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Songpan County

Coordinates: 32°39′N 103°36′E / 32.650°N 103.600°E / 32.650; 103.600
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Songpan County
松潘县 · ཟུང་ཆུ་རྫོང་། · Ssez
Sungqu
County
Terrace in Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area
Terrace in Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area
Location of Songpan County (red) within Ngawa Prefecture (yellow) and Sichuan
Location of Songpan County (red) within Ngawa Prefecture (yellow) and Sichuan
Songpan is located in Sichuan
Songpan
Songpan
Location of the seat in Sichuan
Songpan is located in China
Songpan
Songpan
Songpan (China)
Coordinates: 32°39′N 103°36′E / 32.650°N 103.600°E / 32.650; 103.600
CountryChina
ProvinceSichuan
Autonomous prefectureNgawa
County seatJin'an
Area
 • Total8,486 km2 (3,276 sq mi)
Elevation
2,867 m (9,406 ft)
Population
 (2020)[1]
 • Total66,937
 • Density7.9/km2 (20/sq mi)
 • Major nationalities
Tibetan Han Qiang Hui
Time zoneUTC+8 (China Standard)
Postal code
623300
Area code0837
Websitewww.songpan.gov.cn
Songpan County
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese松潘县
Traditional Chinese松潘縣
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinSōngpān Xiàn
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese松州
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinSōngzhōu
Tibetan name
Tibetanཟུང་ཆུ་རྫོང་།
Transcriptions
Wyliezung chu rdzong
Tibetan PinyinSungqu Zong
Qiang name
QiangSsez

Songpan County, formerly Songzhou, is a county in northwestern Sichuan province, China, and is one of the 13 counties administered by the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. It has an area of 8,486 square kilometres (3,276 sq mi), and a population of approximately 68,000 composed of Tibetan, Qiang, Han and Hui populations.

History

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Architecture in Songpan
Aerial panorama of Songpan Ancient City. October 2023.
Aerial perspective of the Songpan Ancient City walls and fort. October 2023.

The ancient city of Songpan was built during the Tang dynasty and it was later rebuilt during Ming dynasty. Songpan was an important military post. It was also an important economic and trading center for horse and tea exchange between Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai and Tibet.

During Tang rule, it was the border with the Tibetan Empire. Emperor Songtsen Gampo of Tibet tried to invade Tang China through this gate. Emperor Taizong of Tang offered him Princess Wencheng at Songzhou (now Songpan) in 641. According to Tibetan and Chinese legends, Princess Wencheng then brings with her among other things the Jowo statue to the Tibetan Empire. Throughout the Ming dynasty, the Chinese court was troubled by the frequent invasion of the Songpan area.[2] The area was given to a Tibetan lama friendly with the Chinese court to maintain frontier control while leaving it in local hands.

In August 1935, led by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, the retreating People's Liberation Army marched through the Songpan Grasslands to advance to the northwestern province.

While Songpan can be a charming city in its own right, the countryside surrounding the city offers a variety of tourist attractions. The hills surrounding the city are visual delights of Tibetan cattle herders leading their livestock over rolling grasses, endless valleys, and generally beautiful landscape. All of this can be seen through affordable horseback riding outlets on the outskirts of the city.

Geography and climate

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Songpan covers latitudes 32° 06′−33° 09′ N and longitudes 102° 38′−104° 15′ E, and has a total area of 8,608 square kilometres (3,324 sq mi). Neighbouring counties are Pingwu to the east, Beichuan to the southeast, Mao to the south, Hongyuan and Heishui to the southwest, and Jiuzhaigou and Zoigê to the north.

Due to its altitude, Songpan has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dwb), with cool winters and warm, rainy summers. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −3.4 °C (25.9 °F) in January to 14.8 °C (58.6 °F) in July, and the annual mean is 6.28 °C (43.3 °F). The high elevation also results in a large diurnal temperature variation, exceeding 17 °C (31 °F) in winter. More than 70% of the 708 mm (27.9 in) of annual precipitation occurs from May to September. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 31% in September to 57% in December, the county seat receives 1,831 hours of bright sunshine annually.

