The China Zone |
Xinjiang
is an autonomous region (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) of
the People's Republic of China. It is a large, sparsely populated
area (spanning over 1.6 million sq. km) which takes up about one
sixth of the country's territory. Xinjiang borders the Tibet Autonomous
Region to the south and Qinghai
and Gansu provinces to the southeast, Mongolia to the east, Russia
to the north, and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan,
Pakistan and India to the west. It administers most of Aksai Chin,
a territory formally part of Kashmir over which India
claims sovereignty.
"Xinjiang" or "Ice Jecen" in Manchu, literally means "New Frontier", a name given during the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China. It is home to a number of different ethnic groups, many of them Turkic, the largest of which is the Uyghur people. Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East Turkestan, or Uyghuristan. The
east-west Tien Shan Mountains separate Dzungaria in the north
from the Tarim Basin in the south. Dzungaria is dry steppe.
The Tarim Basin is desert surrounded by oases. In the east is
the Turfan Depression. In the west, the Tien Shan split, forming
the Ili River valley. By the mid-19th century, the Russian Empire was encroaching upon Qing China along its entire northern frontier. The Opium Wars and Taiping and other rebellion's in China proper had severely restricted the dynasty's ability to maintain its garrisons in distant Xinjiang. In 1864 both Chinese Muslims (Hui) and Uyghurs rebelled in Xinjiang cities, following an on-going Chinese Muslim Rebellion in Gansu and Shaanxi provinces further east. Qing control of the region was swept away. In 1865, Yaqub Beg, a warlord from the neighbouring Khanate of Kokand, entered Xinjiang via Kashgar, and conquered nearly all of Xinjiang over the next six years. In 1871, Russia took advantage of the chaotic situation and seized the rich Ili River valley, including Gulja. By then, Qing China held onto only a few strongholds, including Tacheng. Yaqub
Beg's rule lasted until General Zuo Zongtang (also known as
General Tso) reconquered the region between 1875 and 1877 for
Qing China. In 1881, Qing China recovered the Gulja region through
diplomatic negotiations (Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881)).
In 1884, Qing China established Xinjiang ("new frontier")
as a province, formally applying onto it the political system
of China proper. Xinjiang has within its borders the point of land remotest from the sea, the so-called Eurasian pole of inaccessibility (Lat. 46 degrees 16.8 minutes N, Long. 86 degrees 40.2 minutes E) in the Dzoosotoyn Elisen Desert, 1,645 miles (2648 km) from the nearest coastline (straight-line distance). The Tian Shan mountain range marks the Xinjiang-Kyrgyzstan border at the Torugart Pass (3752 m). The Karakorum highway (KKH) links Islamabad, Pakistan with Kashgar over the Khunjerab Pass.
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