Gaochang (; ) is the only

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...

and the seat of 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 ...

city of

Turpan Turpan (also known as Turfan or Tulufan, , ug, تۇرپان) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and a population of 632,000 (2015). Geonyms The original name of the cit ...

, in the

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 ...

of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. Its population was at the end of 2003.

Name

According to the municipal government of

, the district is named after the ancient city of

Gaochang Gaochang (; Old Uyghur: ''Qocho''), also called Khocho, Karakhoja, Qara-hoja, Kara-Khoja or Karahoja (قاراغوجا in Uyghur), was a ruined, ancient oasis city on the northern rim of the inhospitable Taklamakan Desert in present-day Xinj ...

. It was also proposed that the district be named after

Ayding Lake Aydingkol ( Uyghur: , , ), Aydingkul (Mongol) or Ayding () is a lake in the Turpan Depression, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, PR China. At 154 m below sea level, it is the lowest point in China. This lake is now totally dried, and very mudd ...

History

The district was created on 12 April 2015 after

was upgraded from 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 county-level administrative division of the People's Republic of China. County-level ...

into a

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. During the Republican era, many of Chi ...

. The district has the same size and population as the former Turpan county-level city.

Demographics

Subdivisions

Karahoja is divided into 3 subdistricts, 2

towns 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 or ...

, 7

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

and 3 other township-level divisions. * Laocheng Subdistrict (老城街道) * Gaochang Subdistrict (高昌街道) * Putaoguo Subdistrict (葡萄沟街道) * Qiquanhu (七泉湖镇) * Daheyan (大河沿镇) * Yar Township (亚尔乡) * Aidinghu Township (艾丁湖乡) *

Putao Township Putao Township ( my, ပူတာအိုမြို့နယ်) is a township of Putao District in the Kachin State of Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicati ...

(葡萄乡) * Qiatekale Township (恰特喀勒乡) * Erbao Township (二堡乡) * Sanbao Township (三堡乡) * Shengjin Township (胜金乡) * Hongliuhe Horticultural Farm (红柳河园艺场) * Yuanzhong Farm (原种场) * XPCC 221 Regiment (兵团二二一团)

References

Turpan {{Xinjiang-geo-stub