Tacheng

TachengThe official spelling according to (), also known as Tarbagatay, Chuguchak or Qoqek, is a county-level city and the administrative seat of Tacheng Prefecture, in northern Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang. The Chinese name "Tacheng" is an abbreviation of "Tarbagatay City", a reference to the Tarbagatay Mountains. Tacheng is located in the Dzungarian Basin, some from the Chinese border with Kazakhstan. For a long time it has been a major center for trade with Central Asia because it is an agricultural hub. Its industries include food processing, textiles, and utilities.

History

In the mid-19th century, Chuguchak was considered the most important commercial center of Western China after Ghulja (Yining), being an important center of trade between China and Russia, in particular in tea. The city, surrounded by an earth wall, was the residence of two Qing ambans and had a garrison of some 1,000 Chinese soldiers and 1,500 Manchu and Mongol soldiers.

Chuguchak suffered harshly in 1865 during the fighting between the Qing forces and the Dungan and Hui rebels.

Tacheng is the site of an internment camp for Turkic Muslims such as the Uyghurs and Kazakhs; it is one of many such camps in Xinjiang. The Chinese government maintains that they are "vocational education centers" for citizens to learn trade skills and the Chinese language, and that the camp was shut down in 2019. However, satellite imagery shows that the camp expanded five-fold later that year.

Border crossing

The Baktu border crossing () into Kazakhstan is located from Tacheng. The checkpoint on the Kazakh side of the border is also known as Bakhty and is located from Makanchi in East Kazakhstan Province. In April 1962, during the Yi–Ta incident, over 60,000 Chinese citizens, including around 48,000 Tacheng residents, crossed the Xinjiang– Kazakh SSR border, leading to massive economic loss in Tacheng; the border crossing closed in August of that year. The crossing re-opened on 20 October 1990, and was deemed a "first-class port of entry" () on 14 March 1994. On 1 July 1995, the crossing opened to use by third nations.

File:Kazak-Chinese border near Tacheng.jpg, Kazakh-Chinese border near Tacheng

Demographics

Administrative divisions

Tacheng is divided into 3 subdistricts, 2 towns, 3 townships, and 1 ethnic township,

* Others
**Bozdaq Farm (博孜达克农场, , )
**Tacheng Prefectural Pasture (塔城地区种牛场, , )
**Woyijiayilao Pasture (窝依加依劳牧场, , )
**XPCC 164th Regiment (兵团一六四团, , )

Climate

Tacheng has a typical Xinjiang cool semi-arid climate (Köppen ''BSk'') that is almost moist enough to be a hot summer humid continental climate (Köppen ''Dfa''), as being on the west side of the Altay Mountains the region receives more winter snowfall than most of Xinjiang.

Transportation

The Karamay–Tacheng Railway (opened on May 30, 2019) connects Tacheng with Baikouquan Station () on the Kuytun–Beitun Railway in Karamay City. It takes 9 hours from Tacheng to Ürümqi.

Tacheng is also served by the Tacheng Qianquan Airport with flights to Ürümqi and other cities in Xinjiang.

Notable people

* Li Jingliang (born 1988), Chinese mixed martial artist, currently competes in the welterweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
* Zhang Yangyang (born 1991), Chinese pop singer.

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* Khālidī, Qurbanʻali, Allen J. Frank, and Mirkasym Abdulakhatovich Usmanov. ''An Islamic Biographical Dictionary of the Eastern Kazakh Steppe, 1770-1912''. Brill's Inner Asian library, v. 12. Leiden: Brill, 2004.
* Light, Nathan
"Qazaqs in the People's Republic of China: The Local Processes of History"
Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana Center on Global Change and World Peace, Occasional Paper No. 22, June 1994. .
* Light, Nathan

The Turkish Studies Association Bulletin, 17/2 (1993): 91–102.
* Saguchi Toru. "Kazak Pastoralists on the Tarbaghatai Frontier under the Ch'ing." In: Proceedings of the International Conference on China Border Area Studies. Lin En-hsien in Enxian ed. Taipei: National Chengchi University, 1985, pp. 953–996.
* Wiens, Herold J. "Change in the Ethnography and Land Use of the Ili Valley and Region, Chinese Turkestan". Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 59, No. 4. (Dec., 1969), pp. 753–775.

External links

Map of the City of Tacheng

*Webpage on the Bakktu border crossing i

{{Authority control

Populated places in Xinjiang
China–Kazakhstan border crossings
Tacheng Prefecture
County-level divisions of Xinjiang