| Kangding | |
| Other Name: | Dardo, Tachienlu, Dartsedo |
| Settlement Type: | County-level city |
| Pushpin Map: | Sichuan#China |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of the city center in Sichuan |
| Pushpin Label Position: | left |
| Coordinates: | 29.9985°N 101.9569°W |
| Coor Pinpoint: | Kangding government |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | China |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Type2: | Autonomous prefecture |
| Subdivision Name1: | Sichuan |
| Subdivision Name2: | Garzê |
| Seat: | Lucheng Subdistrict |
| Seat Type: | Municipal seat |
| Area Total Km2: | 11486 |
| Elevation M: | 2560 |
| Population Total: | 126785 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Footnotes: | [1] |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Population Blank1 Title: | Major ethnic groups |
| Population Blank1: | Han Tibetan |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
| Postal Code: | 610000 |
| Timezone: | China Standard |
| Utc Offset: | +8 |
| Kangding | |
| P: | Kāngdìng |
| W: | Kʻang1-ting4 |
| Psp: | Kangting |
| Also Known As: | Dartsedo (Darzêdo) |
| S2: | 打箭炉 |
| T2: | 打箭爐 |
| P2: | Dǎjiànlú |
| W2: | Ta3-chien4-lu2 |
| Wylie: | dar rtse mdo |
| Zwpy: | Darzêdo |
| Showflag: | p |
| Order: | st |
Kangding, also called Tachienlu and Dartsedo (;), is a county-level city and the seat of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province of Southwest China. Kangding is on the bank of the Dadu River and has been considered the historical border between the Kham region of Tibet and the Sichuan region. Kangding's urban center is called Lucheng, which has around 134,000 inhabitants.
Historically, the urban center was known by Chinese as Dajianlu (written also as Tachienlu or Tatsienlu) from the Chinese transliteration of the Tibetan name Dartsedo or Darzêdo.
Kangding was on the historical border between Tibet and China. From Kangding to the west lies Tibetan civilization, whereas to the east are Han cultural areas. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Chakla. During its history, Kangding has witnessed many conflicts between Tibetan and Han polities. Kangding was for many centuries an important trading city where Han brick tea was carried by porters from Chengdu and other centres to trade for Tibetan wool.[2] A dispute involving the sovereignty over the city between Tibet and the Qing was resolved when the Manchu forces took the city by storm in the Battle of Dartsedo in 1701.
On July 1, 1786 an earthquake of 7.75 on the Moment magnitude scale ruined nearly the entire city.[3]
"Tachienlu is surely sui generis; there can be no other town quite like it. Situated eight thousand four hundred feet above the sea, it seems to lie at the bottom of a well, the surrounding snow-capped mountains towering perhaps fifteen thousand feet in the air above the little town which, small as it is, has hardly room to stand, while outside the wall there is scarcely a foot of level ground. It is wedged into the angle where three valleys come together, the Tar and the Chen rivers meeting just below the town to form the Tarchendo, and our first view of the place as we turned the cliff corner that here bars the gorge, was very striking, grey walls and curly roofs standing out sharply from the flanking hillsides."[4]
The city was renamed 'Kangding' in 1904. The American author Dorris Shelton Still, author of Sue in Tibet, was born here.
During the time of the Republic of China administration, Kangding was the capital of the now-defunct province of Xikang.
Dartsedo had a "reform through labor" prison or laogai after 1959. Jasper Becker in [5] wrote, "The highest death rate was probably experienced by the Tibetans imprisoned after the abortive revolt of 1959. One survivor, Ama Adhe, describes in A Strange Liberation: Tibetan Lives in Chinese Hands what happened at the Dartsedo camp bordering Sichuan. By the roadside the authorities opened a mass grave which was filled with corpses and gave off a terrible stench. 'Every day,' she recalls, 'they would deliver nine or ten truck loads of bodies to put there...' Of the 300 women arrested with her, only 100 survived."
Kangding City has a highland climate, with cold winters and cool summers. Affected by the monsoon, it is rainy in summer and dry in winter.
