page_title: Lhasa
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Lhasa / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: Mountains seem to radiate spoke-like from the flat plain on which the city is built. The city, however, is an oasis. Lhasa is red and silver in the false colour image in which plant-covered land is red and man-made surfaces tend to be silver or white. The Lhasa River winds through the valley. Its wandering channels provide evidence that the ground is relatively flat, since the topography of the land isn’t forcing the river’s course. The fortress-like Potala Palace complex sits on a small rise in the centre of the city, forming two large white squares that are roughly the size of the city blocks visible around the complex. It is the largest single man-made surface in the image. The summer palace, Norbulingka, by contrast, is the largest park in the image. It is the red, plant-covered rectangle west of Potala Palace. The two sites together are a World Heritage Site. The final most notable feature in the image is the Lhalu Wetland Nature Reserve on the northern side of the city. The reserve is red-brown with black smudges where water darkens the surface. The natural wetland influences Lhasa’s climate, adding humidity to the city. The plants are also an important source of oxygen to a city with a thin, high-altitude atmosphere. The Lhalu Wetland Nature Reserve provides habitat for a wide range of birds.
context_page_description: Lhasa or Chengguan is a district and administrative capital of Lhasa City in the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. The inner urban area of Lhasa City is equivalent to the administrative borders of Chengguan District, which is part of the wider prefectural Lhasa City.
  Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining and, at an altitude of 3,656 metres, Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world. The city has been the religious and administrative capital of Tibet since the mid-17th century. It contains many culturally significant Tibetan Buddhist sites such as the Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple and Norbulingka Palaces.
context_section_description: Lhasa has an elevation of about 3,600 m (11,800 ft) and lies in the centre of the Tibetan Plateau with the surrounding mountains rising to 5,500 m (18,000 ft). The air only contains 68 percent of the oxygen compared to sea level. The Lhasa River, also Kyi River or Kyi Chu, a tributary of the Yarlung Zangbo River (Brahmaputra River), runs through the southern part of the city. This river, known to local Tibetans as the "merry blue waves", flows through the snow-covered peaks and gullies of the Nyainqêntanglha mountains, extending 315 km (196 mi), and emptying into the Yarlung Zangbo River at Qüxü, forms an area of great scenic beauty. The marshlands, mostly uninhabited, are to the north. Ingress and egress roads run east and west, while to the north, the road infrastructure is less developed.
caption: Lhasa sits in a flat river valley
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