Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, locally also known as Qaidam Prefecture (mong. Qaidam; tib. Caindam; chin. Chaidamu), is an autonomous prefecture occupying much of the northern tier of as well as part of the southwest Qinghai province, People's Republic of China. It has an area of 325,785 square kilometres (125,786 sq mi) and its seat is Delhi. The name of the prefecture literally means "west of (Qinghai) Lake."

Geladandong Mountain, the source of the Yangtze River, is located here.

History

After 1949, the People's Government of Dulan County was founded and the area was renamed Dulan Autonomous District (都兰自治区); in 1954, Dulan was renamed Haixi Mongol, Tibetan and Kazakh Autonomous District (海西蒙藏哈萨克族自治区) and in 1955, Haixi Mongol, Tibetan and Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture (海西蒙藏哈萨克族自治州). In 1963, it was renamed "海西蒙古族藏族哈萨克族自治州" (English the same, "蒙藏哈萨克族"->"蒙古族藏族哈萨克族"). In 1985, after the Kazakhs had returned to Xinjiang, it was again renamed Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

Demographics

As of the 2010 census, Haixi had 489,338 inhabitants, giving it a population density of 1.5 inhabitants per km².

The following is a list of ethnic groups in the prefecture, taken in the 2000 Census

Nationality	Population	Percentage
Han	215,706	64.95%
Tibetan	40,371	12.16%
Hui	39,644	11.94%
Mongol	24,020	7.23%
Tu/Monguor	5,792	1.74%
Salar	3,569	1.07%
Dongxiang	1,026	0.31%
Manchu	544	0.16%
Tujia	422	0.13%
Kazakh	380	0.11%
Others	620	0.2%

Subdivisions

Haixi directly governs 2 county-level cities and 3 counties.

Map
#	Name	Hanzi	Hanyu Pinyin	Mongolian (Transcription from Mongolian)	Tibetan	Wylie Tibetan Pinyin	Population (2010)	Area (km²)	Density (/km²)
1	Delhi City	德令哈市	Délìnghā Shì	ᠳᠡᠯᠡᠬᠡᠢ ᠬᠣᠲᠠ Delekei qota	གཏེར་ལེན་ཁ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།	gter len kha grong khyer Dêrlênka Chongkyir	78,184	27,613	2.83
2	Golmud City	格尔木市	Gé'ěrmù Shì	ᠭᠣᠯᠮᠣᠣᠠ ᠬᠣᠲᠠ Ɣool modu qota	ན་གོར་མོ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།	na gor mo grong khyer Nakormo Chongkyir	215,213	123,460	1.74
3	Ulan County	乌兰县	Wūlán Xiàn	ᠤᠯᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠰᠢᠶᠠᠨ Ulaγan siyan	ཝུའུ་ལན་རྫོང་	wu'u lan rdzong Wu'ulain Zong	38,723	10,784	3.59
4	Dulan County	都兰县	Dūlán Xiàn	ᠳᠤᠯᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠰᠢᠶᠠᠨ Dulaγan siyan	ཏུའུ་ལན་རྫོང་	tu'u lan rdzong Tu'ulain Zong	76,623	50,000	1.53
5	Tianjun County	天峻县	Tiānjùn Xiàn	ᠲᠢᠶᠡᠨ ᠵᠢᠶᠦ᠋ᠨ ᠰᠢᠶᠠᠨ Tiyen ǰiyün siyan	ཐེན་ཅུན་རྫོང་	then cun rdzong Têncün Zong	33,923	20,000	1.70
6	Lenghu Administrative Zone	冷湖行政区	Lěnghú Xíngzhèngqū	ᠯᠧᠩ ᠾᠦ ᠶᠢᠨ ᠵᠠᠰᠠᠭ ᠵᠠᠬᠢᠷᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠦ ᠵᠥᠪᠯᠡᠯ Lëng hü-yin ǰasaγ ǰaqiraγan-ü ǰöblel	འཁྱག་མཚེའུ་སྲིད་འཛིན་ཨུ་ཡོན་ལྷན་ཁང་།	'khyag mtshe'u srid 'dzin u yon lhan khang	2,434	21,000	0.12
7	Da Qaidam Administrative Zone	大柴旦行政区	Dàcháidàn Xíngzhèngqū	ᠶᠡᠬᠡ ᠴᠠᠢᠢᠳᠠᠮ ᠤᠨ ᠵᠠᠰᠠᠭ ᠵᠠᠬᠢᠷᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠦ ᠵᠥᠪᠯᠡᠯ Yeke čayidam-un ǰasaγ ǰaqiraγan-ü ǰöblel	ཚྭ་འདམ་ཆེ་བའི་སྲིད་འཛིན་ཨུ་ཡོན་ལྷན་ཁང་།	tshwa 'dam che ba'i srid 'dzin u yon lhan khang	13,671	34,000	0.40
8	Mangnai Administrative Zone	茫崖行政区	Mángyá Xíngzhèngqū	ᠮᠠᠨᠭᠨᠠᠢ ᠶᠢᠨ ᠵᠠᠰᠠᠭ ᠵᠠᠬᠢᠷᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠦ ᠵᠥᠪᠯᠡᠯ Mangnai-yin ǰasaγ ǰaqiraγan-ü ǰöblel	མང་ནེ་སྲིད་འཛིན་ཨུ་ཡོན་ལྷན་ཁང་།	mang ne srid 'dzin u yon lhan khang	31,017	32,000	0.97

The southwestern exclave of the Haixi Prefecture, separated from the rest of the prefecture by a "panhandle" of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, is the Tanggula Town of Golmud City.

Gallery

A picture taken in the southwestern part of the prefecture  The Qingzang Railway can be seen on the far left

Notable Features

• Delhi City
• Qaidam Basin
• Geladandong mountain
• Headwaters of the Yangtze River
• The Baigong Pipes

Further reading

• A. Gruschke: The Cultural Monuments of Tibet’s Outer Provinces: Amdo - Volume 1. The Qinghai Part of Amdo, White Lotus Press, Bangkok 2001. ISBN 974-480-049-6
• Tsering Shakya: The Dragon in the Land of Snows. A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947, London 1999, ISBN 0-14-019615-3

External links

• Official website of Haixi Government