The main products include: rice, maize, barley, wheat, peas, cabbages, turnips, onions, grapes, pomegranates, peaches, apricots, water melons and honey.

[7][8] In ancient times Qiang people lived here, and in the Han dynasty a kingdom called Bainang ('White Wolf') became established.

Mr. Hosie, who briefly visited the region in 1904 mentions that 400 Tibetan troops were stationed to the south of the town to protect the frontier.

He says that in the town of Bathan or Batan, with which he was personally acquainted, there were about 20 people regularly involved in washing for gold in spite of the severe laws against it.

He was sent in 1905 (though other sources say this occurred in 1908)[16][17] on a punitive expedition and began destroying many monasteries in Kham and Amdo and implementing a process of sinification of the region:[18] The situation was soon to change, however, as, after the fall of the Qing dynasty in October 1911, Zhao's soldiers mutinied and beheaded him.

This invasion led to the 13th Dalai Lama's escape to India, then his return to proclaim Tibet's total independence from China in 1913, and the end of their "priest-patron" relationship.

[21] In 1932 the Sichuan warlord, Liu Wenhui (刘文辉; 1895–1976), drove the Tibetans back to the Yangtze River and even threatened to attack Chamdo.

At Batang, Kesang Tsering, a half-Tibetan, claiming to be acting on behalf of Chiang Kai-shek (Pinyin: Jiang Jieshi.

By early 1934 a ceasefire and armistices had been arranged with Liu Wen-hui and Governor Ma of Chinghai in which the Tibetans gave up all territory to the east of the Yangtze (including the region of Batang) but kept control of the Yaklo (Yenchin) district which had previously been a Chinese enclave to the west of the river.

[22] The bloodless occupation[citation needed] of Chamdo, the major city of the old Tibetan province of Kham, by the 40,000 man army of the People's Republic of China on October 19, 1950, when the whole region fell under Chinese control, served as an important precursor to the eventual defeat of the Lhasa government.