Alashankou is a border city in

Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture Bortala ( mn, Бортал, Mountain:''brown steppe'', ) is an autonomous prefecture for Mongol people in the northern middle of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Western China. It has an area of . Bole is its capital. "Boro tala" comes from t ...

Xinjiang Uyghur 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. It is a

port of entry In general, a port of entry (POE) is a place where one may lawfully enter a country. It typically has border security staff and facilities to check passports and visas and to inspect luggage to assure that contraband is not imported. Internati ...

by both railroad and highway from

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

as part of the

Eurasian Land Bridge The Eurasian Land Bridge (), sometimes called the New Silk Road (, ), is the rail transport route for moving freight and passengers overland between Pacific seaports in the Russian Far East and China and seaports in Europe. The route, a transc ...

Overview

The city is named after the

Dzungarian Gate The Dzungarian Gate (or Altai Gap or Altay Gap) is a geographically and historically significant mountain pass between China and Central Asia. It has been described as the "one and only gateway in the mountain-wall which stretches from Manchuria ...

(''Alashankou'' in Chinese), a pass connecting the two countries through the

Dzungarian Alatau The Dzungarian Alatau ( mn, Зүүнгарын Алатау, ''Züüngaryn Alatau''; ; kk, Жетісу Алатауы, ''Jetısu Alatauy''; russian: Джунгарский Алатау, ''Dzhungarskiy Alatau'') is a mountain range that lies on t ...

mountains. West of the pass, the port of entry on the Kazakhstan side is

Dostyk Dostyk ( kk, Достық, ''Dostyq'') or Druzhba (russian: Дружба) is a small town in Kazakhstan's Almaty Region, on the border with Xinjiang, China. It is a port of entry (by highway and railroad) from China. The rail portion serves as ...

. Alashankou is from Bole, from

Ürümqi Ürümqi ( ; also spelled Ürümchi or without umlauts), formerly known as Dihua (also spelled Tihwa), is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far northwest of the People's Republic of China. Ürümqi developed its ...

, and from

Almaty Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to ...

. The weather in Alashankou is harsh. Alashankou is one of China's national first-class ports of entry. The volume of imports and exports passing through Alashankou accounts for 90% of the total for all of Xinjiang. Since 2010, it has surpassed

Manzhouli Manzhouli (; mn, Манжуур хот; ) is a sub-prefectural city located in Hulunbuir prefecture-level city, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. Located on the border with Russia, it is a major land port of entry. It has an area of and ...

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

to become the busiest land port-of-entry in China. Formerly a township-level port commission under the administration of Bole City, Alashankou was upgraded to a

county-level city A county-level municipality (), county-level city or county city, formerly known as prefecture-controlled city (1949–1970: ; 1970–1983: ), is a Administrative divisions of China#County level (3rd), county-level administrative divi ...

in December 2012. The city governs an area of , including of built-up area, which is divided into Alatao and Aibihu subdistricts. It has a permanent population of 10,000 and a floating population of 30,000.

Transport

The agreement between the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and the

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

to connect Kazakhstan with Western China by rail was achieved in 1954. On the Soviet side, the railway reached the border town of Druzhba (Dostyk) in 1959. On the Chinese side, however, the westward construction of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang railway was stopped once it reached

in 1962. Due to the

Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Len ...

, the railway link was not completed until September 12, 1990. The highway port of entry was opened in December 1995. The railway networks of the two countries use different gauges (China, like most of Europe, uses the

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

of , but Russia uses the broader gauge of ), so there are breaks of gauge. It is proposed to build a standard gauge

transcontinental railway A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...

to link Europe and China to bypass these two breaks of gauge. This project was signed in 2004. On July 10, 2010,

Bole Alashankou Airport Bole Alashankou Airport () is an airport serving the cities of Bole and Alashankou in Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture and Shuanghe in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. It is located 18 kilometers east of Bole, 50 kilometers south ...

was opened with scheduled flights to Ürümqi.

Administrative divisions

*Alataw Subdistrict () *Ebinur Subdistrict ()

Climate

References

External links