Yengisar County, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (formerly transliterated as Yangi Hissar, from , United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency), also known as Yingjisha County, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency ( zh, s=英吉沙县), 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 ...

Kashgar Prefecture Kashgar, also known as Kashi, is a prefecture located in southwestern Xinjiang, China, located in the Tarim Basin region (roughly the southern half of Xinjiang). It has an area of and 4,496,377 inhabitants at the 2020 census with a population d ...

in southwest

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' ...

, China. It covers an area of . As of the 2002 census, it had a population of 230,000. The county seat is the city of Yengisar, a town well known among the local

Uyghurs The Uyghurs,. alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central Asia and East Asia. The Uyghurs are recognized as the ti ...

for its handmade knives. The finely-tuned skill of knife-making used to be passed down among generations in Yengisar, but it is slowly dying due to China's strict response to deadly clashes in Xinjiang.

History

In 1499,

Ahmad Alaq Sultan Ahmad Khan ( Chagatai and Persian: سلطان احمد خان; b. 1465 – 1504), better known as Ahmad Alaq was the Khan of Eastern Moghulistan ( Turpan Khanate) from 1487 to 1504. He was the second son of Yunus Khan. His mother was S ...

seized

Kashgar Kashgar () or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is a city in the Tarim Basin region of southern Xinjiang, China. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, located near the country's border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. For over 2,000 years, Kashgar ...

and Yengisar from

Mirza Abu Bakr Dughlat Mirza Abu Bakr Dughlat (also Ababakar or Abubekr; died shortly after AH Rajab 920 / Aug-Sept 1514; exact date uncertain; year 1516 indicated by some authors is wrong) was a ruler in South-Western part of present Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region ...

. In 1847 and again in 1857, Kashgar and Yengisar were captured. In 1882, Yengisar Independent Subprefecture () was created. In 1913, Yengisar Independent Subprefecture became Yengisar County. The

Battle of Yangi Hissar The Battle of Yangi Hissar () was a confrontation that took place during the Xinjiang Wars. In April 1934 Gen. Ma Zhancang led the New 36th Division The New 36th Division was a cavalry division in the National Revolutionary Army. It was cre ...

took place here in April 1934, when Ma Zhancang led the

Chinese Muslim Islam has been practiced in China since the 7th century CE.. There are an estimated 17–25 million Muslims in China, less than 2 percent of the total population. Though Hui Muslims are the most numerous group, the greatest concentration of Mu ...

36th division to attack the Turkic Muslim Uighur forces at Yangi Hissar, wiping out the entire Uighur force of 500 and killing the Emir Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra. In 1955, Barin, Jamaterek and Ujme were transferred from Yengisar County to

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 ...

. In September 2017, Horigul Nasir, then 21, was jailed for ten years for allegedly promoting the wearing of head scarves. Her brother Yusupjan Nasir was subsequently demoted from his position as an assistant officer of the Saghan township police office to a security guard at the township's Family Planning Department.

Administrative Divisions

Yengisar County included 4

towns 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 ...

, 10

townships 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 ...

, and two other areas:

Climate

Economy

, there was about 72,700 acres (480,014 '' mu'') of cultivated land in Yengisar.

Demographics

As of 2015, 297,290 of the 302,542 residents of the county 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 ...

, 25,404 were

Han Chinese The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's la ...

and 851 were from other ethnic groups. As of 1999, 97.82% of the population of Yengisar (Yingjisha) County was Uyghur and 1.79% of the population was Han Chinese.

Transportation

Yengisar is served by

China National Highway 315 Constructed in 1954, the Qinghai-Xinjiang Highway, also known as the China National Highway 315 (G315) runs west from Xining, Qinghai towards Kashgar, Xinjiang. It is in length. In 1994 the departments of communication and transportation in Qing ...

and the Southern Xinjiang railway.

Wildlife

The city of Yengisar gave its name to Yangihissar gecko (''Cyrtopodion elongatum'') lizard species, which occurs throughout eastern

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

, including Xinjiang and

Gansu Province Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

Notable persons

Isa Alptekin Isa Yusuf Alptekin (1901 – 17 December 1995) was an Uyghur politician who served in the Chinese Nationalist government and opposed both the First East Turkistan Republic and the Second East Turkestan Republic. When Xinjiang came under Chinese ...

, Uyghur nationalist * Erkin Alptekin, 1st President of the World Uyghur Congress * Arken Imirbaki *

Yulbars Khan Yulbars Khan (, (يولبارس خان), 'Tiger'; or ; 13 August 1889 – 27 July 1971), courtesy name Jingfu (景福), was a Uyghur chieftain and Kuomintang general during the Chinese Civil War. He entered the service in the Kumul Khanate of ...

Gallery

File:KKH.png, Map of the

Karakoram Highway The Karakoram Highway (, ), also known as the KKH, National Highway 35 (), N-35, and the ChinaPakistan Friendship Highway, is a National Highways of Pakistan, national highway which extends from Hasan Abdal in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab p ...

including Yengisar File:NJ-43-7 Ying-Chi-Sha, China.jpg, Map including Yengisar (labeled as YING-CHI-SHA) ( ACIC, 1969) File:STANFORD(1917) p61 PLATE19. SINKIANG (14597194848).jpg, Map including Yengisar (labeled as Yangihissar) (1917) File:Txu-oclc-6654394-nj-43-5th-ed.jpg, Map including Yengisar (labeled as YING-CHI-SHA (YANGI HISSAR)) and surrounding region from the

International Map of the World The International Map of the World (IMW; also the Millionth Map of the World, after its scale of 1:1000000) was a project to create a complete map of the world according to internationally agreed standards. It was first proposed by the German g ...

(

AMS AMS or Ams may refer to: Organizations Companies * Alenia Marconi Systems * American Management Systems * AMS (Advanced Music Systems) * ams AG, semiconductor manufacturer * AMS Pictures * Auxiliary Medical Services Educational institutions ...

, 1966) File:Operational Navigation Chart G-7, 6th edition.jpg, From the Operational Navigation Chart; map including Yengisar (Ying-chi-sha) ( DMA, 1980) File:Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 g-7a.jpg, Map including Yengisar (Ying-chi-sha) ( DMA, 1984) File:Yengisar Knife Factory.jpg, Yengisar Knife Factory File:抵达英吉沙县.jpg, Yengisar

File:英吉沙街景 - Streetview of Yengisar County - 2015.04 - panoramio.jpg

Notes

References

{{Authority control County-level divisions of Xinjiang Populated places along the Silk Road Kashgar Prefecture