Alashankou is a border city in

Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture Bortala ( mn, Бортал, Mountain:''brown steppe'', ) is an autonomous prefecture for Mongols in China, Mongol people in the northern middle of Xinjiang, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Western China. It has an area of . Bole, Xinjiang, Bo ...

Xinjiang Uyghur 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 a

port of entry In general, a port of entry (POE) is a place where one may lawfully enter a country. It typically has border security staff and facilities to check passports and visas and to inspect luggage to assure that contraband is not imported. Intern ...

by both railroad and highway from

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental coun ...

as part of the Eurasian Land Bridge.

Overview

The city is named after the Dzungarian Gate (''Alashankou'' in Chinese), a pass connecting the two countries through the

Dzungarian Alatau The Dzungarian Alatau ( mn, Зүүнгарын Алатау, ''Züüngaryn Alatau''; ; kk, Жетісу Алатауы, ''Jetısu Alatauy''; russian: Джунгарский Алатау, ''Dzhungarskiy Alatau'') is a mountain range that lies on t ...

mountains. West of the pass, the port of entry on the Kazakhstan side is Dostyk. Alashankou is from Bole, from

Ürümqi Ürümqi ( ; also spelled Ürümchi or without Umlaut (diacritic), umlauts), formerly known as Dihua (also spelled Tihwa), is the capital of the Xinjiang, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far Northwest China, northwest of the Peopl ...

, and from

Almaty Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to 1936 as an autonomous republic as part of ...

. The weather in Alashankou is harsh. Alashankou is one of China's national first-class ports of entry. The volume of imports and exports passing through Alashankou accounts for 90% of the total for all of Xinjiang. Since 2010, it has surpassed Manzhouli,

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 ...

to become the busiest land port-of-entry in China. Formerly a township-level port commission under the administration of Bole City, Alashankou was upgraded to a

county-level city A county-level municipality (), county-level city or county city, formerly known as prefecture-controlled city (1949–1970: ; 1970–1983: ), is a county-level administrative division of the People's Republic of China. County-level ...

in December 2012. The city governs an area of , including of built-up area, which is divided into Alatao and Aibihu subdistricts. It has a permanent population of 10,000 and a floating population of 30,000.

Transport

The agreement between the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and the China to connect Kazakhstan with Western China by rail was achieved in 1954. On the Soviet side, the railway reached the border town of Druzhba (Dostyk) in 1959. On the Chinese side, however, the westward construction of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang railway was stopped once it reached

in 1962. Due to the

Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Le ...

, the railway link was not completed until September 12, 1990. The highway port of entry was opened in December 1995. The railway networks of the two countries use different gauges (China, like most of Europe, uses the standard gauge of , but Russia uses the broader gauge of ), so there are breaks of gauge. It is proposed to build a standard gauge transcontinental railway to link Europe and China to bypass these two breaks of gauge. This project was signed in 2004. On July 10, 2010, Bole Alashankou Airport was opened with scheduled flights to Ürümqi.

Administrative divisions

*Alataw Subdistrict () *Ebinur Subdistrict ()

Climate

References

External links