A lonely county-level city in Qinghai Province, located alone in a desert with a vast sparse population and a simple name that is easy to mispronounce.

After traveling for a long time, I have visited many places and seen a lot of strange things. There is Sansha City in the south, an isolated island far away from the mainland, known as the fishing warehouse of China. , and when you walk into Qinghai in the northwest, you will find Mangya City, which is located in the embrace of no man's land. Compared with Sansha City, which is surrounded by sea water, Mangya City is even more lonely. It is called "the loneliest county in China". city".

Mangya City is the only place on the ancient Silk Road. It is the choke point from Qinghai to Gansu and to Xinjiang. It is also the west gate of Qinghai Province. It belongs to the Hainan Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. It is located on the northwest border of Qinghai Province, on the western edge of the Qaidam Basin, deep in the Gobi Desert, 250 kilometers away from the nearest county seat, Ruoqiang County, and 400 kilometers away from the nearest prefecture-level city, Dunhuang City.

Mangya City is a young prefecture-level city. It was established in February 2018, only 4 years ago, but it has a long history. As early as the Han Dynasty, Mangya City belonged to Ruoqiang. In the country, there were Qiang people operating in Huatugou and Mangya Town areas within its territory. There are clear records in various dynasties in history. In 1984, the Haixi Prefecture dispatched office was established and gradually upgraded to today's county-level city.

It is said that Mangya City is the loneliest city in China. Its location is very special. It is in the depths of the desert. Less than 5 kilometers outside the urban area, it is either a desert or an uninhabited land. It is very desolate, with an average altitude of 3,000 meters. It is a plateau area, where bad weather such as sandstorms often occurs, so sand control forests have to be planted around the city.

The jurisdiction of Mangya City is very large, close to 50,000 square kilometers, which is almost half the area of ??Zhejiang Province. However, the permanent population is small. According to official statistics in 2020, the population is only 19,000. Most of them are Employees in the oil industry, or those who serve the oil industry, go to work during the day and rarely see pedestrians in such a large urban area. It is a vast and sparsely populated city.

The name of Mangya City is also very interesting. According to common sense, it should be pronounced as Mangya [yá], but the locals don’t think so. The place name comes from Mongolian and means “forehead”. The locals They all pronounce it as Mangya [ái], and the official media also pronounces it as Mangya [ái]. However, after checking all Chinese character dictionaries, Ya does not have the pronunciation of [ái]. Therefore, when people from outside come to Mangya, they often pronounce the place name incorrectly. A lot of jokes were made.

The pronunciation of Mangya City is relatively unfamiliar. Strictly speaking, it is a typo. I believe there will be an explanation soon. The problem is not very important. What is important is that the environment in the desert of the city is harsh and it will change no matter what. No, it is known as the loneliest city in China. So the question is, if it were you, would you be willing to live here if I were given a stable job?