日土镇

( Rutog Town )

Description

The Rutog Town (Tibetan: རུ་ཐོང་གྲོང་རྡལ, ZYPY: Rutog Chongdai), called Rituzhen in Chinese (Chinese: 日土镇 ; pinyin: Rìtǔ zhèn), 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.

The town was built around in 1999 by the Chinese administration of Tibet on the China National Highway 219. 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.

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. The town has a population of about 1000 people.