# Guide County

Guide County (Chinese: 贵德县, Tibetan: ཁྲི་ཀ་རྫོང་།) is a county in the east of Qinghai Province, China. It is under the administration of Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. In Tibetan it is known as Trika. In 2015 it had a population of 108,800, of which 37.8% Tibetans, and 16.1% other ethnic minorities. In 2018 the population was 110,900.
It is located along the Yellow River, surrounded by hilly terrain on either side of the river valley.
Guide was first established during the Yuan dynasty. The area became part of Ming Dynasty China in 1370. In 1953 it was placed under jurisdiction of Hainan prefecture.

## Guide old town

The city's earthen walls and buildings were built between 1375 and 1380. The city was enlarged in 1590. After the founding of the People's Republic, the moats were filled in and the North and South gates were pulled down, as well as the towers. In 2010 work commenced to restore the gates and towers.

## Economics

Guide is known in Qinghai as a fruit producing county, in particular for pear cultivation, as it has a relatively mild climate. The Laxiwa Dam in Guide is the largest hydropower station on the upper reaches of the Yellow River.

## Administrative divisions

Guide governs over 4 towns, 2 townships, and 1 ethnic township. The county seat is in Qusib (Heyin).
| Name | Simplified Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie | Administrative division code |
| Towns ||||||
| Qusib Town (Masib, Heyin) | 河阴镇 | Héyīn Zhèn | ཆུ་སྲིབ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | chu srib grong brdal | 632523100 |
| Qurub Town (Hexi) | 河西镇 | Héxī Zhèn | ཆུ་རུབ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | chu rub grong brdal | 632523101 |
| Lasêwa Town (Laxiwa) | 拉西瓦镇 | Lāxīwǎ Zhèn | ལ་ཟེ་བ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | la ze ba grong brdal | 632523102 |
| Changmar Town (Changmu) | 常牧镇 | Chángmù Zhèn | འཕྲང་དམར་གྲོང་རྡལ། | 'phrang dmar grong brdal | 632523103 |
| Townships ||||||
| Quxar Township (Hedong) | 河东乡 | Hédōng Xiāng | ཆུ་ཤར་ཡུལ་ཚོ། | chu shar yul tsho | 632523200 |
| Garji Township (Garing, Garang) | 尕让乡 | Gǎràng Xiāng | དཀར་བརྗིད་ཞང་། | dkar brjid zhang | 632523202 |
| Ethnic township ||||||
| Gabroin Hui Ethnic Township (Gabroinxung, Xinjie) | 新街回族乡 | Xīnjiē Huízú Xiāng | ཀབ་རོན་ཧོས་རིགས་ཡུལ་ཚོ། | kab ron hos rigs yul tsho | 632523201 |

## Climate

Climate data for Guide, elevation 2,273 m (7,457 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) | 14.2 (57.6) | 18.4 (65.1) | 27.9 (82.2) | 35.0 (95.0) | 30.5 (86.9) | 32.9 (91.2) | 38.7 (101.7) | 35.6 (96.1) | 31.1 (88.0) | 25.6 (78.1) | 19.4 (66.9) | 12.9 (55.2) | 38.7 (101.7) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 3.9 (39.0) | 7.8 (46.0) | 13.3 (55.9) | 18.6 (65.5) | 21.6 (70.9) | 24.3 (75.7) | 26.5 (79.7) | 26.1 (79.0) | 21.5 (70.7) | 16.4 (61.5) | 10.7 (51.3) | 5.2 (41.4) | 16.3 (61.4) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −5.1 (22.8) | −1.0 (30.2) | 4.7 (40.5) | 10.3 (50.5) | 14.0 (57.2) | 17.2 (63.0) | 19.4 (66.9) | 18.9 (66.0) | 14.1 (57.4) | 7.8 (46.0) | 1.1 (34.0) | −4.0 (24.8) | 8.1 (46.6) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −11.8 (10.8) | −7.8 (18.0) | −2.2 (28.0) | 2.8 (37.0) | 6.7 (44.1) | 10.2 (50.4) | 12.7 (54.9) | 12.5 (54.5) | 8.6 (47.5) | 1.8 (35.2) | −5.4 (22.3) | −10.5 (13.1) | 1.5 (34.7) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −21.8 (−7.2) | −19.1 (−2.4) | −15.1 (4.8) | −9.2 (15.4) | −3.5 (25.7) | 1.3 (34.3) | 4.1 (39.4) | 3.2 (37.8) | −2.1 (28.2) | −12.0 (10.4) | −14.5 (5.9) | −20.2 (−4.4) | −21.8 (−7.2) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 0.5 (0.02) | 0.5 (0.02) | 2.7 (0.11) | 14.6 (0.57) | 32.7 (1.29) | 41.3 (1.63) | 50.5 (1.99) | 54.7 (2.15) | 42.7 (1.68) | 14.2 (0.56) | 2.1 (0.08) | 0.3 (0.01) | 256.8 (10.11) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 1.1 | 0.8 | 2.2 | 4.3 | 8.9 | 11.7 | 12.2 | 11.1 | 11.4 | 5.6 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 71.3 |
| Average snowy days | 2.2 | 1.8 | 2.9 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 11.2 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 42 | 39 | 38 | 42 | 51 | 58 | 60 | 61 | 66 | 61 | 50 | 46 | 51 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 215.9 | 209.1 | 241.8 | 255.2 | 258.9 | 238.7 | 250.5 | 252.6 | 209.3 | 225.5 | 226.1 | 220.6 | 2,804.2 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 69 | 67 | 65 | 64 | 59 | 55 | 57 | 61 | 57 | 66 | 74 | 73 | 64 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration ||||||||||||||

## Transport

The Guide General Aviation Airport started construction in 2018.