Kangding has a monsoon-influenced climate, lying in the transition between a humid continental (Dwb) and a subtropical highland climate (Cwb) on the Köppen system. Despite the elevation of, the diurnal temperature variation averages at most in any month. From April to September, rain is a very common occurrence, with around two-thirds of the days receiving some rainfall; in addition, 77% of the annual precipitation is delivered from May to September. Monthly daily average temperatures range from NaN°C in January to 15.7°C in July; the annual mean is 7.29°C. Over the course of the year, the frost-free period lasts 177 days and there are 1,738 hours of sunshine. The highest temperature ever recorded in Kangding was a high temperature record of 30.1°C measured on March 30, 2007.[6]
Kangding is divided into 2 subdistricts, 8 towns and 7 townships:
| Name | Simplified Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie | Administrative division code | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subdistricts | ||||||
| Lucheng Subdistrict (Dochong) | Chinese: 炉城街道 | 513301001 | ||||
| Yulin Subdistrict (Xalunggo) | Chinese: 榆林街道 | 513301002 | ||||
| Towns | ||||||
| Kuzhag Town (Goja, Guza) | Chinese: 姑咱镇 | 513301101 | ||||
| Ra'ngaka Town (Xinduqiao) | Chinese: 新都桥镇 | 513301102 | ||||
| Dagang Town (Tagong, Lhagang) | Chinese: 塔公镇 | 513301103 | ||||
| Sadê Town (Shade) | Chinese: 沙德镇 | 513301104 | ||||
| Gyitang Town (Jintang) | Chinese: 金汤镇 | 513301105 | ||||
| Jagkai Town (Jiagenba) | Chinese: 甲根坝镇 | 513301106 | ||||
| Kanggar Town (Gonggashan) | Chinese: 贡嘎山镇 | 513301107 | ||||
| Gotang Town (Yutong) | Chinese: 鱼通镇 | 513301108 | ||||
| Townships | ||||||
| Yagra Township (Yala) | Chinese: 雅拉乡 | 513301201 | ||||
| Maiba Township (Naibung, Maibeng) | Chinese: 麦崩乡 | 513301205 | ||||
| Pogtag Township (Pengta) | Chinese: 捧塔乡 | 513301208 | ||||
| Basêgrong Township (Pusharong) | Chinese: 普沙绒乡 | 513301211 | ||||
| Ju'gyi Township (Jiju) | Chinese: 吉居乡 | 513301212 | ||||
| Gagba Township (Gaba) | Chinese: 呷巴乡 | 513301214 | ||||
| Kobyü Township (Kongyu) | Chinese: 孔玉乡 | 513301218 | ||||
Kangding is located in a valley of the Tibetan Plateau about west-southwest of Chengdu, the provincial capital, and west of Ya'an. It is a city populated by significant proportions of both Tibetans and Han, and is part of the historical Tibetan region of Kham. The raging Zheduo River flows through the city, thus the constant sound of water reverberates throughout much of the city. At the north end of Kangding near the bus station the Zheduo River converges with the Yala River. The city features a sizable square, People's Square, where young and old alike gather in the early hours of the morning to do Tai Chi, play badminton, or socialise. This square comes alive on the weekends as well, when families tend to fill it. Traditional Tibetan and Sichuanese restaurants are easily found throughout the city. Dentok, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery sits on the Paoma Mountain overlooking the city, and is accessible by cable car. As of October 2006, a stone amphitheatre is under construction at the upper monastery.
It is a fast-growing city, with a rapidly developing tourist infrastructure, including a scenic cable car imported from Germany.
In 2008 the PRC government opened an airport at Kangding in the province of Sichuan, with a runway. At the time this was the second-highest in the world, at above sea level,[7] [8] with the highest position held by Qamdo Bamda Airport at 4,400m. Since 2013, with the opening of the Daocheng Yading Airport at an elevation 4,411m, Kangding Airport is the third highest in the world.
The folk song Kangding Qingge enjoys popularity throughout China. Since Kangding city was a major town for trading of cloth and tea between Tibetans and Han people. With the increase of trade in Kangding it also attracted more traders with different nationalities creating this culturally diverse city today. Therefore singers also incorporate the music style of Tibet to acknowledge the diversity.[9]
Kangding contains some notable Buddhist monasteries, including Nanwu Si Monastery, Anjue Monastery and Jinggang Monastery.
It was from 1857 the see of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kangding, administered by Paris Foreign Missions Society. The Catholic church was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and rebuilt in the 1980s. Today it is no longer in use and has been converted to shops and a hotel.