Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

Coordinates: 27°50′N 99°36′E / 27.833°N 99.600°E

Diqing Prefecture 迪庆州 · བདེ་ཆེན་ཁུལ།
Autonomous prefecture
迪庆藏族自治州 · བདེ་ཆེན་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་ Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
Snowy mountains (probably 'white-horse mountain') in Diqing Autonomous Prefecture
Location of Diqing Prefecture in Yunnan
Country	People's Republic of China
Province	Yunnan
Prefecture seat	Shangri-La City
Area
• Total	23,870 km^2 (9,220 sq mi)
Population
• Total	353,518
• Density	15/km^2 (38/sq mi)
Postal code	674400
Area code(s)	0887
Website	http://www.diqing.gov.cn/
Diqing.gov.cn

Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (simplified Chinese: 迪庆藏族自治州; traditional Chinese: 迪慶藏族自治州; pinyin: Díqìng Zàngzú Zìzhìzhōu; Tibetan: བདེ་ཆེན་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་, Wylie: Bde-chen Bod-rigs rang-skyong khul ) is an autonomous prefecture in northwestern Yunnan province, China. It has an area of 23,870 km² (9,220 sq mi). Its capital, which is also the largest city in the prefecture, is Shangri-La City.

This prefecture of Yunnan Province is bordered on the northeast by Sichuan Province, and on the northwest by the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). Southwest and southeast of Diqing Prefecture are other parts of Yunnan Province: Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture and Lijiang respectively.

There are three counties in this prefecture: Shangri-La (formerly Zhongdian), Dêqên County, and Weixi Lisu Autonomous County (formerly Weixi), and they all used to be under the administration of Lijiang (located southeast of this prefecture).^[1] This autonomous prefecture was established in 1957 and named Diqing by its first governor.^[1] The name of this Tibetan autonomous prefecture (TAP) is also spelled Dechen, Deqing, or Dêqên.^[2]

Transport

Air

Diqing Shangri-La Airport, also known simply as Diqing Airport, is one of the biggest airports in the northwest of the Yunnan Province. It is located about 3.4 miles (5.5 km) from the center of Shangri-La City. There are flights to Lhasa, Chengdu, Beijing (via Kunming), Shanghai Pudong, Shenzhen (via Guiyang), Guangzhou, Kunming and Xishuangbanna.

Road

Highways are the main means of transportation to reach Diqing Prefecture. The major highway in this prefecture is China National Highway 214 (a Yunnan-Tibet-Qinghai highway abbreviated "G214").

There are also direct bus routes to Kunming, Lijiang, and Panzhihua (Sichuan).

Demography

Ethnic groups in Diqing, 2000 census

Nationality	Population	Percentage
Tibetan	117,099	33.12%
Lisu	98,195	27.78%
Han	57,928	16.39%
Naxi	45,269	12.81%
Bai	18,182	5.14%
Yi	11,616	3.29%
Hui	1,496	0.42%
Pumi	1,496	0.42%
Miao	1,434	0.41%
Nu	241	0.07%
Derung	137	0.04%
Others	425	0.11%

Subdivisions

Diqing is divided into three counties, among which one is autonomous:

Map	#	Name	Hanzi	Hanyu Pinyin	Tibetan	Tibetan Pinyin	Population (2010 Census)	Area (km²)	Density (/km²)
Shangri'la (city) Dêqên County Weixi County
	1	Shangri'la	香格里拉市	Xiānggélǐlā Shì	སེམས་ཀྱི་ཉི་ཟླ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།	Xamgyi'nyilha Chongkyir / sems kyi nyi zla grong khyer	172,988	11,613	14.89
	2	Dêqên County	德钦县	Déqīn Xiàn	བདེ་ཆེན་རྫོང་། མཇོལ་རྫོང་།	Dêqên Zong / bde chen rdzong Jol Zong / mjol rdzong	66,589	7,596	8.76
	3	Weixi Lisu Autonomous County	维西傈僳族 自治县	Wéixī Lìsùzú Zìzhìxiàn	འབའ་ལུང་ལི་སུའུ་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་རྫོང་།	Balung Lisurig Ranggyong Zong / 'ba' lung li su'u rigs rang skyong rdzong	160,605	4,661	34.45

History

This prefecture is in the southern part of a historical region called Kham, which belonged to the Tibetan Empire many centuries ago. After the decline of that empire in the 9th century, peripheral areas like southern Kham remained part of Tibet more in an ethnographical than a political sense. As a practical matter, by the mid-1700s, the Tibetan Government had mostly lost control of Kham to Manchu (Qing) China, and that situation lasted until the end of the Manchu Dynasty in 1912.^[3]

Southern Kham along with other parts of Yunnan were ruled by the Yunnan clique from 1915 until 1927. Then it was controlled by Governor and warlord Long (Lung) Yun until near the end of the Chinese Civil War, when Du Yuming removed him under the order of Chiang Kai-shek.

There are three counties in this prefecture: Shangri-La (formerly Zhongdian, in Chinese: 中甸 Zhōngdiàn), Dêqên County, and Weixi Lisu Autonomous County (formerly Weixi), and they all were under the administration of Lijiang.^[1] The Autonomous Prefecture was established in 1957 and named "Diqing" by its first governor.^[1][4]

During the remainder of the 20th century, the prefecture's capital was called Zhongdian but was renamed on December 17, 2001 as Shangri-La City (other spellings: Semkyi'nyida, Xianggelila, or Xamgyi'nyilha) after the fictional land of Shangri-La in the 1933 James Hilton novel Lost Horizon, with an eye toward promoting tourism in the area.^[5][6]

On June 25, 2007 the Pudacuo National Park was established on 500 square miles (1,300 km²) in this prefecture. On January 11, 2014, there was a major fire in the 1,000-year-old Dukezong Tibetan neighborhood of the capital city Shangri-La, causing much damage and hardship.^[7]

References

1. "System Evolution", via official website of Diqing government (in Chinese). Accessed April 25, 2015.
2. Barnett, Robert. Lhasa: Streets with Memories, p. 197 (Columbia University Press, 2010).
3. Goldstein, M.C. "Change, Conflict and Continuity among a community of nomadic pastoralists—A Case Study from western Tibet, 1950-1990" in Resistance and Reform in Tibet (eds. Barnett and Akiner. London: Hurst & Co., 1994).
4. Mackerras, Colin and Yorke, Amanda. The Cambridge Handbook of Contemporary China, p. 209 (Cambridge University Press, 1991).
5. Yü, Dan. Mindscaping the Landscape of Tibet: Place, Memorability, Ecoaesthetics, p. 47 (Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co, 2015).
6. Merkel-Hess, Kate. China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance, p. 255 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009).
7. "Night fire burns for hours, destroys ancient Tibetan town in southwest China's Shangri-La county". Toledo Blade. January 11, 2014.

External links

• Official Website (in Chinese)
• Yunnan-Diqing via chinadiscover.net.