Tashidian () is a

town 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 ori ...

in the

Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture Bayingolin (; often abbreviated to Bayingol; also as Bayinguoleng) is an autonomous prefecture for Mongol people in the southeast of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Western China. It borders Gansu to the east, Qinghai to the southeast and t ...

, 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 ...

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 ...

. It is located on the Kongque River and national road G218, about 10 km to the north of

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 ...

. The town was founded in an effort to access the natural resources of the area.Anwar Rahman, "Sinicization Beyond the Great Wall: China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region", Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2005, page 17
/ref> It is the site of a coal mine (Tashidian Union Mining Company) and thermoelectric power plant.
/ref> At Tashidian, the Kongque River is spanned by the Tashidian Bridge, a

stone arch An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side. A viaduct (a ...

road

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

with a span of 40m and a total length of 62 meters build in 1962. It is the largest stone arch bridge in Xinjiang The frost period in Tashidian lasts on average 187 days per year. Tashidian was made a part of Korla in 1979 and was given the status of town in March 2001. Around the same time, it had a population of about 20,000."Tashidian becomes a Town" (in Chinese)

References

Populated places in Xinjiang {{Xinjiang-geo-stub