Climate data for Songpan, elevation 2,881 m (9,452 ft), (1991–2012 normals, extremes 1971–2020)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 22.3
(72.1) 		21.2
(70.2) 		24.6
(76.3) 		27.8
(82.0) 		35.6
(96.1) 		29.6
(85.3) 		30.5
(86.9) 		30.1
(86.2) 		29.5
(85.1) 		26.7
(80.1) 		21.4
(70.5) 		19.7
(67.5) 		35.6
(96.1)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 6.9
(44.4) 		9.2
(48.6) 		12.0
(53.6) 		15.4
(59.7) 		18.1
(64.6) 		20.2
(68.4) 		22.7
(72.9) 		22.6
(72.7) 		19.5
(67.1) 		14.5
(58.1) 		11.2
(52.2) 		8.1
(46.6) 		15.0
(59.1)
Daily mean °C (°F) −3.4
(25.9) 		−0.4
(31.3) 		3.3
(37.9) 		7.0
(44.6) 		10.2
(50.4) 		13.0
(55.4) 		15.1
(59.2) 		14.7
(58.5) 		11.8
(53.2) 		7.0
(44.6) 		1.8
(35.2) 		−2.4
(27.7) 		6.5
(43.7)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) −10.0
(14.0) 		−6.8
(19.8) 		−2.7
(27.1) 		1.2
(34.2) 		4.9
(40.8) 		8.1
(46.6) 		10.0
(50.0) 		9.6
(49.3) 		7.2
(45.0) 		2.6
(36.7) 		−4.0
(24.8) 		−8.8
(16.2) 		0.9
(33.7)
Record low °C (°F) −19.8
(−3.6) 		−18.5
(−1.3) 		−17.4
(0.7) 		−8.7
(16.3) 		−3.1
(26.4) 		−1.8
(28.8) 		0.6
(33.1) 		−0.4
(31.3) 		−2.4
(27.7) 		−8.7
(16.3) 		−18.1
(−0.6) 		−20.7
(−5.3) 		−20.7
(−5.3)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 6.8
(0.27) 		13.2
(0.52) 		34.3
(1.35) 		68.0
(2.68) 		119.4
(4.70) 		119.0
(4.69) 		98.6
(3.88) 		83.7
(3.30) 		104.5
(4.11) 		77.9
(3.07) 		14.4
(0.57) 		3.9
(0.15) 		743.7
(29.29)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) 5.8 7.9 13.5 16.3 21.2 21.6 17.5 15.1 17.8 18.5 7.3 3.8 166.3
Average snowy days 10.0 11.8 14.5 8.8 1.5 0.2 0 0.1 0.1 3.9 7.7 6.8 65.4
Average relative humidity (%) 51 53 58 62 66 71 72 71 73 71 61 53 64
Mean monthly sunshine hours 168.1 145.9 154.9 152.1 146.7 118.2 152.3 155.1 119.1 124.3 153.4 175.8 1,765.9
Percent possible sunshine 53 47 41 39 34 28 35 38 33 36 49 57 41
Source 1: China Meteorological Administration[3][4]
Source 2: Weather China[5]

Economy and Tourism

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The economy of Songpan is dominated by agriculture and livestock raising. In recent years, tourism has become an increasingly important sector, and is actively promoted by the authorities. Additionally, Songpan is popular among foreign students and other Chinese language learners staying in China as the base for treks through the scenic mountains nearby. Apart from the scenic attraction of Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area which is located in the county, Songpan with its strategic location also acts as the gateway to Jiuzhaigou Valley at the north.

Administrative divisions

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Songpan County has 7 towns, 9 townships, one ethnic township, and one other township-level division.

