|
Wakhjir Pass
The Wakhjir Pass, Ludwig W. Adamec. Historical and political gazetteer of Afghanistan Vol. 1. Badakhshan Province and northeastern Afghanistan. Graz : Akad. Druck- und Verl.-Anst., 1972.p. 185. also spelled Vakhjir Pass, is a mountain pass on the Afghanistan–China border, between the Hindu Kush and Pamir Mountains at the eastern end of the Wakhan Corridor. It is the only potentially navigable pass between Afghanistan and China in the modern era. It links the Wakhan District of Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan with the Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County in Xinjiang, China, at an altitude of . As of 2025, the pass has no official border crossing point. With a difference of 3.5 hours, the Afghanistan–China border has the sharpest official change of clocks of any international frontier ( UTC+04:30 in Afghanistan to UTC+08:00, in China). China refers to the pass as ''South Wakhjir Pass'' (), as there is a northern pass on the Chinese side. Overview There is no road a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aurel Stein
Sir Marc Aurel Stein, (; 26 November 1862 – 26 October 1943) was a Hungarian-born British archaeologist, primarily known for his explorations and archaeological discoveries in Central Asia. He was also a professor at Indian universities. Stein was also an ethnographer, geographer, linguist and surveyor. His collection of books and manuscripts bought from Dunhuang caves is important for the study of the history of Central Asia and the art and literature of Buddhism. He wrote several volumes on his expeditions and discoveries which include ''Ancient Khotan'', ''Serindia'' and ''Innermost Asia''. Early life Stein was born to Náthán Stein and Anna Hirschler, a Jewish couple residing in Budapest in the Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire. His parents and his sister retained their Jewish faith but Stein and his brother, Ernst Eduard, were baptised as Lutherans. At home the family spoke German and Hungarian, Stein graduated from a secondary school in Budapest before going on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Time In China
The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08:00, where Beijing is located, even though the country spans five geographical time zones. It is the largest sovereign nation in the world that officially observes only one time zone. The nationwide standardized time is named Beijing Time (BJT; ) domestically and China Standard Time (CST) internationally. Daylight saving time has not been observed since 1991. China Standard Time (UTC+8) is consistent across Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. It is also equivalent with Taiwan, Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, most of Mongolia, Malaysia, Irkutsk Time of Russia, Western Australia, and Central Indonesia. History In the 1870s, the Shanghai Xujiahui Observatory was constructed by a French Catholic missionary. In 1880s officials in Shanghai French Concession started to provide a time announcement service using the Shanghai Mean Solar Time provided by the aforementioned observatory for ships into and out of Sha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yarkant County
Yarkant County,, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also Shache County,, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also transliterated from Uyghur as Yakan County, is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, located on the southern rim of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin. It is one of 11 counties administered under Kashgar Prefecture. The county, usually referred to as Yarkand in English, was the seat of an ancient Buddhist kingdom on the southern branch of the Silk Road and the Yarkand Khanate. The county sits at an altitude of and had a population of . The fertile oasis is fed by the Yarkand River, which flows north down from the Karakorum mountains and passes through the Kunlun Mountains, known historically as the Congling mountains (lit. 'Onion Mountains' - from the abundance of wild onions found there). The oasis now covers , but was likely far more extensive before a period of desiccation affected the region ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Badakhshan
Badakhshan is a historical region comprising the Wakhan Corridor in northeast Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan, and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in China. Badakhshan Province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Much of historic Badakhshan lies within Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in the southeastern part of the country. The music of Badakhshan is an important part of the region's cultural heritage. Name The name "Badakhshan" (, ''Badaxšân''; ; , ''Badakhshon''; ) is derived from the Sasanian official title ''bēdaxš'' or ''badaxš'', which may be from an earlier *pati-axša; the suffix -''ān'' indicates that the country belonged, or had been assigned as a fief, to a person holding the rank of a '' badaxš''. People Badakhshan has a diverse ethnolinguistic and religious community of Badakhshanites. Tajiks and Pamiris are in the majority while a tiny minority of Kyrgyzs, Uzbeks, Hazaras, and Pashtuns are also found in some villages. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clarendon Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books by decree in 1586. It is the second-oldest university press after Cambridge University Press, which was founded in 1534. It is a department of the University of Oxford. It is governed by a group of 15 academics, the Delegates of the Press, appointed by the vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford. The Delegates of the Press are led by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's chief executive and as its major representative on other university bodies. Oxford University Press has had a similar governance structure since the 17th century. The press is located on Walton Street, Oxford, opposite Somerville College, in the inner suburb of Jericho. For the last 400 years, OUP has focused primarily on the publication of pedagogic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bazai Gonbad
Bazai Gonbad or Bozai Gumbaz () is the site of a domed tomb (or gonbad) and nearby settlement of mostly ethnic Kyrgyz herders in the Wakhan District of Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan. It lies in the Little Pamir on the right bank of the Bozai River, near where it joins Wakhjir River to become the Wakhan River. It is part of the Wakhan National Park and protected by the Afghan Armed Forces. Bazai Gonbad is connected by a long unpaved road to Sarhad in the southwest, and about of such road to Wakhjir Pass (Afghanistan–China border) in the east. Construction of the road from Sarhad to Bazai Gonbad and then to the Wakhjir Pass (Afghanistan–China border) in the northeast has started in late 2023. The Chaqmaqtin Lake is about to the northeast of Bozai Gonbad. Foreigners must have an Afghan visa to tour the area. History The territory around Bazai Gonbad was last conquered by Nader Shah and his armies in around 1738. It has been under the control of Afghanistan sin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amu Darya
