Barkam or Markang or Muerkvua is a

county-level city A county-level municipality (), county-level city or county city, formerly known as prefecture-controlled city (1949–1970: ; 1970–1983: ), is a Administrative divisions of China#County level (3rd), county-level administrative divi ...

Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, also known as Aba (; Qiang: ; ), is an autonomous prefecture of northwestern Sichuan, bordering Gansu to the north and northeast and Qinghai to the northwest. Its seat is in Barkam, and it has an ar ...

, in the northwest of

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

province, People's Republic of China. The city seat is the town of Barkam.

Administrative divisions

Barkam has four

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and 10

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

Towns

Barkam Barkam or Markang or Muerkvua is a county-level city in Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, in the northwest of Sichuan province, People's Republic of China. The city seat is the town of Barkam. Administrative divisions Barkam has ...

() * Zhuokeji () * Songgang () * Sha'erzong ()

Townships

* Suomo () * Baiwan () * Dangba () * Mu'erzong () * Jiaomuzu () * Longerjia () * Dazang () * Kangshan () * Caodeng () * Ribu ()

Transport

China National Highway 317 China National Highway 317 (G317) runs broadly west to east from Chengdu, Sichuan to Gar County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet. It is 2,028 kilometres in length and forms an important transportation route in Tibet. As of 2017, Highway 317 passes through ...

Climate

Due to its elevation, Barkam lies in the transition between a

subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Cwb'') and

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(Köppen ''Dwb''), with strong

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

al influences; winters are frosty and summers warm with frequent rain. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from in December and January to in July, while the annual mean is . Nearly two-thirds of the annual precipitation of occurs from June to September. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 36% in June to 65% in December, the town receives 2,133 hours of bright sunshine annually.

Diurnal temperature variation In meteorology, diurnal temperature variation is the variation between a high air temperature and a low temperature that occurs during the same day. Temperature lag Temperature lag is an important factor in diurnal temperature variation: peak d ...

is large, averaging annually.

Demographics

The city had a population of in 1999.National Population Statistics Materials by County and City - 1999 Period, ''in'
China County & City Population 1999, Harvard China Historical GIS
/ref> The area is traditionally inhabited by a branch of

Rgyalrong people Gyalrong people (Tibetan: རྒྱལ་རོང, Chinese:嘉绒), also called Jiarong, rGyalrong, are speakers of the Qiangic Gyalrong language who live in the southern part of Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan, China. Th ...

who speak the

Situ language Situ () is a Rgyalrong language spoken in Sichuan, China. The name "Situ", literally "four Tusi", comes from a historical name of the Ma'erkang region. Distribution Gates (2012: 102-103) lists the following locations where Zbu is spoken. It is ...

Notes

External links

*
Maerkang County Government site
- *

- {{authority control County-level cities in Sichuan Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture