Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, formerly known as Tsolho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (; ), is an autonomous prefecture of Northeastern

Qinghai Province 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 ...

Western China Western China (, or rarely ) is the west of China. In the definition of the Chinese government, Western China covers one municipality ( Chongqing), six provinces (Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai), and three autonomous re ...

. The prefecture has an area of and its seat is located in

Gonghe County Gonghe County (; ), also known as Kungho, is a county of Qinghai Province, China under the administration of Hainan Prefecture. The seat of Gonghe County is in the town of Qabqa. Demographics In 2006, 55% of the population were Tibetans, with ...

. Its name literally means "south of (Qinghai) Lake."

History

The land of Hainan prefecture was originally inhabited by the Qiang and

Rong people Xirong () or Rong were various people who lived primarily in and around the western extremities of ancient China (in modern Gansu and Qinghai). They were known as early as the Shang dynasty (1765–1122 BCE), as one of the Four Barbarians that ...

. During the

Western Han The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a war ...

it was incorporated in the Chinese dynasties. In 60 BC,

Guide County Guide County is a county in the east of Qinghai Province, China. It is under the administration of Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. In Tibetan it's known as Trika. In 2015 it had a population of 108,800, of which 37.8% Tibetans, and 16.1% o ...

was established, then called Guan County. It was governed under

Jincheng Jincheng is a prefecture-level city in the southeast of Shanxi province, China, bordering Henan province to the south and southeast. It is an industrial city in an area where coal mining is an important industry. The entire city has a population ...

(present day Lanzhou).

Demographics

In 2019, the prefecture had 478,000 inhabitants, with 331,995 belonging to

ethnic minorities The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

. The following is a list of ethnic groups in the prefecture, as of 2019.

Administrative divisions

Hainan Prefecture was established in 1953. The prefecture is subdivided into 5 county-level divisions (5

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Geography

Hainan is rather mountainous, with the Gonghe basin in the middle of the area. The elevation ranges from 5305 m to 2168 m, averaging 3000 m. The largest lake is Qinghai Lake, and the prefecture is traversed by the

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Ha ...

. Most of the land, 78.67%, is natural grassland used for grazing. 2.19% is cultivated for agriculture, 4.14% is forest, 6.69% is covered by water and rivers, 0.53% by residential area and industry and the remaining 7.7% consists of barren areas such as glaciers, swamps and desert.

Economy

Hainan's economy is specialized in animal husbandry, hydropower and tourism.

References

External links

Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Government Website
{{Coord, 36.29, N, 100.62, E, type:adm2nd_region:CN-63, display=t Tibetan autonomous prefectures Tibetan people Amdo Prefecture-level divisions of Qinghai