332201 |
| Zhêngko Township (Zhengke) | 正科乡 | Zhèngkē Xiāng | ཀྲེང་ཁོ་ཤང་། | kreng kho shang | 513332202 |
| Dêxungma Township (De'ongma, Derongma) | 德荣马乡 | Déróngmǎ Xiāng | སྡེ་གཞུང་མ་ཤང་། | sde gzhung ma shang | 513332204 |
| Chomsagabma Township (Changshagongma) | 长沙贡马乡 | Chángshāgóngmǎ Xiāng | ཁྲོམ་བཟའ་འགབ་མ་ཤང་། | khrom bza' 'gab ma shang | 513332206 |
| Gaxi Township (Gayi) | 呷衣乡 | Gāyī Xiāng | ཀ་བཞི་ཤང་། | ka bzhi shang | 513332207 |
| Gêmang Township (Gemeng) | 格孟乡 | Gémèng Xiāng | དགེ་མང་ཤང་། | dge mang shang | 513332208 |
| Xinrung Township (Xinrong) | 新荣乡 | Xīnróng Xiāng | ཤིན་རུང་ཤང་། | shin rung shang | 513332210 |
| Ju'nying Township (Yiniu) | 宜牛乡 | Yíniú Xiāng | འཇུ་རྙིང་ཤང་། | 'ju rnying shang | 513332211 |
| Kyiu Township (Kyewu, Qiwu) | 起坞乡 | Qǐwū Xiāng | ཁྱེའུ་ཤང་། | khye'u shang | 513332213 |
| Choxükongma Township (Changxugongma) | 长须贡马乡 | Chángxūgòngmǎ Xiāng | ཁྲོ་ཤུལ་གོང་མ་ཤང་། | khro shul gong ma shang | 513332215 |
| Chomzagabma Township (Chomsakongma, Changshaganma) | 长沙干马乡 | Chángshāgānmǎ Xiāng | ཁྲོམ་རྫ་འགབ་མ་ཤང་། | khrom rdza 'gab ma shang | 513332216 |
| Choxügabma Township (Changxuganma) | 长须干马乡 | Chángxūgānmǎ Xiāng | ཁྲོ་ཤུལ་འགབ་མ་ཤང་། | khro shul 'gab ma shang | 513332217 |
| Waxü Township (Waxu) | 瓦须乡 | Wǎxū Xiāng | ཝ་ཤུལ་ཤང་། | wa shul shang | 513332219 |

## Demographics

The population of the district was 62,408 inhabitants in 1999.
There are about 52,660 nomads in the district, or 77.6% of the population.

## Climate

Sêrxü County has an alpine climate (Köppen ETH) with short, mild and rainy summers, frigid and dry winters and a large diurnal temperature range in all seasons. Mean minima are below freezing for eight months of the year and frosts occur even in summer, whilst at the depth of winter mean minima approach −20 °C or −4 °F and can reach −30 °C or −22 °F.
Climate data for Sêrxü, elevation 4,200 m (13,800 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1981–2010) :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 12.1 (53.8) | 10.2 (50.4) | 14.8 (58.6) | 17.5 (63.5) | 20.7 (69.3) | 23.1 (73.6) | 23.5 (74.3) | 22.6 (72.7) | 21.7 (71.1) | 19.1 (66.4) | 12.5 (54.5) | 10.0 (50.0) | 23.5 (74.3) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −2.4 (27.7) | 0.0 (32.0) | 3.3 (37.9) | 7.2 (45.0) | 11.0 (51.8) | 14.0 (57.2) | 16.0 (60.8) | 15.9 (60.6) | 13.3 (55.9) | 7.4 (45.3) | 2.4 (36.3) | −1 (30) | 7.3 (45.1) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −11.5 (11.3) | −8.3 (17.1) | −4.3 (24.3) | 0.0 (32.0) | 3.9 (39.0) | 7.4 (45.3) | 9.3 (48.7) | 8.7 (47.7) | 5.9 (42.6) | 0.0 (32.0) | −6.2 (20.8) | −10.5 (13.1) | −0.5 (31.1) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −19.4 (−2.9) | −15.7 (3.7) | −10.8 (12.6) | −5.8 (21.6) | −1.8 (28.8) | 2.4 (36.3) | 3.8 (38.8) | 2.8 (37.0) | 0.6 (33.1) | −5.2 (22.6) | −13 (9) | −18.5 (−1.3) | −6.7 (19.9) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −37.2 (−35.0) | −31.8 (−25.2) | −27.5 (−17.5) | −15.9 (3.4) | −11.2 (11.8) | −6 (21) | −4.1 (24.6) | −7.9 (17.8) | −10 (14) | −20.3 (−4.5) | −30.3 (−22.5) | −37.8 (−36.0) | −37.8 (−36.0) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 7.5 (0.30) | 10.0 (0.39) | 16.7 (0.66) | 28.8 (1.13) | 62.0 (2.44) | 108.6 (4.28) | 118.3 (4.66) | 92.1 (3.63) | 92.6 (3.65) | 46.4 (1.83) | 6.9 (0.27) | 4.0 (0.16) | 593.9 (23.4) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 6.7 | 7.9 | 12.5 | 15.4 | 20.3 | 23.8 | 20.8 | 18.5 | 20.8 | 16.0 | 6.5 | 4.8 | 174 |
| Average snowy days | 8.9 | 11.5 | 15.9 | 19.5 | 19.4 | 5.8 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 7.8 | 18.3 | 9.2 | 7.2 | 125.8 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 45 | 45 | 48 | 55 | 62 | 68 | 68 | 69 | 71 | 67 | 53 | 46 | 58 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 205.0 | 188.2 | 203.9 | 207.1 | 199.9 | 170.6 | 191.6 | 190.2 | 177.1 | 188.4 | 210.2 | 211.4 | 2,343.6 |
| Percentage possible sunshine | 64 | 60 | 55 | 53 | 46 | 40 | 44 | 47 | 48 | 54 | 68 | 68 | 54 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration ||||||||||||||