Ngari Prefecture

Ngari Prefecture is located in western Tibet, China. It covers an area of over 0.3 million square kilometers with an average altitude of 4500 meters. It administrates 7 counties with a population of 60000. It is the most sparsely populated region in the world.

Ngari Prefecture - Top of the Roof of the World

The average altitude of Ngari Prefecture is over 4500 meters and that tops on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Hence it was praised as "top of the roof of the world" and "plateau on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau". Some people hold that you could not say you came to Tibet if you never been to Ngari Prefecture.

Ngari Prefecture is the sacred land for the religion believers, the paradise for explorers and an attractive place for mountaineers.

Ngari Prefecture - Geographic Environment

Ngari Prefecture stretches from western Tanggula Mountains in the east and connects with Nagqu Prefecture. It borders India, Nepal, and Kashmir in the west. It borders the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the north. Ngari Prefecture is of grand area and is sparsely populated. Its border line reaches 1116 kilometers with 57 external passageways.

The Himalayas, the Gangtise, and the Karakorum Mountains gathered in Ngari Prefecture Prefecture. The terrain here is lower in the middle, higher in the north and south.

Ngari Prefecture - Climate

Ngari Prefecture has about 149 gale days a year. Averagely, the strong gale moves at the rate of over 3.2 meters per second. The annual average temperature here is 0? and there is an extremely big temperature difference between day and night.

It is severely cold in Shiquanhe Town in winter. The annual average temperature here is below zero. The extremely lowest temperature in winter here is -41? and the extremely highest temperature in summer here is 21?. In August, the temperature is above 10? during the day and it drops below zero in the night. There is an extremely large temperature difference between the day and the night here.

The annual precipitation in Ngari Prefecture is pretty little and only concentrated in certain seasons. The precipitation between October and the April of the next year only takes 10-20 percent of the annual precipitation. The rainfall mainly concentrated between May and September and takes about 80 percent of the total annual precipitatio9n.

Ngari Prefecture - Grand Grassland

Ngari Prefecture is of numerous rolling mountains and grand grassland. The animal husbandry and the mining industry here are well developed. There is 0.186 hectare of available grassland. There are more than 30 kinds of discovered mineral resources, including salt, boron, aluminum, chrome, silver and gold.

There is 0.4 billion mu of grassland in Ngari Prefecture, among which 0.28 billion mu of them is available. There is 0.1 million of forest land. Ngari Prefecture is also of relatively hydro-energy, solar energy, terrestrial heat and wind energy resources.