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Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Northwest China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, China." Hydrological Processes 20.10 (2006): 2207–2216.online 426 KB) Located in China's Xinjiang region, it is sometimes used synonymously to refer to the southern half of the province, or Nanjiang (), as opposed to the northern half of the province known as Dzungaria or Beijiang. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern boundary is the Kunlun Mountains on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The Taklamakan Desert dominates much of the basin. The historical Uyghur name for the Tarim Basin is Altishahr ( Traditional spelling: 六城 or ), which means 'six cities' in Uyghur. Geography and relation to Xinjiang Xinjiang consists of two main geographically, historically, and ethnically distinct regions with different historic ...
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Northern Xinjiang
Dzungaria (; from the Mongolian words , meaning 'left hand') is a geographical subregion in Northwest China that corresponds to the northern half of Xinjiang. It is thus also known as Beijiang, which means "Northern Xinjiang". Bounded by the Altai Mountains to the north and the Tian Shan mountain range to the south, Dzungaria covers approximately , and borders Kazakhstan to the west and Mongolia to the east. In contexts prior to the mid-18th century Dzungar genocide, the term "Dzungaria" could cover a wider area, conterminous with the Oirat-led Dzungar Khanate. Although Dzungaria is geographically, historically, and ethnically distinct from the Tarim Basin (or Nanjiang, ), the Manchu-led Qing dynasty integrated both areas into one province, Xinjiang. Dzungaria is Xinjiang's center of heavy industry, generates most of the region's GDP, and houses its political capital Ürümqi ( Oirat for 'beautiful pasture'). As such, Dzungaria continues to attract intraprovincial and interprov ...
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Turkic Languages
The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic languages originated in a region of East Asia spanning from Mongolia to Northwest China, where Proto-Turkic is thought to have been spoken, from where they expanded to Central Asia and farther west during the first millennium. They are characterized as a dialect continuum. Turkic languages are spoken by some 200 million people. The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is Turkish, spoken mainly in Anatolia and the Balkans; its native speakers account for about 38% of all Turkic speakers. Characteristic features such as vowel harmony, agglutination, subject-object-verb order, and lack of grammatical gender, are almost universal within the Turkic family. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility, upon moderate exposure, a ...
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Niya Town
Niya ( ug, Нийә; ), is a town in Minfeng County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. It is the county seat of Minfeng County, and therefore is commonly referred to as Minfeng, and is labeled so on less detailed maps. An ancient town also called Niya is located 115 km to the north of this modern Niya. History Niya/Minfeng was known in ancient time as Ronglu () during the Han dynasties (206 BC - 222 AD) and, according to the ''Hanshu'' Chapter 96A, was said to have had "240 households, 610 individuals with 300 persons able to bear arms" during the Former Han Dynasty (206 BC - 23 AD). It is situated about 115 km north of the modern town of Minfeng. Numerous Buddhist scriptures, sculptures, mummies and other precious archeological finds have been made in the region. The remains of more than seventy buildings have been discovered scattered over an area of some 45 km2. It was located on the southern branch of the Silk Road.Baumer, Chris ...
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Hotan
Hotan (also known as Gosthana, Gaustana, Godana, Godaniya, Khotan, Hetian, Hotien) is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, an autonomous region in Western China. The city proper of Hotan broke off from the larger Hotan County to become an administrative area in its own right in August 1984. It is the seat of Hotan Prefecture. With a population of 408,900 (2018 census), Hotan is situated in the Tarim Basin some southwest of the regional capital, Ürümqi. It lies just north of the Kunlun Mountains, which are crossed by the Sanju, Hindutash and Ilchi passes. The town, located southeast of Yarkant County and populated almost exclusively by Uyghurs, is a minor agricultural center. An important station on the southern branch of the historic Silk Road, Hotan has always depended on two strong rivers—the Karakash River and the White Jade River to provide the water needed to survive on the southwestern edge of the vast Taklamakan Desert. The White Jade River still provides w ...
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Hami
Hami (Kumul) is a prefecture-level city in Eastern Xinjiang, China. It is well known as the home of sweet Hami melons. In early 2016, the former Hami county-level city was merged with Hami Prefecture to form the Hami prefecture-level city with the county-level city becoming Yizhou District. Since the Han dynasty, Hami has been known for its production of agricultural products and raw resources. Origins and names Cumuḍa (sometimes ''Cimuda'' or ''Cunuda'') is the oldest known endonym of Hami, when it was founded by a people known in Han Chinese sources as the '' Xiao Yuezhi'' ("Lesser Yuezhi"), during the 1st millennium BCE. The oldest attested Chinese names is "" (; by the time of the Han dynasty it was referred to in Chinese as "" () or "" (), in the Tang dynasty as , . By the 10th century CE, the city and its residents were known to the Han as "" (). A monk named Gao Juhui, who had traveled to the Tarim Basin, wrote that the ''Zhongyun'' were descendants of the ''Xiao Y ...
