Nyalam

Nyalam County occupies Tibet's remote southern border with Nepal, within Shigatse prefecture, dropping from a windswept 3,810-metre plateau at the county seat down through a dramatic gorge to the once-thriving trading town of Zhangmu at barely 2,300 metres. Its economy has long depended on cross-border trade through the Zhangmu-Nepal crossing along the historic route later paved as China National Highway 318, alongside subsistence barley farming and yak herding at higher elevations, though trade was badly disrupted by the 2015 Nepal earthquake and has been rebuilding since. The county has no university, and its overwhelmingly Tibetan population sends students to boarding schools in Shigatse or Lhasa, but Nyalam holds deep religious significance as the site of Milarepa's Cave, where Tibet's most revered yogi and poet-saint is said to have meditated for years, with a monastery built around the site still drawing pilgrims today. The county also sits at the northern edge of the Qomolangma National Nature Preserve, giving travellers heading toward Everest's north side their first close views of the high Himalaya after crossing from the Tibetan plateau. Between its ancient pilgrimage site, dramatic changes in elevation and climate, and position on one of the world's great mountain frontiers, Nyalam remains one of the most physically striking counties in Tibet.