Minqin 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 ...
of
Gansu
Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province.
The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibe ...
province, the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
. It is under the jurisdiction of
Wuwei City. Its postal code is 733300, and its population in 1999 was 281,826 people.
In older literature, today's Minqin is referred to as Zhenfan ().
[ According to ]Pyotr Kozlov
Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov (russian: Пётр Кузьми́ч Козло́в; 3 October 1863 in Dukhovshchina – 26 September 1935 in Peterhof) was a Russian and Soviet traveller and explorer who continued the studies of Nikolai Przhevalsky in ...
, the Mongol name for the city was Sogo Khoto.
Geographically, Minqin county occupies one of Gansu's panhandle
A salient (also known as a panhandle or bootheel) is an elongated protrusion of a geopolitical entity, such as a subnational entity or a sovereign state.
While similar to a peninsula in shape, a salient is most often not surrounded by water on ...
s, bordering in the north, east, and southeast on the Alashan League of Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
.
History
Historically, Chinese agricultural settlement in the area was made possible by the Shiyang River, flowing from the Qilian Mountains
The Qilian Mountains (, also romanized as Tsilien; Mongghul: Chileb), together with the Altyn-Tagh (Altun Shan) also known as Nan Shan (, literally "Southern Mountains"), as it is to the south of Hexi Corridor, is a northern outlier of the Kunlu ...
.[Will the Desert Claim Minqin?](_blank)
/ref> However, the livelihood of Chinese farmers here was often precarious;
in the 1920s it was considered as somewhat of a regular famine district.Owen Lattimore
Owen Lattimore (July 29, 1900 – May 31, 1989) was an American Orientalist and writer. He was an influential scholar of China and Central Asia, especially Mongolia. Although he never earned a college degree, in the 1930s he was editor of ''Pacif ...
, ''The Desert Road to Turkestan''. London, Methuen, 1928.Xinjiang
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 northwes ...
. For example, as of 1926, the main population of the small oasis of Santanghu (now, officially, Santanghu () in what's today Barkol Kazakh Autonomous County
Barkol Kazakh Autonomous County (sometimes Barkul or Balikul in English) is part of Hami Prefecture in Xinjiang and has an area of . It forms part of the China–Mongolia border (bordering the Mongolian provinces of Khovd and Govi-Altai) on the c ...
of Xinjiang were migrants from Minqin (Zhenfan) and their descendants.[Lattimore (1928), p. 274]
By the late 20th century, the environmental situation in the Minqin area deteriorated, as smaller amounts of the Shiyang River water reached the area, due to the increased irrigation of use of it upstream
Upstream may refer to:
* Upstream (bioprocess)
* ''Upstream'' (film), a 1927 film by John Ford
* Upstream (networking)
* ''Upstream'' (newspaper), a newspaper covering the oil and gas industry
* Upstream (petroleum industry)
* Upstream (software ...
. Ground water levels fell, and desertification became a serious threat.
Climate
Administrative divisions
Minqin County is divided to 18 towns.
See also
* List of administrative divisions of Gansu
Gansu, a province of the People's Republic of China, is made up of the following administrative divisions.
Administrative divisions
These administrative divisions are explained in greater detail at Administrative divisions of the People's Rep ...
References
Official website (Chinese)
{{authority control
Minqin County
Minqin County () is a county of Gansu province, the People's Republic of China. It is under the jurisdiction of Wuwei City. Its postal code is 733300, and its population in 1999 was 281,826 people.
In older literature, today's Minqin is referr ...
Wuwei, Gansu