The location of the geographical centre of Asia (; ; zh, 亚洲地理中心) depends on the definition of the borders of Asia, mainly whether remote islands are included to define the extreme points of Asia, and on the method of calculating the final result. Also on the projection used (radial projection on the plane vs. projection on a geoid), there is no objectively correct way of finding "the centre of Asia". Thus, several places claim to host this hypothetical centre. The first official declaration of the Centre of Asia was made in the 1890s by the British traveller, and calculated to be near the Manor house of Estate of Safyanov in Saldam (modern Tuva, Russia) at . There is a monument commemorating that fact in the estate garden.

Current measurements

China

The Geographical Centre of the Asian Continent ( zh, 亚洲大陆地理中心) is the name of a monument indicating the supposed

geographical centre In geography, the centroid of the two-dimensional shape of a region of the Earth's surface (projected radially to sea level or onto a geoid surface) is known as its geographic centre or geographical centre or (less commonly) gravitational centre. In ...

of the Asian continent. It is located about south-west of

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 ...

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The measurement on which it is based dates to 1992. It was based on calculating the geographical centre of 49

Asian countries This is a list of sovereign states and dependent territories in Asia. It includes sovereign state, fully recognized states, states with limited but substantial international recognition, ''de facto'' states with little or no international recogn ...

, including island states such as

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

(and, reflecting the People's Republic of China's political perspective, counting

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

and

Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...

as separate countries), placing the geographical centre of all these countries at . Before the completion of the monument, the site was marked by a wooden pole stating "Geographic Centre of Asia" (亚洲地理中心). The village Baojia Caozi ( zh, 包家槽子村) that happened to be located at the site where the monument was to be built was relocated, and the new village is now known as the "Heart of Asia" (亚心). The site has a tower labelled "Centre of Asia" which represents 48 countries of

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

. The monument was completed in the late 1990s.

Russia

Obelisk "Center of Asia" (; ) is the name of a monument indicating the supposed geographical centre of the Asian continent. It is located in

Kyzyl Kyzyl ( ) is the capital city of the Republic of Tuva within the Russian Federation. Kyzyl's population is approximately History The city was founded in 1914 as Belotsarsk. It was renamed Hem-Beldir from 1918 to 1926. When the city was the ca ...

Tyva Republic Tuva (; ) or Tyva (; ), officially the Republic of Tyva,; , is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia. Tuva lies at the geographical center of Asia, in southern Siberia. The republic borders the Federal subjects of Russia, federal sub ...

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It is located in the

Tos-Bulak Tos-Bulak is the name of an area of open fields and a mineral spring situated at , some 9 km south of Kyzyl, Tyva. It is the location of the Naadym festival (15 August), the Tyvan Republic Day, where various competitions such as horseriding and ...

area south of the city, located about to the north-to-northeast of the Ürümqi monument at . The monument was completed in 1968.

References

{{coord, 52, 29, 00, N, 96, 05, 09, E

Monuments and memorials in Russia Monuments and memorials in China Geography of Asia Kyzyl