Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County
(;
Xibe: , Cabcal Sibe beye dasangga siyan, also transliterated as ''Chapchal'', ug, چاپچال شىبە ئاپتونوم يېزىسى; kk, شاپشال سىبە اۆتونوميالى اۋدانى) in
Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in Northern
Xinjiang, is the only
Xibe autonomous county of the
People's Republic of China, bordering Kazakhstan's
Almaty Region
Almaty Region ( kk, Алматы облысы, Almaty oblysy; russian: Алматинская область, Almatinskaya oblast) is a region in Kazakhstan, located in the southeastern part of the country. Its capital, from 1997 to 2022 was the ...
to the west. It has an area of 4,430 square kilometers and a population 160,000 (2000). ''Qapqal'' means "the granary" in the
Xibe language.
Subdivisions
The Xibe, sent to garrison the area by the
Qing dynasty, were divided into eight ''niru'' (companies); each ''niru'' established a settlement. The settlements are thus simply referred to as "First ''Niru''" through "Eighth ''Niru''", with the exception of the settlement established by the Sixth, which came to be known as Qapqal, thus giving the county its name.
Climate
Media
The county has one
Xibe language newspaper, the ''
Qapqal News''. A television station broadcasts a few programmes in Xibe as well each month, with
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
, Uyghur and Kazakh language content for the rest of the time.
References
External links
County info page at an
Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture info site
Autonomous counties of the People's Republic of China
Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture
Sibe people
{{Xinjiang-geo-stub