Akto Town () is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

Akto County Akto County (also known as Aqtu, Aktu, or Aketao; ) is a Counties of China, county in Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. The county borders Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and has two Towns of Chin ...

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly 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 ...

, China. Located in the northeast of the county, the town covers an area of 136 square kilometers with a population of 21,560 (as of 2017). It has 19

communities A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place (geography), place, Norm (social), norms, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Identity (social science), identity. Communiti ...

and 9

villages A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

under its jurisdiction, its seat is at ''Gongbaitierik'' ().

Name

The name of Akto is from

Kyrgyz language Kyrgyz (; autonym: , tr. ''Kyrgyz tili'', ) is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia. Kyrgyz is the official language of Kyrgyzstan and a significant minority language in the Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture in X ...

, meaning “White Mountain” () and named after the

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

located under a snowy mountain.

Geography

The town of Akto is located in the middle of the alluvial fan of the Kushan River () and its terrain is slowly inclined from the southwest to the northeast. The town is bordered by Pilal Township with the Baishikan Channel () to the north, by Yumai Township to the southeast and by Baren Township with the Qiereke Channel () to the west. Its maximum length is 11 kilometers west to east, the maximum length is 16 kilometers north to south, the total area is 136 square kilometers and the arable land area is 1,618.44 hectares. The town has an average elevation of 1,300 to 1,400 meters. It is a typical temperate continental arid climate with four distinct seasons, dry and less rain, with an average annual temperature of 11.2

°C The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius scale (originally known as the centigrade scale outside Sweden), one of two temperature scales used in the International System of Units (SI), the other being the Kelvin scale. The ...

and a frost-free period of 221 days. Farmland is distributed near urban areas.

Administrative divisions

The town has 19

and 9

under its jurisdiction. ;19

: * Baishanlu Community () * Beijingbeilu Community () * Beijingnanlu Community () * Binghudong Community () * Binghuxi Community () * Gonggerlu Community () * Guangminglu Community () * Hexielu Community () * Kunlunlu Community () * Laocheng Community () * Letaoyuan Community () * Mushitagelu Community () * Pami'erlu Community () * Renminlu Community () * Tuanjielu Community () * Wenhualu Community () * Xingfudonglu Community () * Xingfulu Community () * Youyilu Community () ;9 administration villages: * Aodaerik Village () * Barinerik Village () * Gongbaitierik Village () * Kayiqaerik Village () * Nokuqierik Village () * Qikerterek Village () * Yagiqak Village () * Yangqimahala Village () * Yingqikaierik Village () ;

Unincorporated village An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

s * Ayagmahalla () * Aydingkol ()

References

{{Administrative divisions of Akto County Township-level divisions of Akto County County seats in Xinjiang