Shuanghu County

Shuanghu County
双湖县མཚོ་གཉིས་རྫོང་།
Tsonyi, Co Nyi
Location of Shuanghu County (light yellow, #FFFF31) in Nagqu
Shuanghu
Location of the seat in the Tibet Autonomous Region
Shuanghu
Shuanghu (China)
Coordinates: 33°11′32″N 88°50′10″E / 33.19222°N 88.83611°E / 33.19222; 88.83611
CountryChina
Autonomous regionTibet
Prefecture-level cityNagqu
County seatDomar Township
Area
  Total
116,440.91 km2 (44,958.09 sq mi)
Elevation
4,960 m (16,270 ft)
Population
 (2020)
  Total
10,881
  Density0.093/km2 (0.24/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+8 (China Standard)
Websitewww.xzsh.gov.cn
Shuanghu County
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese双湖县
Traditional Chinese雙湖縣
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinShuānghú Xiàn
Tibetan name
Tibetanམཚོ་གཉིས་རྫོང་།
Transcriptions
Wyliemtsho gnyis rdzong
Tibetan PinyinConyi Zong

Shuanghu County (Chinese: 双湖县), also transliterated from Tibetan as Tsonyi County or Co Nyi County (Tibetan: མཚོ་གཉིས་རྫོང་།), is a county under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Nagqu, in the northernmost part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It was formed in 2012, combining the territory of the former Shuanghu Special District (Chinese: 双湖特别区, Tibetan: མཚོ་གཉིས་དམིགས་བསལ་སྲིད་འཛིན་ཁུལ་) with the eastern half of Nyima County. Much of the county is within the Changtang area. Shuanghu is the highest county of China with an average elevation of more than 5,000 metres (16,000 ft), while its county seat is located at 4,920 metres (16,140 ft).

Both Tibetan and Chinese name translates to "twin lake" or "two lakes", the two lakes referred to as Khangro Lake (khang ro tshwa kha) and Rêjo Lake (re co tshwa kha) respectively. Shuanghu is very sparsely populated (averaging around 0.12 people per square kilometre, but concentrated in the southern portion of the county). The vast majority of its population practices nomadic pastoralism (mostly goats and sheep). The climate is very rough, cold and dry. There is a weather station in Shuanghu, established in 1999, which on average measures negative temperatures (Celsius scale) throughout the year. The highest temperature on record is +2.3 °C (July 2000), the lowest −62.4 °C (January 2006).