Qinggil County ( Uyghur), also Chinggil County, Qinghe County, is a county of Altay Prefecture in northeastern

Xinjiang 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, bordering

Bayan-Ölgii Province Bayan-Ölgii ( mn, Баян-Өлгий, ; xal, Байн-Өлгий, ; kk, Бай-Өлке / Bai-Ölke, ; "Rich region") is the westernmost of the 21 aimags (provinces) of Mongolia. The country's only Muslim and Kazakh-majority aimag, it was ...

and Khovd Province in

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

to the east. It has an area of with a population of 60,000. Qinghe was the site of a meteorite impact in 1898 and a Mongolian–Chinese border clash in the spring of 1944.

Name

Qinggil County is named for the Qinggil River (青格里河), a tributary of the

Ulungur River The Ulungur River / Urungu River or Urungu ( mn, Өрөнгө гол, translit=Öröngö Gol, zh, c=乌伦古河, p=Wūlúngǔ hé), in its upper reaches in Mongolia known as the Bulgan River ( mn, Булган гол), is a river of China and M ...

. 'Qinggil' is from Mongolian and means 'beautiful and crystal clear'.

History

In 1941/4, Qinggil County was established. In 2012, Araltobe Township was made a town.

Administrative divisions

Town (镇 / بازارلىق‎ / قالاشىع‎) * Qinggil Town (青河镇 Qinghe / چىڭگىل بازىرى / شىڭگىل قالاشىعى ), Takskhin Town (塔克什肯镇 Takeshiken / تاشقىن بازىرى / Тайкешкен تايكەشكەن قالاشىعى ), Araltobe Town ( 阿热勒托别镇 Areletuobie / ئارالتۆپە بازىرى / Аралтөбе ارالتوبە قالاشىعى), Agedala Town (阿格达拉镇 / ئاقدالا بازىرى / اقدالا قالاشىعى), Aral Town ( Arele / ئارال بازىرى / Арал ارال قالاشىعى ) Township (乡 / يېزا / اۋىل) * Sartogay Township ( 萨尔托海乡 Sa'ertuohai / سارتوقاي يېزىسى / Сарытоғай болысы سارىتوعاي اۋىلى ), Qagan Hol Township (болысы 查干郭勒乡, Chaganguole /چاغانغۇل يېزىسى / Шағанғол شاعانعول اۋىلى), Agax Obo Township (阿尕什敖包乡 Agashi'aobao / ئاغاش ئوبا يېزىسى / Ағашоба болысы اعاشوبا اۋىلى) Military Base (兵团单位) * Qinghe Farm (青河农场)

Climate

Economy

Qinggil County has forests as well as coal and

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

. Industries include mining, livestock product processing, wool-spinning, leather-making and others. Animal husbandry is common.

Demographics

, 76.47% of the residents of the county were Kazakh, 18.27% 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 ...

, and 5.26% were from other ethnic groups. As of 2015, 50,091 of the 65,290 residents of the county were Kazakh, 11,892 were

and 3,307 were from other ethnic groups. As of 1997, 75.2% of the population of Qinggil County was Kazakh.

Wildlife

The Sino-Mongolian beaver, ''Castor fiber birulai'', is found only in the basin of the Ulungur River. The population is considered endangered. The Bulgan Beaver Nature Reserve (; ) has been established on the Bulgan River (a tributary of the Ulungur River) in Qinggil (Qinghe) County in 1980 to protect the creatures.

References

External links

*
Official website of Qinggil County government
County-level divisions of Xinjiang Altay Prefecture {{Xinjiang-geo-stub