# Garzê County

Garzê County or Kardze County (Tibetan: དཀར་མཛེས་རྫོང་།, Wylie: dkar mdzes rdzong), called Ganzi County in Chinese (Chinese: 甘孜县; pinyin: Gānzī xiàn), is one of the 18 subdivisions of the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in northwestern Sichuan province, China. The Yalong River passes just south of the town Garzê, also known as Ganzi, the capital town of the county, which has some 16,920 inhabitants (2010), many of them ethnic Tibetans, and is famous for its Tibetan lamasery. Historically, it is part of the Tibetan cultural region of Kham and now defunct province of Xikang (or Sikang). It lies on the northern section of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway.

## Geography and climate

Due to its elevation, Garzê County has a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate (Köppen Dwb) and subarctic climate, with cold but very dry winters, and warm summers with frequent rain. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −3.9 °C (25.0 °F) in January to 14.2 °C (57.6 °F) in July, while the annual mean is 5.93 °C (42.7 °F). Over two-thirds of the annual precipitation of 646 mm (25.4 in) occurs from June thru September. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 49% in July to 74% in November and December, the county seat receives abundant, outside of summer, sunshine, totalling 2,620 hours annually. The diurnal temperature variation is large, averaging 14.5 °C (26.1 °F) annually.
Climate data for Garzê County, elevation 3,394 m (11,135 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) | 20.7 (69.3) | 20.6 (69.1) | 25.3 (77.5) | 27.0 (80.6) | 28.9 (84.0) | 30.5 (86.9) | 29.7 (85.5) | 29.6 (85.3) | 28.0 (82.4) | 25.9 (78.6) | 21.3 (70.3) | 18.2 (64.8) | 30.5 (86.9) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 6.3 (43.3) | 8.7 (47.7) | 11.6 (52.9) | 15.1 (59.2) | 18.7 (65.7) | 20.5 (68.9) | 21.6 (70.9) | 21.8 (71.2) | 19.8 (67.6) | 15.1 (59.2) | 10.6 (51.1) | 6.9 (44.4) | 14.7 (58.5) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −3.5 (25.7) | −0.4 (31.3) | 3.2 (37.8) | 6.9 (44.4) | 10.9 (51.6) | 13.4 (56.1) | 14.5 (58.1) | 14.2 (57.6) | 11.8 (53.2) | 6.9 (44.4) | 0.9 (33.6) | −3.2 (26.2) | 6.3 (43.3) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −10.5 (13.1) | −7.2 (19.0) | −3.3 (26.1) | 0.3 (32.5) | 4.5 (40.1) | 8.1 (46.6) | 9.3 (48.7) | 8.8 (47.8) | 6.7 (44.1) | 1.5 (34.7) | −5.4 (22.3) | −10.0 (14.0) | 0.2 (32.4) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −26.5 (−15.7) | −22.6 (−8.7) | −16.4 (2.5) | −9.6 (14.7) | −4.1 (24.6) | −2.4 (27.7) | 0.7 (33.3) | −1.1 (30.0) | −2.0 (28.4) | −9.2 (15.4) | −21.4 (−6.5) | −26.0 (−14.8) | −26.5 (−15.7) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 5.0 (0.20) | 9.9 (0.39) | 20.9 (0.82) | 36.4 (1.43) | 79.0 (3.11) | 139.3 (5.48) | 121.0 (4.76) | 94.8 (3.73) | 104.4 (4.11) | 52.1 (2.05) | 10.3 (0.41) | 3.4 (0.13) | 676.5 (26.62) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 3.8 | 5.6 | 8.8 | 13.4 | 18.2 | 22.7 | 20.8 | 18.2 | 18.4 | 13.6 | 4.8 | 2.7 | 151 |
| Average snowy days | 5.4 | 7.9 | 11.0 | 8.3 | 1.9 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 4.6 | 5.7 | 4.2 | 49.3 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 42 | 43 | 46 | 51 | 55 | 65 | 68 | 67 | 68 | 64 | 53 | 47 | 56 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 215.3 | 195.0 | 215.5 | 212.8 | 223.5 | 197.8 | 200.6 | 198.9 | 204.2 | 213.7 | 229.7 | 232.6 | 2,539.6 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 67 | 62 | 58 | 54 | 52 | 47 | 47 | 49 | 56 | 61 | 73 | 74 | 58 |
| Source 1: China Meteorological Administration ||||||||||||||
| Source 2: Weather China ||||||||||||||

