Akqi County (, , zh, s=阿合奇县) is a
county
A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
in
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. It is under the administration of the
Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture. The county has a
town
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city.
The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
and five
townships, six
communities
A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place (geography), place, set of Norm (social), norms, culture, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Ide ...
and 25
villages 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 parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
is
Akqi Town. The county has a population of about 46,000 (as of 2018)
with main
ethnic groups of
Kyrgyz,
Han and
Uyghur peoples.
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 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 with a border line of . The county seat is away from the regional capital
Ürümqi
Ürümqi, , is the capital of the Xinjiang, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwestern China. With a census population of 4 million in 2020, Ürümqi is the second-largest city in China's northwestern interior after Xi'an, also the ...
by road.
History
The county of Akqi was part of the territory of ''Weitou State'' (), one of ''36 States of the
Western Regions'' (), and part of
Protectorate of the Western Regions (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
Autonomous prefectures ( zh, c=自治州, p=zìzhìzhōu) are one type of autonomous administrative divisions of China, autonomous administrative division in China, existing at the Prefecture-level divisions of China, prefectural level, with eith ...
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
Kyrgyz Republic 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
The Hui people are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Islam in China, Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the Northwest China, northwestern provinces and in the Zhongy ...
of 80,
Kazakhs of 39 and others of 44.
Administrative divisions
The county was divided into a town and five townships.
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.
Notes
References
{{authority control
County-level divisions of Xinjiang
Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture