Delingha

Delingha 德令哈市 · ᠳᠡᠯᠡᠬᠡᠢ ᠬᠣᠲᠠ · གཏེར་ལེན་ཁ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།
County-level city
Location of Delingha City (red) within Haixi Prefecture (yellow) and Qinghai
Delingha Location of the city centre in Qinghai
Coordinates (Delingha municipal government): 37°22′12″N 97°21′41″E
Country	China
Province	Qinghai
Autonomous prefecture	Haixi
Municipal seat	Hexi Subdistrict
Area [1]
• Total	27,700 km^2 (10,700 sq mi)
Elevation	2,982 m (9,783 ft)
Population  (2020)[2]
• Total	88,227
• Density	3.2/km^2 (8.2/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+8 (China Standard)
Postal code	817000
Area code	0977
Website	www.delingha.gov.cn

Delingha
Chinese name
Chinese	德令哈市
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Délìnghā Shì
Tibetan name
Tibetan	གཏེར་ལིན་ཁ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།
Transcriptions Wylie gter lin kha grong khyer Tibetan Pinyin Dêrlinka Chongkyêr
Mongolian name
Mongolian script
Transcriptions SASM/GNC Delhi hot

Delingha (Chinese: 德令哈; Tibetan: གཏེར་ལིན་ཁ།), or Delhi (Mongolian: ᠳᠡᠯᠡᠬᠡᠢ ᠬᠣᠲᠠ), is the seat of the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northern Qinghai province, China. It is located approximately 200 km (120 mi) southeast of the Da Qaidam Administrative Region. It is a mainly industrial county-level city. The Bayin River divides the city into two parts: Hedong and Hexi. Because the prefecture seat is located in Hedong, it is slightly more flourishing than Hexi, which is chiefly agricultural.^[1]

Established in 1988, Delingha administers seven township-level divisions covering an area of 27,700 km² (10,700 sq mi) and has a total population of 78,184, making it the smallest of the five cities in Qinghai. The name of the city comes from Mongolian and means "golden world" (ᠠᠯᠲᠠᠨ ᠳᠡᠯᠡᠬᠡᠢ),^[1] reflecting the relatively large Mongol population of the city. Da Qaidam administrative zone merged into Delingha in mid-2018.

Administrative divisions

Delingha is divided into 3 subdistricts, 3 towns, and 1 township.

Name	Simplified Chinese	Hanyu Pinyin	Tibetan	Wylie	Mongolian (traditional script)	Mongolian (Cyrillic)	Administrative division code
Subdistricts
Hexi Subdistrict	河西街道	Héxī Jiēdào	ཆུ་ནུབ་སྲང་ལམ།	chu nub srang lam	ᠭᠣᠣᠯ ᠤᠨ ᠬᠣᠢᠨᠠᠬᠢ ᠵᠡᠭᠡᠯᠢ ᠭᠤᠳᠤᠮᠵᠢ	Голын хойнох зээл гудамж	632802001
Hedong Subdistrict	河东街道	Hédōng Jiēdào	ཆུ་ཤར་སྲང་ལམ།	chu shar srang lam	ᠭᠣᠣᠯ ᠤᠨ ᠡᠮᠦᠨᠡᠬᠢ ᠵᠡᠭᠡᠯᠢ ᠭᠤᠳᠤᠮᠵᠢ	Голын өмнөх зээл гудамж	632802002
Railway Station Subdistrict	火车站街道	Huǒchēzhàn Jiēdào	མེ་འགོར་ས་ཚུགས་སྲང་ལམ།	me 'gor sa tshugs srang lam	ᠭᠠᠯᠲᠤ ᠲᠡᠷᠭᠡᠨ ᠥᠷᠲᠡᠭᠡᠨ ᠦ ᠵᠡᠭᠡᠯᠢ ᠭᠤᠳᠤᠮᠵᠢ	Галт тэргэн өртөөний зээл гудамж	632802003
Towns
Gahai Town	尕海镇	Gǎhǎi Zhèn	ཀ་ཧྭའེ་གྲོང་རྡལ།	ka hwa'e grong rdal	ᠪᠠᠭᠠᠬᠤᠨᠠᠭᠤᠷ ᠪᠠᠯᠭᠠᠰᠤᠨ	Бааахнуур балгас	632802100
Hoit Taria Town	怀头他拉镇	Huáitóutālā Zhèn	ཧྭའེ་ཐིག་ཐ་ལ་གྲོང་རྡལ།	hwa'e thig tha la grong rdal	ᠬᠣᠢᠲᠤᠲᠠᠷᠢᠶ᠎ᠠ ᠪᠠᠯᠭᠠᠰᠤᠨ	Хойтдаариа балгас	632802101
Hurleg Town	柯鲁柯镇	Kēlǔkē Zhèn	ཁི་ལུའུ་ཁི་གྲོང་རྡལ།	khi lu'u khi grong rdal	ᠬᠥᠷᠯᠥᠩ ᠪᠠᠯᠭᠠᠰᠤᠨ	Хэрлон балгас	632802102
Township
Suj Township	蓄集乡	Xùjí Xiāng	ཕྱུགས་སྐྱིལ་ཡུལ་ཚོ།	phyugs skyil yul tsho	ᠰᠦᠵᠢ ᠰᠤᠮᠤᠨ	Сүж суман	632802200

Geography

Climate

Delingha has a cool semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk) just moist enough to avoid being a cool arid climate (BWk), characterised by warm summers with moderate rainfall and frigid to freezing, dry winters.

Climate data for Delingha, elevation 2,982 m (9,783 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1971–2010)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	9.6 (49.3)	12.3 (54.1)	18.9 (66.0)	27.4 (81.3)	29.3 (84.7)	29.4 (84.9)	34.7 (94.5)	34.2 (93.6)	31.7 (89.1)	22.4 (72.3)	14.6 (58.3)	8.4 (47.1)	34.7 (94.5)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)	−2.4 (27.7)	2.3 (36.1)	7.9 (46.2)	14.1 (57.4)	18.2 (64.8)	21.2 (70.2)	23.7 (74.7)	23.6 (74.5)	19.1 (66.4)	12.2 (54.0)	4.7 (40.5)	−0.9 (30.4)	12.0 (53.6)
Daily mean °C (°F)	−9.8 (14.4)	−5.2 (22.6)	0.4 (32.7)	6.8 (44.2)	11.4 (52.5)	14.8 (58.6)	17.2 (63.0)	16.8 (62.2)	12.0 (53.6)	4.4 (39.9)	−3.0 (26.6)	−8.6 (16.5)	4.8 (40.6)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)	−15.3 (4.5)	−11.0 (12.2)	−5.7 (21.7)	0.1 (32.2)	5.1 (41.2)	9.3 (48.7)	11.8 (53.2)	11.4 (52.5)	6.5 (43.7)	−1.3 (29.7)	−8.3 (17.1)	−13.9 (7.0)	−0.9 (30.3)
Record low °C (°F)	−30.9 (−23.6)	−32.4 (−26.3)	−21.3 (−6.3)	−10.9 (12.4)	−7.4 (18.7)	−2.5 (27.5)	0.5 (32.9)	−0.9 (30.4)	−8.9 (16.0)	−14.2 (6.4)	−20.3 (−4.5)	−28.4 (−19.1)	−32.4 (−26.3)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	4.9 (0.19)	3.8 (0.15)	6.2 (0.24)	6.4 (0.25)	26.2 (1.03)	45.9 (1.81)	51.7 (2.04)	39.1 (1.54)	24.1 (0.95)	6.1 (0.24)	2.9 (0.11)	1.9 (0.07)	219.2 (8.62)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)	3.6	2.2	2.3	2.5	6.2	10.5	11.5	9.3	6.2	1.9	1.3	1.9	59.4
Average snowy days	4.7	3.8	3.3	3.3	1.9	0.2	0	0	0	2.0	2.1	2.6	23.9
Average relative humidity (%)	41	34	28	27	35	44	48	46	45	36	35	38	38
Mean monthly sunshine hours	226.4	219.9	253.1	270.4	272.5	248.8	250.9	252.2	241.3	260.5	237.1	226.5	2,959.6
Percent possible sunshine	73	71	68	68	62	57	57	61	66	76	79	76	68
Source 1: China Meteorological Administration[3][4]
Source 2: Weather China[5]

Transportation

The Haixi Delingha Airport and Delingha railway station serve the city.

Economy and industry

Delingha will be home to a 400 million yuan "Mars village" used by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to plan future Mars explorations missions.^[6]

At an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,800 ft), a 50 MW concentrated solar power plant with parabolic trough opened in 2018.^[7]

References

1. 德令哈概况 (in Simplified Chinese). Xinhua.net. Archived from the original on 1 May 2010. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
2. "海西州第七次全国人口普查公报（第二号）——各市县、行委常住人口情况" (in Chinese). Government of Haixi Prefecture. 2 July 2021.
3. 中国气象数据网 – WeatherBk Data (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
4. 中国气象数据网 (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
5. 海西 – 气象数据 -中国天气网 (in Chinese). Weather China. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
6. Chen, Laurie (7 September 2017). "China's Mars base plan revealed ... and covering 95,000 sq km, there's certainly plenty of space". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
7. Newsletter 2018, page 7