PROFILPELAJAR.COM

Yushu City, Qinghai
Yushu City, Qinghai
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	玉树市
Traditional Chinese	玉樹市
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Yùshù Shì
Tibetan name
Tibetan	ཡུལ་ཤུལ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར། or ཡུས་ཧྲུའུ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།
Wylie
Transcriptions
Wylie	yul shul grong khyer or yus hruʼu grong khyer
Tibetan Pinyin	Yüxü Chongkyêr or Yüshu Chongkyêr

Yushu

玉树市 · ཡུལ་ཤུལ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།
Yushu 玉树市 · ཡུལ་ཤུལ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།
County-level city
	Yüxü
	Yushu (red) in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (yellow) and Qinghai
	Yushu Location of the seat in Qinghai
	Coordinates: 33°00′N 97°00′E / 33.000°N 97.000°E
Country	China
Province	Qinghai
Autonomous prefecture	Yushu
Municipal seat	Gyêgu
Area
• Total	13,462 km2 (5,198 sq mi)
Elevation	3,689 m (12,103 ft)
Population (2020)
• Total	141,308
• Density	10/km2 (27/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+8 (China Standard)
Postal code	815000
Area code	0976
Website	www.yushushi.gov.cn

Yushu (Tibetan: ཡུལ་ཤུལ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།, Chinese: 玉树市), also Romanized as Yüxü, is a county-level city^[2] of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Southern Qinghai Province, China. It comprises a surface area of 13,462 square kilometres (5,198 sq mi).^[3] In 2010, the overall city's population was 120,447 and 56,802 live within the city core. There are around 356,000 people in the metropolitan area in 2020. Yushu is the fourth largest city in Qinghai.

The city seat is the town of Gyêgu (also known as Yushu and Jiegu in Chinese), built in the valley of the Batang River, a right tributary of the Tongtian, which becomes the Jinsha at their confluence. All of these makeups part of the Yangtze watershed. In fact, almost the entire area of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is nomadic pastureland, except for Yushu city.

History

Yushu is one of the oldest towns in Qinghai,^{[citation needed]} and has historically served as a major hub for regional trade.^[4]^{: 116–117} It is situated at the crossroads of the important trade routes between Ya’an, Xining, and Lhasa.^{[citation needed]} In the early days,^[when?] Chinese traders brought tea bricks from Sichuan and transported them to other parts of the Tibetan regions such as Lhasa, Chamdo, and Golok, which were the best-known towns during that time.^{[citation needed]}

During the late 20th century, government officials encouraged traditionally nomadic merchants to settle down in Qinghai, including in Yushu, through measures such as low taxes and rents.^[4]^: 120 A 1995 research paper estimated that these merchants, which included many Hui traders of the Tibetan Plateau, comprised about one-third of Yushu's population.^[4]^: 120

In 2010, Yushu was severely impacted by an earthquake.^[5] The earthquake destroyed many buildings in the city, and damaged many others.^[5]

Geography and climate

Map including Yushu (labeled as YÜ-SHU (JYEKUNDO)) (ATC, 1971)

With an elevation of around 3,700 metres (12,100 ft), Yushu has an alpine subarctic climate (Köppen Dwc, Trewartha Eolo), with long, cold, very dry winters, and short, rainy, and mild summers. Average low temperatures are below freezing from early/mid-October to late April; however, due to the wide diurnal temperature variation, the average high never lowers to the freezing mark. Despite frequent rain during summer, when a majority of days sees rain, only June, the rainiest month, has less than 50% of possible sunshine; with monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 49% in June to 66% in November, the city receives 2,496 hours of bright sunshine annually. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −6.8 °C (19.8 °F) in January to 13.3 °C (55.9 °F) in July, while the annual mean is 3.75 °C (38.7 °F). About three-fourths of the annual precipitation of 482 mm (19.0 in) is delivered from June to September. The residents of Yushu City reported seeing a large meteor fireball falling from the sky into the horizon on December 23, 2020.^[6]

