Akqi County (also as ''Aheqi County''; ) is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

, China. It is under the administration of the Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture. The county has a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and five

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

, six communities and 25

villages A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

under its jurisdiction in 2018, its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

is ''

Akqi Town Akqi Town (also as ''Aheqi Town''; ) is a town and the county seat of Akqi County in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. Located in the middle of the county, it covers an area of 1,454 kilometres with a population of 8,251 (as of 2018), of t ...

'' (). The county has a population of about 46,000 (as of 2018) with main

ethnic groups An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

of Kyrgyz, Han and

Uyghur peoples The Uyghurs; ; ; ; zh, s=, t=, p=Wéiwú'ěr, IPA: ( ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central Asia, Cent ...

. The name of Akqi was from the Kyrgyz language, meaning ''white achnatherum calamagrostis'' (). The ''Administrative Division of Akqi'' () was first established, it was named after its seat located in the ''Village of Akqi'' (). The county of Akqi is located in alpine areas of the southern

hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated ...

in Western Tianshan. Its altitude is between , with a terrain characteristics of the "two mountains and one valley", its whole territory is in a mountain valley area, of which, highland accounts for 90 percent, farmland for five percent and water body for five percent. The county covers an area of about , it borders with Wushi County in the east, Keping County in the southeast, Bachu County and Atushi City in the south-west, the northern and western part of the county is adjacent to the

Kyrgyz Republic Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the east ...

with a border line of . The county seat is away from the regional capital

Ürümqi Ürümqi ( ; also spelled Ürümchi or without umlauts), formerly known as Dihua (also spelled Tihwa), is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far northwest of the People's Republic of China. Ürümqi developed its ...

by road.

History

The county of Akqi was part of the territory of ''Weitou State'' (), one of ''36 States of the

Western Regions The Western Regions or Xiyu (Hsi-yü; ) was a historical name specified in the Chinese chronicles between the 3rd century BC to the 8th century AD that referred to the regions west of Yumen Pass, most often Central Asia or sometimes more sp ...

'' (), and part of

Protectorate of the Western Regions The Protectorate of the Western Regions () was an imperial administration (a protectorate) of Han China in the Western Regions. The "Western Regions" referred to areas west of Yumen Pass, especially the Tarim Basin. These areas would later b ...

(59 BC) in the Han period. It was part of ''Weitou Prefecture'' () in ''Kucha Commandery'' () in the Tang period, and part of Wushi County in the Qing period. The ''Administrative Division of Akqi'' () was first established from part of Wushi County in 1940, it was named after its seat located in the ''Village of Akqi'' () in the present ''Karaqi Township'' (). In 1941, its seat was moved to Uq (), the present-day county seat of ''Akqi Town'' (). The ''Administrative Division of Akqi'' was upgraded to be as a county in 1944. The county was under the administration of Aksu Prefecture in 1950, as a county, it was amalgamated to the newly formed Kyrgyz autonomous prefecture of Kizilsu in 1954.

Geography and Climate

The county of Akqi is high in the north and south, low in the middle, and tilted from west to east. Forming land features of terrain with two mountains and a valley, in the north, the ''Kuokexiale Maintain'' () is a southern branch of Tianshan, with a maximum altitude of . To the south is ''Galatieke Maintain'' (), with its maximum altitude of . Between the two mountains is the ''Taushgan Valley'' (), from west to east through the middle of the county, above sea level. Agricultural oasis is mainly concentrated in the valley area, the mountain natural pastoral land accounts for 86% of the county area. The ''Taushgan River'' () originates from

and has 19 tributaries with a total runoff of 2.421 billion cubic metres in the county, such as ''Uzuntux River'' (). The annual average temperature is , the average temperature in January is , and the average temperature in July is . The average annual precipitation is , with a frost-free period of 156 days.

Population and ethnic groups

As of 2015, There was a population of 44,656 in Akqi County, accounting for 7.49% of Kizilsu Autonomous Prefecture's population. Of that, minority population of 40,121, accounting for 89.84%, and Han population of 4,535, accounting for 10.16%. The main minorities are Kyrgyz and Uyghur in the county. The Kyrgyz population was 38,765, accounting for 86.81%, and Uyghurs of 1,193, accounting for 2.67%. There were Hui people of 80, Kazakhs of 39 and others of 44.

Administrative divisions

The county was divided into a town and five townships, and six communities and 25 villages. *

(), five communities and three villages. * Kulansarak Township (), five villages; * Saparbay Township (), three villages; * Somtax Township (), four villages; * Karaqi Township (), a community and three villages; * Karabulak Township (), seven villages.

Tourism

* Kyrgyz Non-material Cultural Town of Akqi County: Located in the western section of ''Jolangqi New Town'' (), the ''Kyrgyz Non-material Cultural Town'' () is a Kyrgyz folk culture village with an area of 1.5 sq kilomiters, it is a destination for Kyrgyz folk culture, consisting of Manas culture, falcon culture, nomadism, kumz string instrument, Kyrgyz felt show and embroider. It is seven kilometers away from the old town of Akqi.

References

{{authority control County-level divisions of Xinjiang Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture