Pilal (; from Mandarin Chinese Pilale, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency or ) is a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

Akto County Akto County (also known as Aqtu, Aktu, or Aketao; zh, c=阿克陶县, p=Ākètáo Xiàn) is a county in Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. The county borders Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and has five ...

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC: previously 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 of the country at the crossroads ...

, China. Located in the west of the northeastern part of the county, the township covers an area of 186 square kilometers with a population of 46,981 (as of 2015). It has 22 administrative villages and a farm under its jurisdiction. Its seat is at ''Pilal Village'' ().

Name

The name of Piral is from

Uighur language Uyghur or Uighur (; , , or , , ), formerly known as Turki or Eastern Turki, is a Turkic languages, Turkic language with 8 to 13 million speakers (), spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western ...

, that evolved from the word "pul-al", meaning "paying" or "pay money" (). The place was named Pilal because there used to be a market in this place 270 years ago (about 1750s).

History

In 1958, Pilal Commune was established (). In 1967 during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

, Pilal Commune was renamed Hongqi Commune (literally ' Red Flag Commune'; ). In 1984, the commune became Pilal Township. In September 2017, it was reported that a policewoman from Pilal had claimed that "several thousand detainees" were in the

Xinjiang internment camps The Xinjiang internment camps, officially called vocational education and training centers by the government of the People's Republic of China, are internment camps operated by the government of Xinjiang and the Chinese Communist Party P ...

system in Akto County, saying the facilities were "closed schools" where authorities keep internees "detained day and night, and they continuously receive political and ideological education." She further commented that, "A few people are released after two or three months. But most detainees are sent to the camps indefinitely."

Geography and resources

The township of Pilal is located between 75°45′- 76°01′ east longitude and 38°08′- 39°16′ north latitude and in the alluvial plain of Gez River to the northwest of the county seat. It is bordered by Tortayi Farm to the east, by

Barin Township Barin Township (), also spelled Baren Township (Sourced to the ''Xinjiang Public Security Gazette'' (), pp 790–795) ( zh, s=巴仁乡), is a township of Akto County (Aketao), Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture (Kezilesu), Xinjiang Uygur Autono ...

, Akto Town and Ujme Township to the south, by Buraksu Township of

Shufu County Shufu County, also transliterated from Uyghur as Konaxahar County or Konasheher County, Kona Sheher County, is a county in Kashgar Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. It contains an area of . According to the 2002 census, it ha ...

to the west, by the 41st Regiment () of the

XPCC The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (新疆生产建设兵团; abbreviated as 新疆兵团, or XPCC in English), also known as ''Bingtuan'', trading with the external name China Xinjian Group, is a state-owned enterprise and parami ...

across Yuepuhu River () to the north. Its maximum distance is 24 kilometers from west to east and 11 kilometers from north to south. It has an area of 186 square kilometers with an area of 6 118 hectares of arable land. The distance between the seat of the township and the county seat is 11 kilometers. The township has a temperate continental

arid 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 ...

with a long frost-free period. Its annual average temperature is 12 °C, the average temperature in January is -7.4 °C, and the average temperature in July is 24.9 °C. Its

terrain Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...

is flat with sufficient water source. It is rich in

mineral resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest, and cultural value. ...

s, mainly

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

and

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

. The soil is fertile, part of which are silt and salt soil. The natural conditions for developing agriculture are very advantageous. Pilal Township has a long history of planting

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

. It is known as the “Plateau Rice land” () and is the main rice producing area in Akto County.

Administrative divisions

The township has 22 administration villages and a farm under its jurisdiction. ;22 administration villages: * Aqmechit (Unity) Village (Akemeiqitecun (Tuanjiecun)) (, , ) * Aqtichi Village (Aktiqicun), United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (, , ) ** * ''Aqto'' Village (Aketucun), United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (, , ) ** * Beshterek Village (Baishitierekecun) (, , ) * Charbagh Village (Qia'erbagecun) (, , ) * Chongbash Village (Qiongbashi; , , ) * Dondura Village (Dundourecun) (, , ) * Hoyla'aldi Village (Huoyila'aledicun) (, , ) * Inaq Village (Yinakecun) (, , ) * Kosila Village (Kuosalacun) (, , ) * Parach Village (Palaqicun) (, , ) * Pilal Village (Pilalecun) (, , ) * Qarasu Village (Kalasucun) (, , ) * Suluq Village (Sulukecun), United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (, , ) ** * Tazliq Village (Tazilekecun) (, , ) * Toghraq Village (Tuogelakecun) (, , ) * Tughchi Village (Tuogeqicun) (, , ) * Uzunla Village (Wuzunlacun) (, , ) * Yaylighan Village (Yiyeleigancun) (, , ) * Yengi'arpa Village (Ying'a'erpacun) (, , ) * Yengibagh Village (Yingbagecun) (, , ) * Yikchile Village (Yikeqilaicun) (, , ) ; a farm * Qingnian Farm ( / , , ) ;

Unincorporated village An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

s * Qarliq (, , )

Demographics

, 93.1% of the residents of Pilal were

Uyghur Uyghur may refer to: * Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia (West China) ** Uyghur language, a Turkic language spoken primarily by the Uyghurs *** Old Uyghur language, a different Turkic language spoken in the Uyghur K ...

Economy

Water resources are plentiful.

Japonica rice Japonica rice (''Oryza sativa'' subsp. ''japonica''), sometimes called sinica rice, is one of the two major domestic types of Asian rice varieties. Japonica rice is extensively cultivated and consumed in East Asia and Italy, whereas in most ot ...

is produced in abundance and Pilal is the main rice producing area of Akto County.

References

{{Authority control Township-level divisions of Akto County