Ruoqiang Town (; Uyghur: Чакилик: Qakilik or Charkliq) is 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 ...

in Ruoqiang County, Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture in southeastern

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 northwest ...

, People's Republic of China. Ruoqiang Town is the county seat of the Ruoqiang County, and therefore is the place that less detailed maps label as "Ruoqiang County" or just "Ruoqiang". The postal code is 841 800. There is a two-laned asphalt highway to Korla, north, and west to Hotan. There is no motorable road east to Dunhuang in Gansu, but one can now drive southeast through the

Altun Shan Altyn-Tagh (also Altun Mountains, Altun Shan; , Pinyin: ''A'erjin Shan'', Wade–Giles: ''A-erh-chin Shan;'' Uyghur'':ئالتۇن تاغ'') is a mountain range in Northwestern China that separates the Eastern Tarim Basin from the Tibetan Plate ...

range and then north through part of the Tsaidam to Dunhuang.

Names

Lionel Giles Lionel Giles (29 December 1875 – 22 January 1958) was a British sinologist, writer, and philosopher. Lionel Giles served as assistant curator at the British Museum and Keeper of the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books. He is ...

has recorded the following names for Ruoqiang Town (with his Wade-Giles forms of the Chinese names converted to

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...

): :"''Yixun'', or Yixiu, capital of Shanshan after 77 B.C. (Note: This is an incorrect identification, the capital's name was, in fact, Yüni 扜泥.) :Shanshan Zhen ui :Nafubo (纳缚波) uanzang :Dianhe ang :Shicheng Zhen ang after A.D. 675 :Great Nob ibetan records :City of Lop arco Polo:Charkhlik odern name"

History

During the latter part of the Former Han and throughout the Later Han the capital of the kingdom of Shanshan was known as Yüni 扜泥, which was located near the present town of Ruoqiang.Hill (2015) Vol.I, pp. 93-94. Ruoqiang Town was established in 1984. In 2014, Xincheng and Loulan were established as residential communities.

Geography

Almost adjacent to the town are the Tieganlike

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 ...

, to the east, and Wutamu Township, to the west. They, however, are not administratively part of Ruoqiang Town, but are separate township-level administrative units. Ruoqiang Town was used by numerous notable explorers as a launching point to the Lop Nor archaeological sites, which are located within to the northeast.

Climate

Ruoqiang has a

cold desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''BWk'') with extreme seasonal variation in temperature. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from in January to , and the annual mean is . Precipitation totals only annually, and mostly falls in summer. No month has less than 60% of possible sunshine, and the area receives close to 3,100 hours of bright sunshine annually.

Administrative divisions

As of 2018, the town was made up of five residential communities: Residential Communities * Shengli (), Wenhua (), Tuanjie (), Xincheng (), Loulan ()

Transportation

The town is the junction of China National Highway 315 and China National Highway 218, and is the southern terminus of the latter.

References

{{Reflist

External links

County seats in Xinjiang Populated places in Xinjiang Charklik Township-level divisions of Xinjiang