# Daocheng County

Daocheng County or Dapba in Tibetan (Tibetan: འདབ་པ་རྫོང་།; Chinese: 稻城县) is a county of western Sichuan Province, China, located in the eastern Hengduan Mountains. It is under the administration of the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture with an overwhelmingly Tibetan population. Its latitude ranges from 27° 58' to 29° 30' N and longitude 99° 56' to 100° 36', and reaches 174 kilometres (108 mi) in north–south extent and 63 km (39 mi) in east–west width, with elevations ranging from 2,000 to 6,032 m (6,562 to 19,790 ft).
Daocheng Yading Airport, the world's highest airport, is located in Daocheng County.

## History

The explorer Joseph Rock departed from Lijiang in 1928 and visited Daocheng.
After the fall of the Qing dynasty, Xiangcheng and Daocheng fell into chaos. Daocheng was controlled by local chiefs centered in Daoba and the Gangkarling (贡噶岭; Gònggálǐng) region from 1930s to 1950s.

## Administrative Divisions

Daocheng County is divided into 5 towns and 8 townships.
| Name | Simplified Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie | Administrative division code |
| Towns ||||||
| Jingzhoi Town (Jinzhu) | 金珠镇 | Jīnzhū Zhèn | བཅིངས་འགྲོལ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | bcings 'grol grong rdal | 513337100 |
| Shambala Town (Xambala, Xianggelila) | 香格里拉镇 | Xiānggélǐlā Zhèn | ཤམ་བྷ་ལ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | sham bha la grong rdal | 513337101 |
| Sumdü Town (Sangdui) | 桑堆镇 | Sāngduī Zhèn | གསུམ་འདུས་གྲོང་རྡལ། | gsum 'dus grong rdal | 513337102 |
| Qugar Town (Jiga) | 吉呷镇 | Jígā Zhèn | ཆུ་དཀར་གྲོང་རྡལ། | chu dkar grong rdal | 513337103 |
| Gartang Town (Gatong) | 噶通镇 | Gátōng Zhèn | སྐར་ཐང་གྲོང་རྡལ། | skar thang grong rdal | 513337104 |
| Townships ||||||
| Sammo Township (Shengmu) | 省母乡 | Shěngmǔ Xiāng | བསམ་མོ་ཤང་། | bsam mo shang | 513337201 |
| Jangrong Township (Julong) | 巨龙乡 | Jùlóng Xiāng | འཇང་རོང་ཤང་། | 'jang rong shang | 513337204 |
| Dêmo Township (Dengpo) | 邓坡乡 | Dèngpō Xiāng | བདེ་མོ་ཤང་། | bde mo shang | 513337205 |
| Mangra Township (Mula) | 木拉乡 | Mùlā Xiāng | མང་ར་ཤང་། | mang ra shang | 513337206 |
| Qêrog Township (Chitu) | 赤土乡 | Chìtǔ Xiāng | ཆེ་རོགས་ཤང་། | che rogs shang | 513337207 |
| Bucang Township (Mengzi) | 蒙自乡 | Méngzì Xiāng | འབུ་ཚང་ཤང་། | 'bu tshang shang | 513337209 |
| Kaqa Township (Gaqag, Geka) | 各卡乡 | Gèkǎ Xiāng | ག་ཆ་ཤང་། | ga cha shang | 513337210 |
| Goyagtang Township (Goyatang, Eyatong) | 俄牙同乡 | Éyátóng Xiāng | འགོ་ཡག་ཐང་ཤང་། | 'go yag thang shang | 513337212 |

## Climate

Daocheng has a Monsoon-influenced warm-summer humid continental climate (Dwb) according to the Köppen Climate classification, with humid and rainy and warm summers, and cold and dry winters due to the high pressure that forms over the Tibetan Plateau during those months. Snowfall is most common during spring and autumn, as there is little precipitation during winter.
Climate data for Daocheng, elevation 3,728 m (12,231 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) | 18.7 (65.7) | 18.7 (65.7) | 23.5 (74.3) | 23.7 (74.7) | 25.2 (77.4) | 27.0 (80.6) | 27.9 (82.2) | 24.9 (76.8) | 23.8 (74.8) | 21.5 (70.7) | 19.0 (66.2) | 17.2 (63.0) | 27.9 (82.2) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 6.3 (43.3) | 7.8 (46.0) | 10.3 (50.5) | 13.6 (56.5) | 17.4 (63.3) | 19.7 (67.5) | 18.6 (65.5) | 18.2 (64.8) | 17.5 (63.5) | 14.6 (58.3) | 10.6 (51.1) | 7.8 (46.0) | 13.5 (56.4) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −4.1 (24.6) | −1.9 (28.6) | 1.5 (34.7) | 5.4 (41.7) | 9.8 (49.6) | 12.7 (54.9) | 12.4 (54.3) | 11.9 (53.4) | 10.7 (51.3) | 6.3 (43.3) | 0.7 (33.3) | −3.2 (26.2) | 5.2 (41.3) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −12.5 (9.5) | −10.0 (14.0) | −5.7 (21.7) | −1.8 (28.8) | 2.8 (37.0) | 7.2 (45.0) | 8.3 (46.9) | 7.9 (46.2) | 6.2 (43.2) | 0.2 (32.4) | −6.7 (19.9) | −11.4 (11.5) | −1.3 (29.7) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −26.5 (−15.7) | −23.6 (−10.5) | −18.4 (−1.1) | −10.4 (13.3) | −6.7 (19.9) | −1.7 (28.9) | 0.1 (32.2) | −0.1 (31.8) | −3.0 (26.6) | −10.2 (13.6) | −21.0 (−5.8) | −27.6 (−17.7) | −27.6 (−17.7) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 1.3 (0.05) | 2.0 (0.08) | 7.2 (0.28) | 14.0 (0.55) | 39.5 (1.56) | 116.2 (4.57) | 193.8 (7.63) | 162.7 (6.41) | 97.7 (3.85) | 20.2 (0.80) | 4.6 (0.18) | 0.9 (0.04) | 660.1 (26) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 1.7 | 1.4 | 5.0 | 7.3 | 10.2 | 18.2 | 24.8 | 23.8 | 17.8 | 6.4 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 119.9 |
| Average snowy days | 4.0 | 5.2 | 10.1 | 9.9 | 2.6 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0 | 0.3 | 2.7 | 4.0 | 2.5 | 41.7 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 37 | 38 | 43 | 47 | 51 | 63 | 74 | 75 | 71 | 60 | 48 | 39 | 54 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 261.2 | 244.8 | 247.8 | 230.1 | 219.8 | 171.6 | 130.7 | 136.4 | 167.7 | 227.7 | 244.8 | 262.0 | 2,544.6 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 80 | 77 | 66 | 59 | 52 | 41 | 31 | 34 | 46 | 65 | 77 | 82 | 59 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration ||||||||||||||