Bayingolin (; often abbreviated to Bayingol; also as Bayinguoleng) is an

autonomous prefecture Autonomous prefectures () are one type of autonomous administrative divisions of China, existing at the prefectural level, with either ethnic minorities forming over 50% of the population or being the historic home of significant minorities. A ...

for

Mongol people The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member of ...

in the southeast of

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 ...

Western China Western China (, or rarely ) is the west of China. In the definition of the Chinese government, Western China covers one municipality ( Chongqing), six provinces (Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai), and three autonomous re ...

. It borders Gansu to the east,

Qinghai Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...

to the southeast and the

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a Provinces of China, province-level Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China in Southwest China. I ...

to the south. It is the largest

prefecture-level division The administrative divisions of China have consisted of several levels since ancient times, due to China's large population and geographical area. The constitution of China provides for three levels of government. However in practice, there a ...

nationally, with an area of , which is even larger than its neighboring province of Gansu. The prefectural capital is

Korla Korla,The official spelling according to also known as Kurla, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency or from Mandarin Chinese as Ku'erle or Kuerle, is the second largest city in Xinjiang. It is a county-level city and the seat of ...

History

In a 2017 announcement from officials in Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, it was proclaimed that "there is a severe threat from international terrorism, and cars have been used as a key means of transport for terrorists as well as constantly serving as weapons. It is therefore necessary to monitor and track all vehicles in the prefecture."

Demographics

According to the 2000

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

, Bayingolin has 1,056,970 inhabitants (population density: 2.28 per km²). As of 2015, 826,063 of the 1,393,812 residents of the county 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 ...

, 440,283 were Uyghur, 64,979 were

Hui The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...

and 50,091 were

Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...

Ethnic groups in Bayingolin

When Bayingolin was established in 1954, Mongols comprised 35% of the prefecture's population. Due to development needs and migration, the Han population increased from 1,682 in the region of Bayingolin in 1947 to over 660,000 in 2004. ;Population by ethnicity

Subdivisions

Bayin'gholin directly controls one

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 ...

, seven

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

and one

autonomous county Autonomous counties () and autonomous banners () are county-level autonomous administrative divisions of China. The two are essentially identical except in name. There are 117 autonomous counties and three autonomous banners. The latter are fo ...

Notable persons

* Mihrigul Tursun

References

External links

Government website of Bayin'gholin
(in Simplified Chinese)
Government website of Bayin'gholin
(in Mongolian)
Government website of Bayin'gholin
(in Uyghur) {{Authority control Autonomous prefectures of the People's Republic of China Prefecture-level divisions of Xinjiang