Name Simplified Chinese Hanyu Pinyin Tibetan Wylie Administrative division code
Towns
Jin'an Town
(Jün'an) 		进安镇 Jìn'ān Zhèn ཅུན་ཨན་གྲོང་རྡལ། cun an grong rdal 513224100
Jocanggoin Town
(Chuanzhusi) 		川主寺镇 Chuānzhǔsì Zhèn གཅོ་ཚང་དགོན་གྲོང་རྡལ། gco tshang dgon grong rdal 513224101
Qingyun Town
(Dosam) 		青云镇 Qīngyún Zhèn རྡོ་ཟམ་གྲོང་རྡལ། rdo zam grong rdal 513224102
Mugê Town
(Mao'ergai) 		毛儿盖镇 Máo'érgài Zhèn དམུ་དགེ་གྲོང་རྡལ། dmu dge grong rdal 513224103
Zhenjiangguan Town
(Zhênjanggoin) 		镇江关镇 Zhènjiāngguān Zhèn ཀྲེན་ཅང་གོན་གྲོང་རྡལ། kren cang gon grong rdal 513224104
Samar Town
(Hongtu) 		红土镇 Hóngtǔ Zhèn ས་དམར་གྲོང་རྡལ། sa dmar grong rdal 513224105
Xiaohe Town
(Xaoho) 		小河镇 Xiǎohé Zhèn ཞའོ་ཧོ་གྲོང་རྡལ། zhavo ho grong rdal 513224106
Townships
Anhong Township
(Pagta) 		安宏乡 Ānhóng Xiāng ཕག་མཐའ་ཡུལ་ཚོ། phag mthav yul tsho 513224203
Zhenping Township
(Zhoinpain) 		镇坪乡 Zhènpíng Xiāng ཀྲོན་ཕན་ཡུལ་ཚོ། kron phan yul tsho 513224207
Minjiang Township
(Mainjang) 		岷江乡 Mínjiāng Xiāng མན་ཅང་ཡུལ་ཚོ། man cang yul tsho 513224208
Daxing Township
(Daxin) 		大姓乡 Dàxìng Xiāng དཱ་ཞིན་ཡུལ་ཚོ། dā zhin yul tsho 513224209
Baiyang Township
(Paiyang) 		白羊乡 Báiyáng Xiāng བད་ཡངས་ཡུལ་ཚོ། bad yangs yul tsho 513224210
Xiaoxing Township
(Xaoxin) 		小姓乡 Xiǎoxìng Xiāng ཞའོ་ཞིན་ཡུལ་ཚོ། zhavo zhin yul tsho 513224213
Xainyü Township
(Yanyun) 		燕云乡 Yànyún Xiāng གཞན་ཡུལ་ཡུལ་ཚོ། gzhan yul yul tsho 513224214
Huanglong Township
(Sêrco) 		黄龙乡 Huánglóng Xiāng གསེར་མཚོ་ཡུལ་ཚོ། gser mtsho yul tsho 513224219
Mangbai Township
(Xiabazhai) 		下八寨乡 Xiàbāzhài Xiāng སྨང་པའི་ཡུལ་ཚོ། smang pavi yul tsho 513224221
Ethnic Township
Shili Hui Ethnic Township
(Junang) 		十里回族乡 Shílǐ Huízú Xiāng བཅུ་ནང་ཧུའེ་རིགས་ཡུལ་ཚོ། bcu nang huve rigs yul tsho 513224201
Other divisions
Songpan Forestry Bureau 松潘林业局 Sōngpān Línyèjú ཟུང་ཆུ་ནགས་ལས་ཅུས། zung chu nags las cus 513224401

Transport

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See also

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[edit]
  • Street peddlers in Songpan, 2002
    Street peddlers in Songpan, 2002
  • Street peddlers in Songpan, 2002
    Street peddlers in Songpan, 2002
  • Songpan Bridge
    Songpan Bridge

References

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  1. ^ "阿坝州第七次全国人口普查公报第二号——县（市）人口情况" (in Chinese). Government of Ngawa Prefecture. 2021-06-11.
  2. ^ Kapstein, Matthew (2009). Buddhism between Tibet and China. Wisdom Publications.
  3. ^ 中国气象数据网 – WeatherBk Data (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
  4. ^ 中国气象数据网 (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
  5. ^ 松潘 - 气象数据 -中国天气网 (in Chinese). Weather China. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
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