[citation needed] Prior to the construction of the town around 1999, the location contained a small Gyelgosang community (Tibetan: རྒྱལ་སྒོ་བསངས, Wylie: rgyal sgo bsangs, THL: gyel go sang, ZYPY: Gyaigosang; Chinese: 杰果桑社区; pinyin: Jié guǒ sāng shèqū) of the Derub village (33°22′18″N 79°41′46″E / 33.3718°N 79.6961°E / 33.3718; 79.6961 (Derub)).

Tibetologist Gyurme Dorje states that the newly built town is basically a Chinese military garrison,[10] as does the Lonely Planet guide.

[11] The town serves as a base for China's military operations against India along the disputed Sino-Indian border in Ladakh and the associated "salami tactics".

[13] Satellite imagery indicated that China broke ground in August 2019,[4] and started extending the facilities in the waterless valley to the northeast of the town.

[17] At the northeastern end of the Pangong Lake, another offshoot of G219 called Banying Xian heads to the Chinese military base at Kongka La.