Da Qaidam is a county-level administrative zone in Haixi Prefecture in northwestern Qinghai province, China. It borders

Gansu province Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

to the north.

Etymology

''Da Qaidam'' is a combination of the

Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means ' Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin'' literally ...

romanization In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and tra ...

of the Mandarin pronunciation of (''dà''), the Chinese word meaning "big" or "greater", and the Zangwen Pinyin

of the Tibetan name (''qaidam''), meaning "

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

marsh" and referencing the surrounding Qaidam Basin. The Mandarin pinyin romanization of the Chinese transcription of Qaidam is "''Cháidàn''".

Administrative divisions

The area administered as Da Qaidam is divided into two

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

. The seat of Da Qaidam's administration is Qaidam Town, which lies at an altitude of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

Geography and climate

Da Qaidam borders Delingha to the east, Lenghu to the west,

Golmud Golmud, also known by various other romanizations, is a county-level city in the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province, China. It is now the second-largest city in Qinghai and the third largest in the Tibetan P ...

across the Qarhan Playa to the south, and Jiuquan (

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

) to the north, and is part of the northern Qaidam Basin. Similar to neighbouring Golmud, Da Qaidam has an

arid climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

'' BWk''), with long, cold winters, and warm summers, although due to its location further north and elevation more than higher than Golmud, its climate is also

subalpine Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

in nature. The monthly 24-hour average temperature drops to in January and rises to in July, while the annual mean is . Precipitation is very low, totaling only per annum, falling on 35 days, most of which are during the summer. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 65% in July to 82% in October, the area receives 3,257 hours of bright sunshine annually.

Economy

As elsewhere in the Qaidam Basin, mining industries are of major importance in Da Qaidam. There is a lead mine in Xitieshan, the Xitieshan Lead Mine as well as a number of salt lakes where potash and related products are extracted.

Transportation

China National Highway 215 and China National Highway 315 pass through and meet here. Yinmaxia railway station and Xitieshan railway station on the Qinghai–Tibet Railway are both located within

References

External links

Official government website
County-level divisions of Qinghai Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture {{Qinghai-geo-stub