Luding County (), also known via its Tibetan name as Chagsam or Jagsam ) is a

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

located in the southeast of the

Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, often shortened to Ganzi Prefecture, is an autonomous prefecture in the western arm of Sichuan province, China, bordering Yunnan to the south, the Tibet Autonomous Region to the west, and Gansu to the north ...

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 t ...

province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. Luding County covers an area of , and has a population of 86,234 as of 2022.

History

Geography

Luding County is bordered by

Tianquan County Tianquan County () is a county of Sichuan Province, China. It is under the administration of Ya'an City. In 1950, the county bore witness to the Battle of Tianquan, which resulted in the communists defeating the nationalists Nationalism i ...

Yingjing County Yingjing County () is a county in the west-central part of Sichuan Province, China. It is under the administration of Ya'an Ya'an (, Tibetan: Yak-Nga ) is a prefecture-level city in the western part of Sichuan province, China, located just belo ...

, and

Hanyuan County Hanyuan County () is a county of Sichuan Province, China. It is under the administration of Ya'an Ya'an (, Tibetan: Yak-Nga ) is a prefecture-level city in the western part of Sichuan province, China, located just below the Tibetan Plateau. Th ...

to the east,

Shimian County Shimian County () is both the southernmost and westernmost county in the prefecture-level city of Ya'an, Sichuan Province, China. The county seat, Miancheng Subdistrict (), and the neighboring town, Xinmian (), are often together referred to as ...

to the south, and Kangding to the west and north. The

is located within the Hengduan Mountains, within the southeastern edge of the

Tibetan 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 Ti ...

. The

town 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 o ...

of Luqiao, the county seat, sits at an elevation of above sea level. The highest point in the county is

Mount Gongga Mount Gongga (), also known as Minya Konka (Khams Tibetan pinyin: ''Mi'nyâg Gong'ga Riwo'') and colloquially as "The King of Sichuan Mountains", is the highest mountain in Sichuan province, China. It has an elevation of above sea level. This m ...

, along the southwestern border with Kangding.

Mount Erlang Mount Erlang () is a mountain in Sichuan province, China. Located 50 kilometers west of Tianquan County, Sichuan, at an altitude of 3437 meters, and 172 kilometers away from Chengdu, it is the watershed of Qingyi River and Dadu River The D ...

is also located on the county's edge.

Climate

Administrative divisions

As of 2022, Luding County contains the following eight

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 or ...

and one

township 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, ...

Former administrative divisions

Demographics

Luding County has a total population of 86,234 as of 2022, up from approximately 80,000 at the end of 2004, and the 77,855 recorded in the

2000 Chinese Census The 2000 Chinese census, officially the Fifth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (), was conducted by the government of the People's Republic of China with 1 November 2000 as its zero hour. The total population was calcula ...

Ethnic groups

Luding County has a supermajority

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive v ...

population, but is home to a number of

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 ...

, who constitute about 22% of the county's population. The county's ethnic minorities include

Tibetans The Tibetan people (; ) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 6.7 million. In addition to the majority living in Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans liv ...

, Yi, Qiang,

Miao Miao may refer to: * Miao people, linguistically and culturally related group of people, recognized as such by the government of the People's Republic of China * Miao script or Pollard script, writing system used for Miao languages * Miao (Unicode ...

, Hui,

Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...

, Tujia,

Lisu Lisu may refer to: *Lisu people, an ethnic group of Southeast Asia *Lisu language, spoken by the Lisu people * Old Lisu Alphabet or Fraser Alphabet *Lisu syllabary * Lisu (Unicode block), the block of Unicode characters for the Lisu language. *Lisu ...

Manchus The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...

, Yao,

Kam Kaam (Gurmukhi: ਕਾਮ ''Kāma'') in common usage, the term stands for 'excessive passion for sexual pleasure' and it is in this sense that it is considered to be an evil in Sikhism. In Sikhism it is believed that Kaam can be overcome ...

, Nakhi, Bouyei, Bai, Zhuang, and the Dai. The following table shows the ethnic composition of Luding County:

Transport

China National Highway 318 China National Highway 318 (G318) runs from Shanghai to Zhangmu on the China-Nepal border. It is the longest China National Highway at in length and runs west from Shanghai towards Zhejiang, Anhui, Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan, and ends in Tibet Au ...

References

External links

Official Website (Chinese)

{{authority control County-level divisions of Sichuan Populated places in the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture