Awat County, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency () is a county in

Aksu Prefecture Aksu PrefectureThe official spelling according to is located in mid-Western Xinjiang, People's Republic of China. It has an area of and 2.37 million inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 535,657 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made up of A ...

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 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 ...

. Awat County is located on the southern foot of the

Tian Shan The Tian Shan,, , otk, 𐰴𐰣 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, , tr, Tanrı Dağı, mn, Тэнгэр уул, , ug, تەڭرىتاغ, , , kk, Тәңіртауы / Алатау, , , ky, Теңир-Тоо / Ала-Тоо, , , uz, Tyan-Shan / Tangritog‘ ...

mountain range and on the northern edge of the

Taklamakan Desert The Taklimakan or Taklamakan Desert (; zh, s=塔克拉玛干沙漠, p=Tǎkèlāmǎgān Shāmò, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Такәламаган Шамә; ug, تەكلىماكان قۇملۇقى, Täklimakan qumluqi; also spelled Taklimakan and Te ...

History

In 1930, Awat County was established. On January 23, 2013, of territory was transferred from Awat County to Aral city. In a 2018 report from ''

Radio Free Asia Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a United States government-funded private non-profit news service that broadcasts radio programs and publishes online news, information, and commentary for its audiences in Asia. The service, which provides editoriall ...

'', Awat County was said to have three re-education camps. An RFA listener provided a copy of a "confidentiality agreement" requiring re-education camp detainees to not discuss the workings of the camps and said local residents were instructed to tell members of re-education camp inspection teams visiting No. 2 Re-education Camp, which had transferred thousands detainees and removed barbed wire from the perimeter of the camp walls, that there was only one camp in the county. During the

COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China The COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). China was the first country to experience an outbreak o ...

, on February 23, 2020, 114 Uyghur workers from Awat County (Awati) were sent to

Jiujiang Jiujiang (), formerly transliterated Kiukiang or Kew Keang, is a prefecture-level city located on the southern shores of the Yangtze River in northwest Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. It is the second-largest prefecture-level city ...

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

to resume work.

Administrative divisions

Awat County is made up of five towns, three townships and one other area: Towns ( / ): * Awat Town (Awati; / ), Besheriq (Baishi'airike; / , formerly ), Ghoruchol (Wuluquele; , United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency / , formerly ), Tamtoghraq (Tamutuogelake; / , formerly / ), Yengierik, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (Ying'airike, Yengieriq; / , formerly / ) Townships ( / ): * Aybagh Township (Ayibage; / ), Dolan Township (Duolang; / ), Baytoghraq Township (Bagetuolake; / ) Other areas: * Aksu Prison ()

Demographics

As of 2015, 217,722 of the 262,842 residents of the county were Uyghur, 42,960 were

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive va ...

, 2,160 were from other ethnic groups. As of 1999, 81.59% of the population of Awat (Awati) County was Uyghur and 17.74% of the population was Han Chinese.

Climate

Economy

A developed irrigation system is in place and agricultural products include wheat, rice, corn and cotton. Sheep are the primary livestock in the county. Industries include coal, construction, food processing, leathermaking and carpetmaking. One quarter of the cotton production in Aksu prefecture comes from the county.

Historical maps

Historical English-language maps including Awat: File:STANFORD(1917) p61 PLATE19. SINKIANG (14597194848).jpg, Map including Awat (1917) File:A-k`o-su NK-44 (1950) - panoramio.jpg, Map including Awat (labeled as A-wa-t'i (Abad)) and surrounding region from the

International Map of the World The International Map of the World or IMW (also called the Millionth Map of the World, after its scale of 1:1 000 000) was a project to create a complete map of the world according to internationally agreed standards. It was first proposed by th ...

(

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 * A ...

, 1950) File:Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 f-6c.jpg, Map including Awat ( DMA, 1981) File:Operational Navigation Chart F-6, 6th edition.jpg, From the Operational Navigation Chart; map including Awat (labeled as A-wa-t'i (Awat)) ( DMA, 1985)

Notes

References

County-level divisions of Xinjiang Aksu Prefecture {{Xinjiang-geo-stub