Bairi (Tianzhu) Tibetan Autonomous County (; ) is in the prefecture-level city of Wuwei in the central part of Gansu province, China, bordering

Qinghai Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest pop ...

province to the south and west. It has an area of and approximately 230,000 inhabitants (2003). Its administrative seat is the town of Huazangsi.

Name

The Chinese name "Tianzhu" was named by a Tibetan Luo Haoxue in 1936, combining name of the largest lamasery in the County () and the Zhugong lamasery (). The Tibetan name Bairi () is pronounced ''Bairi'' in

Standard Tibetan Lhasa Tibetan (), or Standard Tibetan, is the Tibetan dialect spoken by educated people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the traditional "three-branch ...

, and pronounced ''Hwari'' in the local

Amdo Tibetan Amdo Tibetan (; also called ''Am kä'') is the Tibetic language spoken in Amdo (now mostly in Qinghai, some in Ngawa and Gannan). It has two dialects, the farmer dialect and the nomad dialect. Amdo is one of the three branches of traditional c ...

and Huarui (华锐) in Chinese. An alternative Tibetan name is Tenzhu (), which is a transcription of the Chinese name Tianzhu.

History

The county was established as the Tianzhu District of

Yongdeng County Yongdeng County () is a county of Gansu Province, China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu. Its postal code is 730300, and its population in 2020 was 520,000 people, of which 454,000 liv ...

in 1949, but became an autonomous county of Wuwei in the next year. In 1955, Tianzhu was moved under the administration of

Zhangye Zhangye (), formerly romanized as Changyeh or known as Kanchow, is a prefecture-level city in central Gansu Province in the People's Republic of China. It borders Inner Mongolia on the north and Qinghai on the south. Its central district is Ga ...

as the first

autonomous county Autonomous counties () and autonomous banners () are county-level autonomous administrative divisions of China. The two are essentially identical except in name. There are 117 autonomous counties and three autonomous banners. The latter are ...

in China. Between 1958 and 1961, Gulang County was part of Tianzhu. In 1961 the county was placed under Wuwei again.

Administrative divisions

Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County is divided to 14 towns, 5 townships and 2 others. ;Towns ;Townships ;Others * Tianzhu Building Material Factory () * Tianzhu Coal and Electricity Company ()

Geography

The county is mountainous, being located at the tripoint of the

Tibet Plateau The Tibetan Plateau (, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or the Qing–Zang Plateau () or as the Himalayan Plateau in India, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central, South and East Asia covering most of the Tib ...

, the Loess Plateau and the Inner Mongolia Plateau, with elevations ranging from 2040 m to 4874 m. It is divided into the watersheds of the Shiyang River and the Yellow River and crossed by the

Wushao Mountain Wushao Mountain, Wushao Ling Mountain or Wushaoling () is a landform in Gansu Province, China, with significant desert elements on its northern slope. The mountain has been a barrier to transportation since ancient times, when the Northern Silk ...

. South of the Wushao Mountain, the climate is

continental Continental may refer to: Places * Continent, the major landmasses of Earth * Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US * Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US Arts and entertainment * ''Continental'' ( ...

and north of it, the climate is

semi-arid A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

. The land is mostly covered by grasslands and forests.

Transport

China National Highway 312 China National Highway 312 (312国道), also referred to as Route 312 or The Mother Road, is a key east-west route beginning in Shanghai and ending at Khorgas, Xinjiang in the Ili River valley, on the border with Kazakhstan. In total it spans , pa ...

Lanzhou–Xinjiang Railway The Lanzhou−Xinjiang railway or Lanxin railway (), is the longest railway in Northwestern China. It runs 1904 kilometres (1,183 miles) from Lanzhou, Gansu, through the Hexi Corridor, to Ürümqi, in Xinjiang. It was Xinjiang's only rail link wi ...

crosses the county, with a station (Tianzhu) in the county seat. With the construction of the

Wushaoling Tunnel The Wushaoling Tunnel () is a 21.05 km dual-bore railway tunnel in Gansu, north-west China. The east-bound bore opened on 30 March 2006. The second bore opened in August 2006. It was briefly the longest railway tunnel in China until the openi ...

under the Wushao Mountain Range (Wushaoling), about the half of the section of the main track of this railway within this county is actually underground.

Ethnic groups in Tianzhu, 2000 census