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Turpan
Turpan (also known as Turfan or Tulufan, , ug, تۇرپان) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and a population of 632,000 (2015). Geonyms The original name of the city is unknown. The form Turfan (while it is older than Turpan), was not used until the middle of the 2nd millennium CE and its use became widespread only in the post-Mongol period. Historically, many settlements in the Tarim Basin have been given a number of different names. Some of these names have also referred to more than one place: Turpan/Turfan/Tulufan is one such example. Others include Jushi/Gushi, Gaochang/Qocho/Karakhoja and Jiaohe/Yarkhoto. The center of the region has shifted a number of times, from Yar-Khoto (Jiaohe, to the west of modern Turpan) to Qocho (Gaochang, to the southeast of Turpan) and to Turpan itself. History Turpan has long been the centre of a fertile oasis (with water provided by the ''karez'' canal s ...
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Korla
Korla,The official spelling according to also known as Kurla, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency or from Mandarin Chinese as Ku'erle or Kuerle, is the second largest city in Xinjiang. It is a county-level city and the seat of the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, the largest prefecture of China. Korla has existed since at least the Han Dynasty. Korla is known for its production of fragrant pears and is a production center for the Tarim oil fields. History Han Dynasty Korla was known as Yuli () (reconstructed pronunciation of first character: *i̯wəd) during the Han Dynasty. Yuli is said in the Hanshu or 'History of the Former Han' (covering the period 125 BCE to 23 CE), to have had 1,200 households, 9,600 individuals and 2,000 people able to bear arms. It also mentions that it adjoined Shanshan and Qiemo ( Charchan) to the south. In 61 CE, the Xiongnu led some 30,000 troops from 15 kingdoms including Korla, Karashahr, and Kucha in a successf ...
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Kuqa, Xinjiang
Kuqa is a county-level city in Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. Other names and variants of spelling of Kuqa are Kocha, Kuchu, Kuchar, Kuchi, Kuchel, K'u-ch'e-chen, K'u-ch'e-hsien, Kuga, Kucha and K'u-ch'e. It was once the homeland of the ancient Buddhist Kingdom of Kucha. History According to the ''Book of Han'' (completed in 111 CE), Kucha was the largest of the "Thirty-six Kingdoms of the Western Regions", with a population of 81,317, including 21,076 persons able to bear arms. In 630, Xuanzang (玄奘; Xuán Zàng), a well-known Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler and translator visited Kucha during the Early Tang period. In the book " Hudud ul-'alam min al-mashriq ila al-maghrib", written in 982 by an unknown Arab or Persian writer, and presented to Abu'l Haret Muhammad, the ruler of Guzgan, the following is written regarding Kucha: Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat, a military general, in his historical book Tarikh-i-Rashidi used the wo ...
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Aksu City
Aksu is a city in and the seat of Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang, lying at the northern edge of the Tarim Basin. The name Aksu literally means "white water" (in Turkic) and is used for both the oasis town and the Aksu River. The economy of Aksu is mostly agricultural, with cotton, in particular long-staple cotton (''Gossypium hirsutum''), as the main product. Also produced are grain, fruits, oils and beets. The industry mostly consists of weaving, cement and chemical industries. The land currently under the administration of the Aksu City is divided in two parts, separated by the Aral City. The northern part hosts the city center, while the southern part is occupied by the Taklamakan Desert. Aksu airport is considered a military airport in China (although also available for civil usage). Only aircraft registered in China can land in Aksu. This means if you are flying to Aksu from international origins you have to land in a major airport in China like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou a ...
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Maralbexi County
Maralbexi County (Maralbeshi, Maralbishi, transliterated from ; ), Bachu County (), and ) the former long Chinese name as well, is located in the southwest of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China and is under the administration of the Kashgar Prefecture. It has an area of , and surrounds, but does not administer, the sub-prefecture-level city of Tumxuk. According to the 2002 census, it has a population of 380,000. History In 1913, Maralbexi County was established. In September 1937, two regiments of Soviet Kirghiz troops and one regiment of Russian troops equipped with forty airplanes and twenty tanks entered Sinkiang from Atushe and attacked Maralbexi, dividing Ma Hushan's 36th Corps into two sections. In February 2002, a 6.7 magnitude earthquake killed 267 people in Maralbexi County and Payzawat County. On February 24, 2003, the 2003 Bachu earthquake occurred. In April 2013, twenty-one died in an incident in Seriqbuya. In October 2014, tw ...
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Kashgar
Kashgar ( ug, قەشقەر, Qeshqer) or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is an oasis city in the Tarim Basin region of Southern Xinjiang. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, near the border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan. With a population of over 500,000, Kashgar has served as a trading post and strategically important city on the Silk Road between China, the Middle East and Europe for over 2,000 years, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the World. At the convergence point of widely varying cultures and empires, Kashgar has been under the rule of the Chinese, Turkic, Mongol and Tibetan empires. The city has also been the site of a number of battles between various groups of people on the steppes. Now administered as a county-level unit, Kashgar is the administrative center of Kashgar Prefecture, which has an area of and a population of approximately 4 million as of 2010. The city itself has a population of 506,640, and its ur ...
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