Rutog Town

This article is about the modern town. For the historic town, see Rudok.
Rutog Town / Rituzhen
རུ་ཐོང་གྲོང་རྡལ / 日土镇
Derub, Gyelgosang
Rutog Town / Rituzhen is located in Tibet
Rutog Town / Rituzhen
Rutog Town / Rituzhen
Coordinates: 33°23′6″N 79°43′48″E / 33.38500°N 79.73000°E / 33.38500; 79.73000
CountryPeople's Republic of China
ProvinceTibet Autonomous Region
PrefectureNgari Prefecture
CountyRutog County
Elevation
4,280 m (14,040 ft)
Population
 • Total1,000
Time zoneUTC+8 (CST)
Map

The Rutog Town[1][2] (Tibetan: རུ་ཐོང་གྲོང་རྡལ, ZYPY: Rutog Chongdai),[3] called Rituzhen in Chinese (Chinese: 日土镇 ; pinyin: Rìtǔ zhèn),[3] is a town and the seat of Rutog County in the far western Tibet Autonomous Region. It is also a major military base for China near the disputed border with India allowing it to press its claims militarily.[4][5]

The town was built around in 1999 by the Chinese administration of Tibet on the China National Highway 219.[6] Prior to that, the seat of the county was at Rudok or Rutog Dzong, about 10 km northwest, which had been its capital for more than a thousand years.[7][8]

The new Rutog Town is located 120 kilometres by road northwest of Shiquanhe (also called Ali or Ngari) and 10 kilometres south of Lake Pangong.[9] The town has a population of about 1000 people.[citation needed]

  1. ^ Webster's 21st Century World Atlas. Barnes & Noble Books. 1999. p. 94 – via archive.org. Rutog
  2. ^ Complete Atlas Of The World (3 ed.). Penguin Random House. 2016. p. 238 – via archive.org. Rutog
  3. ^ a b Tibet Autonomous Region (China): Ngari Prefecture, KNAB place name database.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sushant Singh was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kannan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Lonely Planet 1999, p. 264: "Further south the road skirts around the eastern end of Lake Palgon [Pangong] and soon after arrives at new Rutok Xian, where a permit checkpoint awaits the unwary. The old town of Rutok, overlooked by a ruined hilltop dzong (fort) and a recently restored monastery, is about 10 km west of the road and a few kilometres to the south of the new town."
  7. ^ Wakefield, E. B. (1961), "A Journey to Western Tibet, 1929" (PDF), The Alpine Journal: 118–133
  8. ^ Chan, Victor (1994), Tibet Handbook, Chico, CA: Moon Publications, p. 980, ISBN 9780918373908 – via archive.org: "After 3 1/2 hr (147 km) [from Ali] reach a road junction. The left fork goes to Rutok Xian, the right to Yecheng."
  9. ^ Lonely Planet 1999, p. 279.