Country China Area 4,306 km² Prefecture-level city Xigazê | Time zone China Standard (UTC+8) Capital Lingma | |
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Province Tibet Autonomous Region | ||
Dromo County or Chomo (Tibetan: གྲོ་མོ་རྫོང༌།, Wylie: gro-mo rdzong) or Yadong County (simplified Chinese: 亚东; traditional Chinese: 亞東; pinyin: Yàdōng; Wade–Giles: Ya-tung) is a frontier county and trade-market of Tibet Autonomous Region, China, situated in the mouth of the Chumbi valley near the China-India and China-Bhutan border. It lies in the middle part of Himalayas and the south of Tibet Autonomous Region, covering about 4,306 square kilometers with a population of 10,000. It is under the jurisdiction of Xigazê.
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Map of Yadong, Xigaze, Tibet, China
Geography
The town of Dromo (Yadong) is very close to the borders of both the Indian state of Sikkim and Bhutan and has a hotel, a guest house, some government offices and army barracks.
Local specialities include Dromo fish and barley wine while the main tourist sites are Donggar Monastery, Garju Monastery and Kangbu Hotspring. Yadong is connected to the Indian state of Sikkim via the Nathu La.
As part of the China Western Development strategy, the Chinese government planned to extend the Qinghai–Tibet Railway from Lhasa to Yadong near the Nathu La that marks the disputed China–India border.
History
According to the Convention of Calcutta of 1890–94 signed by Great Britain and Qing dynasty China, the market at Dromo was opened to India. At that time there was a wall-like structure across the valley's stream extending part way up each side of the valley thus blocking the road to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. This was the demarcation line that British subjects were forbidden to cross and was manned by 20 Tibetan soldiers under a sergeant along with three Chinese officials. The construction of the wall was reported to be one of the incidents that led to the British invasion of Tibet in 1904. According to the resulting Treaty of Lhasa, a British trade-agent was to be stationed at Yadong.