Lhatse County is a county of Shigatse in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It was established in 1959, with Lhatse Town as the county seat. In 1968, Quxar Town became the county seat.

Lhatse County has a population of some 50,000 and is about 200 kilometers from Mount Everest (or Chomolungma). It is among the most impoverished counties in China.

Administration divisions

Lhatse County is divided into 2 towns and 9 townships.

NameChineseHanyu PinyinTibetanWylie
Towns
Quxar Town曲下镇Qǔxià zhènཆུ་ཤར་གྲོང་རྡལ།chu shar grong rdal
Lhazê Town拉孜镇Lāzī zhènལྷ་རྩེ་གྲོང་རྡལ།lha rtse grong rdal
Townships
Tashi Dzom Township扎西宗乡Zhāxīzōng xiāngབཀྲ་ཤིས་འཛོམས་ཤང་།bkra shis 'dzoms shang
Qoima Township曲玛乡Qǔmǎ xiāngཆོས་མ་ཤང་།chos ma shang
Püncogling Township彭措林乡Péngcuòlín xiāngཕུན་ཚོགས་གླིང་ཤང་།bon tshogs gling shang
Tashigang Township扎西岗乡Zhāxīgǎng xiāngབཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒང་ཤང་།bkra shis sgang shang
Liu Township柳乡Liǔ xiāngསླེའུ་ཤང་།sle'u shang
Resa Township热萨乡Rèsà xiāngརེ་ས་ཤང་།re sa shang
Xiqên Township锡钦乡Xīqīn xiāngགཞིས་ཆེན་ཤང་།gzhis chen shang
Mangpu Township芒普乡Mángpǔ xiāngམང་ཕུ་ཤང་།mang pu shang
Chau Township查务乡Cháwù xiāngགྲའུ་ཤང་།gra'u shang

Climate

Lhatse County recorded the highest temperature of 28.9 °C (84.0 °F) in locations above 4,000 meters above sea level.

Climate data for Lhatse, elevation 4,000 m (13,000 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1981–2010)
MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecYear
Record high °C (°F)17.9 (64.2)18.5 (65.3)21.6 (70.9)22.7 (72.9)27.5 (81.5)28.7 (83.7)28.9 (84.0)27.0 (80.6)24.1 (75.4)22.1 (71.8)20.1 (68.2)19.6 (67.3)28.9 (84.0)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)6.3 (43.3)7.9 (46.2)11.0 (51.8)14.6 (58.3)19.0 (66.2)22.7 (72.9)21.1 (70.0)19.7 (67.5)19.2 (66.6)16.0 (60.8)11.4 (52.5)8.2 (46.8)14.8 (58.6)
Daily mean °C (°F)−1.7 (28.9)0.4 (32.7)3.9 (39.0)7.4 (45.3)11.6 (52.9)15.4 (59.7)14.6 (58.3)13.6 (56.5)12.6 (54.7)8.5 (47.3)3.1 (37.6)−0.4 (31.3)7.4 (45.3)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)−9.8 (14.4)−7.4 (18.7)−3.5 (25.7)0.4 (32.7)4.9 (40.8)9.2 (48.6)9.6 (49.3)8.8 (47.8)7.2 (45.0)1.6 (34.9)−5.0 (23.0)−8.8 (16.2)0.6 (33.1)
Record low °C (°F)−19.1 (−2.4)−16.8 (1.8)−12.7 (9.1)−8.0 (17.6)−4.4 (24.1)1.0 (33.8)2.7 (36.9)2.6 (36.7)0.5 (32.9)−7.2 (19.0)−13.3 (8.1)−16.9 (1.6)−19.1 (−2.4)
Average precipitation mm (inches)0.2 (0.01)0.2 (0.01)0.3 (0.01)2.6 (0.10)14.7 (0.58)49.1 (1.93)123.6 (4.87)123.0 (4.84)38.2 (1.50)3.2 (0.13)0.2 (0.01)0.3 (0.01)355.6 (14)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)0.30.40.41.94.310.820.621.310.91.40.20.172.6
Average snowy days0.50.70.82.61.50.10000.40.30.27.1
Average relative humidity (%)18182025314159645329211833
Mean monthly sunshine hours254.1239.2272.3272.3300.1268.8209.9202.7237.5290.9268.9264.63,081.3
Percentage possible sunshine78757370716450506583858371
Source: China Meteorological Administration

Transport

The county is a juncture of China National Highway 219 (G219) which goes to Kashgar and China National Highway 318 (G318) which ends at the border with Nepal. To the west along the G318, a road splits off and runs to the Mount Everest base camp.

Gallery