Phongsaly District
Phongsali or Phongsaly (Lao: ຜົ້ງສາລີ) is the capital of Phongsaly Province, Laos. It is the northernmost provincial capital in Laos. The district had about 23,300 inhabitants according to the 2015 Laotian census. It lies at approximately 1,430 metres or 4,690 feet elevation on the slopes of Mount Phu Fa (1,625 metres or 5,330 feet). Phongsali has summer temperatures around 25 to 30 °C (77 to 86 °F), with frequent rain. In winter, from November to March, it is cool and mostly sunny, with daytime temperatures between 10 and 18 °C (50.0 and 64.4 °F).
In the centre of the town are houses built in Yunnanese style with ornate wooden fronts. This is quite rare as the preserved city was not destroyed like other cities in northern Laos during the Vietnam War by bombing.
A 400 year-old tea plantation is about 18 kilometers away in the village of Ban Komaen, which according to some tea experts has some of the oldest tea trees in the world. The large root system of the old trees extends deep into the mineral-rich soil and gives the "Phongsali tea" a distinctive aroma and taste.
Languages
Climate
Phongsali has a subtropical highland climate (Köppen climate classification: Cwa).
| Climate data for Phongsali, elevation 1,300 m (4,300 ft), (1990–2019) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 19.5 (67.1) |
22.8 (73.0) |
25.8 (78.4) |
27.5 (81.5) |
27.1 (80.8) |
26.5 (79.7) |
25.2 (77.4) |
25.8 (78.4) |
25.4 (77.7) |
23.7 (74.7) |
21.6 (70.9) |
18.8 (65.8) |
24.1 (75.5) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 15.4 (59.7) |
17.8 (64.0) |
20.6 (69.1) |
22.5 (72.5) |
22.6 (72.7) |
22.8 (73.0) |
22.1 (71.8) |
22.4 (72.3) |
21.8 (71.2) |
20.2 (68.4) |
17.8 (64.0) |
15.0 (59.0) |
20.1 (68.1) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 11.3 (52.3) |
12.8 (55.0) |
15.5 (59.9) |
17.4 (63.3) |
18.1 (64.6) |
19.0 (66.2) |
18.9 (66.0) |
18.9 (66.0) |
18.2 (64.8) |
16.6 (61.9) |
13.9 (57.0) |
11.2 (52.2) |
16.0 (60.8) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 37 (1.5) |
19 (0.7) |
60 (2.4) |
100 (3.9) |
208 (8.2) |
251 (9.9) |
372 (14.6) |
339 (13.3) |
165 (6.5) |
96 (3.8) |
52 (2.0) |
39 (1.5) |
1,738 (68.3) |
| Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | |||||||||||||
References
- ^ "Results of Population and Housing Census 2015" (PDF). Lao Statistics Bureau. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
- ^ "Climatology and agroclimatology atlas of the Lao People's Democratic Republic" (PDF). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 March 2024. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
Further reading
- Kingsadā, Thō̜ngphet, and Tadahiko Shintani. 1999 Basic Vocabularies of the Languages Spoken in Phongxaly, Lao P.D.R. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).
- Shintani, Tadahiko, Ryuichi Kosaka, and Takashi Kato. 2001. Linguistic Survey of Phongxaly, Lao P.D.R. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).
- Kato, Takashi. 2008. Linguistic Survey of Tibeto-Burman languages in Lao P.D.R. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).
21°41′N 102°06′E / 21.683°N 102.100°E
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