Climate data for Yushu, elevation 3,717 m (12,195 ft), (1991–2020 normals)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	17.6 (63.7)	15.6 (60.1)	23.9 (75.0)	26.1 (79.0)	34.1 (93.4)	35.7 (96.3)	36.8 (98.2)	34.4 (93.9)	33.7 (92.7)	25.2 (77.4)	18.5 (65.3)	15.0 (59.0)	36.8 (98.2)
Mean maximum °C (°F)	9.5 (49.1)	11.0 (51.8)	15.4 (59.7)	18.9 (66.0)	22.5 (72.5)	25.0 (77.0)	25.8 (78.4)	25.7 (78.3)	23.7 (74.7)	19.9 (67.8)	12.6 (54.7)	9.9 (49.8)	26.9 (80.4)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)	2.5 (36.5)	5.2 (41.4)	8.8 (47.8)	12.6 (54.7)	16.0 (60.8)	18.8 (65.8)	20.9 (69.6)	20.8 (69.4)	18.0 (64.4)	12.4 (54.3)	7.8 (46.0)	4.0 (39.2)	12.3 (54.2)
Daily mean °C (°F)	−6.9 (19.6)	−3.6 (25.5)	0.4 (32.7)	4.4 (39.9)	8.3 (46.9)	11.5 (52.7)	13.5 (56.3)	12.9 (55.2)	9.8 (49.6)	4.0 (39.2)	−1.7 (28.9)	−6.0 (21.2)	3.9 (39.0)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)	−14.5 (5.9)	−10.9 (12.4)	−6.4 (20.5)	−2.2 (28.0)	2.0 (35.6)	6.1 (43.0)	7.7 (45.9)	6.9 (44.4)	4.5 (40.1)	−1.5 (29.3)	−8.5 (16.7)	−13.6 (7.5)	−2.5 (27.4)
Mean minimum °C (°F)	−20.9 (−5.6)	−18.2 (−0.8)	−13.6 (7.5)	−7.9 (17.8)	−3.3 (26.1)	0.5 (32.9)	2.2 (36.0)	1.2 (34.2)	−1.8 (28.8)	−8.2 (17.2)	−14.7 (5.5)	−19.9 (−3.8)	−21.7 (−7.1)
Record low °C (°F)	−30.0 (−22.0)	−28.3 (−18.9)	−19.5 (−3.1)	−12.8 (9.0)	−11.6 (11.1)	−4.8 (23.4)	−1.9 (28.6)	−2.3 (27.9)	−7.9 (17.8)	−14.3 (6.3)	−20.6 (−5.1)	−27.6 (−17.7)	−30.0 (−22.0)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	4.3 (0.17)	4.8 (0.19)	10.3 (0.41)	19.1 (0.75)	57.3 (2.26)	103.2 (4.06)	93.1 (3.67)	85.6 (3.37)	77.7 (3.06)	32.9 (1.30)	3.4 (0.13)	2.3 (0.09)	494 (19.46)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)	3.9	4.4	6.4	11.5	17.8	22.3	19.7	18.6	19.6	12.9	3.5	2.2	142.8
Average snowy days	5.9	7.3	10.0	13.4	5.4	0.7	0.1	0.1	0.5	9.6	5.8	3.9	62.7
Average relative humidity (%)	42	40	41	48	55	64	65	65	68	63	48	41	53
Mean monthly sunshine hours	185.7	182.0	215.3	224.5	222.9	194.2	218.2	213.1	188.6	187.6	198.2	194.4	2,424.7
Percent possible sunshine	58	58	58	57	52	45	50	52	52	54	64	63	55
Source: China Meteorological Administration^[7]^[8]^[9]

Administrative divisions

Yushu comprises four subdistricts, two towns, and six townships.^[10]

Name	Simplified Chinese	Hanyu Pinyin	Tibetan^[11]	Administrative division code
Subdistricts
Gyêgu Subdistrict (Jiegu)	结古街道	Jiégǔ Jiēdào	སྐྱེ་རྒུ་སྲང་ལམ་	632701001
Zhaxike Subdistrict [zh]	扎西科街道	Zhāxīkē Jiēdào	བྱ་ཤུལ་ཁོག་སྲང་ལམ་	632701002
Xihang Subdistrict [zh]	西杭街道	Xīháng Jiēdào	ཤེལ་དཀར་སྲང་ལམ་	632701003
Xinzhai Subdistrict [zh]	新寨街道	Xīnzhài Jiēdào	སེང་ཟེ་སྲང་ལམ་	632701004
Towns
Longbao [zh]	隆宝镇	Lóngbǎo Zhèn	རོང་པོ་གྲོང་རྡལ།	632701101
Xialaxiu [zh]	下拉秀镇	Xiàlāxiù Zhèn	རག་སྨད་གྲོང་རྡལ།	632701102
Townships
Zhongda Township [zh]	仲达乡	Zhòngdá Xiāng	འབྲོང་མདའ་ཡུལ་ཚོ།	632701200
Batang Township [zh]	巴塘乡	Bātáng Xiāng	དཔལ་ཐང་ཡུལ་ཚོ།	632701201
Xiaosumang Township [zh]	小苏莽乡	Xiǎosūmǎng Xiāng	ཟུར་མང་ཡུལ་ཚོ།	632701202
Shanglaxiu Township [zh]	上拉秀乡	Shànglāxiù Xiāng	རག་སྟོད་ཡུལ་ཚོ།	632701203
Anchong Township [zh]	安冲乡	Ānchōng Xiāng	ཨ་ཁྲོ་ཡུལ་ཚོ	632701205
Haxiu Township [zh]	哈秀乡	Hāxiù Xiāng	ཧ་ཤུལ་ཡུལ་ཚོ།	632701400

Demographics

During the late 20th century, government policy encouraged merchants throughout the region to settle down in Yushu.^[4]^: 120 A 1995 research paper estimated that these merchants, which included many Hui people, comprised about one-third of Yushu's population.^[4]^: 120

Transportation

The city is served by the China National Highway 214 and the recently constructed (opened 2009) Yushu Batang Airport.

Culture

Religion

The city has a few monasteries in and around, it has also one mosque. Gyegu Monastery is located on the hill, while Thrangu Monastery and Domkar Monastery are located outside the city. There are also some famous religious sites such as the Wencheng Temple, the Gyanak Mani Stone Temple, and the King Gesar Museum. The Wencheng Temple is located 20 kilometers from the city center, while Gyanak Mani Temple is located 9 kilometers from the center. King Gesar Museum is located in the city center.

Festivals

The city hosts a number of notable cultural festivals. Yushu is home to an annual horse racing festival, where Kham Tibetan warriors showcase their local culture.^[12] The Yushu Horse Racing Festival is a traditional festival that is normally held at the end of July to the beginning of August, depending on the dates in the Tibetan calendar.^{[citation needed]} The festival site is located on the lush summer grasslands of the valley floor, to make for better horse-racing events.^{[citation needed]} Renowned as being the largest horse racing event in the Tibetan areas, the festival plays host to tens of thousands of Tibetans and tourists every year.^{[citation needed]}

The festival features feats of horsemanship and horse racing that have been native to the plateau for over two thousand years, as well as horseback archery, tug-of-war, weightlifting, and many other local sports.^{[citation needed]}