## Administrative divisions

Garzê County is divided into 3 towns and 18 townships:
| Name | Simplified Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie | Administrative division code |
| Towns ||||||
| Garzê Town (Ganzi) | 甘孜镇 | Gānzī Zhèn | དཀར་མཛེས་གྲོང་རྡལ། | dkar mdzes grong rdal | 513328100 |
| Calung Town (Chalong) | 查龙镇 | Chálóng Zhèn | ཚྭ་ལུང་གྲོང་རྡལ། | tshwa lung grong rdal | 513328101 |
| Dainma Town (Laima) | 来马镇 | Láimǎ Zhèn | འདན་མ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | 'dan ma grong rdal | 513328102 |
| Townships ||||||
| Garrag Township (Gala) | 呷拉乡 | Gālā Xiāng | དཀར་རགས་ཤང་། | dkar rags shang | 513328200 |
| Sêrqudêng Township (Sexidi) | 色西底乡 | Sèxīdǐ Xiāng | གསེར་ཆུ་སྟེང་ཤང་། | gser chu steng shang | 513328201 |
| Dando Township (Nanduo) | 南多乡 | Nánduō Xiāng | མདའ་མདོ་ཤང་། | mda' mdo shang | 513328202 |
| Sêrkar Township (Shengkang) | 生康乡 | Shēngkāng Xiāng | གསེར་མཁར་ཤང་། | gser mkhar shang | 513328203 |
| Konglam Township (Kolam, Gonglong) | 贡隆乡 | Gònglóng Xiāng | གོང་ལམ་ཤང་། | gong lam shang | 513328204 |
| Zakog Township (Zhake) | 扎科乡 | Zhākē Xiāng | རྫ་ཁོག་ཤང་། | rdza khog shang | 513328205 |
| Qêsêr Township (Xise) | 昔色乡 | Xīsè Xiāng | བྱེ་གསེར་ཤང་། | bye gser shang | 513328207 |
| Kargang Township (Kagong) | 卡攻乡 | Kǎgōng Xiāng | མཁར་སྒང་ཤང་། | mkhar sgang shang | 513328208 |
| Ringo Township (Renguo) | 仁果乡 | Rénguǒ Xiāng | རི་མགོ་ཤང་། | ri mgo shang | 513328209 |
| Doba Township (Tuoba) | 拖坝乡 | Tuōbà Xiāng | ལྟོ་པ་ཤང་། | lto pa shang | 513328210 |
| Tingka Township | 庭卡乡 | Tíngkǎ Xiāng | ཐིང་ཁ་ཤང་། | thing kha shang | 513328212 |
| Xarqog Township (Xiaxiong) | 下雄乡 | Xiàxióng Xiāng | ཤར་ཕྱོགས་ཤང་། | shar phyogs shang | 513328213 |
| Sitangda Township (Sitongda) | 四通达乡 | Sìtōngdá Xiāng | ཟི་ཐང་མདའ་ཤང་། | zi thang mda' shang | 513328214 |
| Dotog Township (Dodi, Duodu) | 夺多乡 | Duóduō Xiāng | རྡོ་ཐོག་ཤང་། | rdo thog shang | 513328215 |
| Nyikog Township (Nike) | 泥柯乡 | Níkē Xiāng | ཉི་ཁོག་ཤང་། | nyi khog shang | 513328216 |
| Caza Township (Chazha) | 茶扎乡 | Cházhā Xiāng | ཚ་རྩྭ་ཤང་། | tsha rtswa shang | 513328217 |
| Dadoi Township (Dade) | 大德乡 | Dàdé Xiāng | ཟླ་སྟོད་ཤང་། | zla stod shang | 513328218 |
| Kyaglung Township (Karlung, Kalong) | 卡龙乡 | Kǎlóng Xiāng | འཁྱགས་ལུང་ཤང་། | 'khyags lung shang | 513328219 |

## Transport

* China National Highway 317
* Ganzi Gesa'er Airport