The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Kush, the Amu Darya is formed by the confluence of the Vakhsh River, Vakhsh and Panj River, Panj rivers, in the Tigrovaya Balka Nature Reserve on the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and flows from there north-westwards into the South Aral Sea, southern remnants of the Aral Sea. In its upper course, the river forms part of Afghanistan's northern border with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. In ancient history, the river was regarded as the boundary of Greater Iran with Turan, which roughly corresponded to present-day Central Asia.B. SpulerĀmū Daryā in Encyclopædia Iranica, online ed., 2009 The Amu Darya has a flow of about 70 cubic kilometres per year on average. Names In classical antiquity, the river was known as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sarhad, Afghanistan
Sarhad, also known as Sarhad-e Broghil or Sarhad-e Wakhan, is a river valley in the Wakhan District of Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan. Sarhad lies at an altitude of on the Wakhan River, at a point where the river broadens into a wide plain. It is inhabited by the native Pamiris, Wakhis and Kyrgyz people of Afghanistan. The valley lies at the end of an unpaved road from Khandud in the west, and just to the north of the Broghil Pass. Construction of the road to Bazai Gonbad and then to the Wakhjir Pass (Afghanistan–China border) in the northeast has started in late 2023. The population of the valley was reported in 2003 at around 548 people. The Sarhad Valley is part of the Wakhan National Park and protected by the Afghan Armed Forces. Climate Sarhadd has a tundra climate (Köppen: ''ET'') with brief, cool summers and long, bitterly cold winters. Economy The entire population of Sarhad is involved in agriculture, transport, trade, and tourism. See also *Geography of A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chalachigu Valley
__NOTOC__ Karachukar Valley or Chalachigu Valley () is a valley in Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County, Xinjiang, China. It contains the basin of the Karachukar River, a tributary of the Tashkurgan River, and is regarded as part of Taghdumbash Pamir. The valley borders Afghanistan ( Wakhan Corridor or Little Pamir) to the west and northwest, Tajikistan to the north, and Pakistan ( Gojal or upper Hunza) to the south. The name of the valley is from Kyrgyz, meaning "black cave". The valley is part of the Taxkorgan Nature Reserve. The protected Marco Polo sheep is only found in the wild around this area. The region is often referred to by the Chinese as the Chinese portion of the Wakhan Corridor. There is an ethnic Kyrgyz village called Bayik ( or ). The entire Chalachigu Valley is closed to visitors. However, local residents and herders from the area are permitted access. In March 2017, CCTV-7's ''Documentary for Military'' program produced a mini-series covering the nume ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karakoram Highway
The Karakoram Highway (, ), also known as the KKH, National Highway 35 (), N-35, and the ChinaPakistan Friendship Highway, is a National Highways of Pakistan, national highway which extends from Hasan Abdal in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan to the Khunjerab Pass in Gilgit-Baltistan, where it crosses into China and becomes China National Highway 314. The highway connects the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa plus Gilgit-Baltistan with China's Xinjiang, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The highway is a popular tourist attraction and is one of the highest paved roads in the world, passing through the Karakoram mountain range, at at maximum elevation of near Khunjerab Pass. Due to its high elevation and the difficult conditions under which it was constructed, it is often referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World. The highway is also a part of the Asian Highway Network, Asian Highway AH4. History The Karakoram Highway, also known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taghdumbash Pamir
Taghdumbash Pamir ( or historically ) or Taxkorgan Nature Reserve is a '' pamir'' or high valley in the south west of Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County, in Xinjiang, China. It lies to the west of the Karakoram Highway. It is inhabited by Wakhi, Kirghiz and Sarikolis animal herders, who graze yaks and other animals on the grasslands of the Pamir. The name Taghdumbash Pamir is also sometimes applied to the mountain ranges surrounding the Pamir, on the borders of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan with China, straddling the Pamir Mountains along the Sarikol Range, the Hindu Kush, the Mustagh mountains, and the Wakhan. The range divides Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan, Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province in Tajikistan, and Gilgit-Baltistan region in Pakistan. During the Qing dynasty, the Chinese claimed suzerainty over the area but permitted the Mir of Hunza to administer the region in return for a tribute. According to British colonial sources, this arrangement sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jamestown Foundation
The Jamestown Foundation is a Washington, D.C.–based non-partisan defense policy think tank. Founded in 1984 as a platform to support Soviet defectors, its stated mission is to inform and educate policy makers about events and trends, which it regards as being of current strategic importance to the United States. Jamestown publications focus on China, Russia, Eurasia, and global terrorism. Founding and mission The Jamestown Foundation was founded in 1984 after Arkady Shevchenko, the highest-ranking Soviet official ever to defect when he left his position as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, defected in 1978. William Geimer, an American lawyer, had been working closely with Shevchenko, and established the foundation as a vehicle to promote the writings of the former Soviet diplomat and those of Ion Pacepa, a former top Romanian intelligence officer; with the help of the foundation, both defectors published bestselling books.Jamestown FoundationOrigins Centra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
