In the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, it is described as being "picturesquely situated" on the side of a hill standing isolated in the plain near the east end of Lake Pangong.

[12] Around the year 2000, the Chinese administration of Tibet built a new Rutog Town about 10 km east of Rudok, adjacent to the China National Highway 219, and moved the county headquarters there.

[4] Rudok is centred on a small hill on the bank of a tributary called Chuling Chu of the Maga Tsangpo river.

E. B. Wakefield, the first European to visit Rudok in 1929, described the purple and black hill, rising high above the level of the surrounding plain, crowned by the Dzongpön's palace, which seemed "beautiful and impressive and worthy of [its] sanctity".

[3] According to the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, at the top of the hill were a large palace (dzong) and several monasteries painted in red.

The winter climate of Rudok and of all the towns of the Tsangpo basin, owing to the intense dryness of the air and the light fall of snow, seems to be bracing and exhilarating rather than severe.

They are believed to have been carved prior to the 7th century when Ladakh as well as Rudok were part of the Zhangzhung empire based in the Sutlej Valley.

[17][18] After the Zhangzhung empire was conquered by the Yarlung dynasty of Central Tibet, both Ladakh and Rudok came under Tibetan control.

[20] According to Indian intelligence, the force travelled via the Keriya Pass to Gar Gunsa (Gartok) via a tedious route and arrived there in June 1951.

In October, the Chinese started to explore the possibility of opening a road route to Xinjiang via Rudok (through Keriya La).