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TachengThe official spelling according to (), as the official romanized name, also transliterated from Mongolian as Qoqak, is 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 ...
(1994 est. pop. 56,400) and the administrative seat of
Tacheng Prefecture Tacheng Prefecture is located in Northern Xinjiang, People's Republic of China. It has an area of and a population of 935,600 (2017). It is a part of Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. The prefecture level city of Karamay forms a separate enclave ...
, in northern
Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture ( kk, Іле Қазақ автономиялық облысы) (also as Yili) is an autonomous prefecture for Kazakh people in Northern Xinjiang, China, one of five autonomous prefectures in Xinjiang. Yining Ci ...
,
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 northwes ...
. The city was sometimes called Tarbaghatay or Tarbagatai (Mongolian: 'having
marmot Marmots are large ground squirrels in the genus ''Marmota'', with 15 species living in Asia, Europe, and North America. These herbivores are active during the summer, when they can often be found in groups, but are not seen during the winter, w ...
s') and in European languages as Chuguchak (based on its name in the
Mongolian language Mongolian is the official language of Mongolia and both the most widely spoken and best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residen ...
). The current official Chinese name Tacheng is an abbreviation of "Tarbaghatay City". The current Uyghur name is Qöqäk transliterated from Mongolian. It is located in the
Dzungarian Basin The Junggar Basin () is one of the largest sedimentary basins in Northwest China. It is located in Xinjiang, and enclosed by the Tarbagatai Mountains of Kazakhstan in the northwest, the Altai Mountains of Mongolia in the northeast, and the Heaven ...
, some from the Chinese border with
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbek ...
. For a long time it has been a major center for trade with
Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the f ...
because it is an agricultural hub. Its industries include food processing, textiles, and utilities.


History

In the mid-19th century, Chuguchak was considered the most important commercial center of Western China after Ghulja (
Yining YiningThe official spelling according to (), also known as Ghulja ( ug, غۇلجا) or Qulja ( kk, قۇلجا) and formerly Ningyuan (), is a county-level city in Northwestern Xinjiang, People's Republic of China and the seat of the Ili Kazakh ...
), being an important center of trade between China and Russia, in particular in tea. The city, surrounded by an earth wall, was the residence of two Qing
amban Amban (Manchu and Mongol: ''Amban'', Tibetan: ་''am ben'', , Uighur:''am ben'') is a Manchu language term meaning "high official", corresponding to a number of different official titles in the imperial government of Qing China. For insta ...
s and had a garrison of some 1,000 Chinese soldiers and 1,500 Manchu and Mongol soldiers. Chuguchak suffered harshly in 1865 during the fighting between the
Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...
forces and the Dungan and Uyghur rebels.


Border crossing

The Bakhtu border crossing () into Kazakhstan is located from Tacheng. The checkpoint on the Kazakh side of the border is also known as Bakhty and is located from Makanchi in
East Kazakhstan Province East Kazakhstan Region ( kk, Шығыс Қазақстан облысы, translit=Şyğys Qazaqstan oblysy; russian: Восточно-Казахстанская область, Vostochno-Kazakhstanskaya oblast) is a region of Kazakhstan. It occupi ...
. In April 1962, during the
Ili-Tacheng Incident During Ili-Tacheng Incident, May 29, 1962, about 67,000 Chinese citizens of Xinjiang fled illegally to neighbouring Soviet Union through ports at Khorgas of Ili and Baketu of Tacheng, causing steep decline of the population of borderlands. Since ...
(), over 60,000 Chinese nationals, including around 48,000 Tacheng residents, illegally crossed the Xinjiang–
Kazakh SSR ; kk, Қазақ Советтік Социалистік Республикасы) *1991: Republic of Kazakhstan (russian: Республика Казахстан; kk, Қазақстан Республикасы) , linking_name = the ...
border, leading to massive economic loss in Tacheng; the border crossing closed in August of that year. The crossing re-opened on 20 October 1990, and was deemed a "first-class port of entry" () on 14 March 1994. On 1 July 1995, the crossing opened to use by third nations. File:Kazak-Chinese border near Tacheng.jpg, Kazakh-Chinese border near Tacheng


Administrative divisions

Subdistricts () * Heping Subdistrict (), Dubieke Subdistrict (), Xincheng Subdistrict () Town () * Ergong () Townships () *Karakabak (), Chasha Township (), Abudula Township (), Emil Township () Ethnic Townships () * Ashili Daur Township () Other *Qiaheji Ranch (), Bozidake Farm (), Woyijiayilao Ranch (), Tacheng Prefecture Cattle Ranch (), Ye'ergaiti XPCC 162 Corp (), Akeqiaoke XPCC 163 Corp (), Wulasitai XPCC 164 Corp ()


Climate

Tacheng has a typical Xinjiang cool semi-arid climate ( Köppen ''BSk'') that is almost moist enough to be a hot summer
humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezin ...
(Köppen ''Dfa''), as being on the west side of the Altay Mountains the region receives more winter snowfall than most of Xinjiang.


Transportation

The Karamay–Tacheng Railway (opened on May 30, 2019) connects Tacheng with Baikouquan Station () on the Kuytun–Beitun Railway in
Karamay Karamay is a prefecture-level city in the north of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. The name of the city comes from the Uyghur language and means "black oil", referring to the oil fields near the city. Karamay ...
City. It takes 9 hours from Tacheng to
Ürümqi Ürümqi ( ; also spelled Ürümchi or without umlauts), formerly known as Dihua (also spelled Tihwa), is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far northwest of the People's Republic of China. Ürümqi developed its ...
. Tacheng is also served by the
Tacheng Airport Tacheng Airport () is an airport serving Tacheng, a city in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. Facilities The airport is at an elevation of above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 12/30 which measures Airlines and destinatio ...
with flights to Ürümqi and other cities in
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 northwes ...
.


References

* Khālidī, Qurbanʻali, Allen J. Frank, and Mirkasym Abdulakhatovich Usmanov. ''An Islamic Biographical Dictionary of the Eastern Kazakh Steppe, 1770-1912''. Brill's Inner Asian library, v. 12. Leiden: Brill, 2004. * Light, Nathan
"Qazaqs in the People's Republic of China: The Local Processes of History"
Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana Center on Global Change and World Peace, Occasional Paper No. 22, June 1994. . * Light, Nathan

The Turkish Studies Association Bulletin, 17/2 (1993): 91–102. * Saguchi Toru. "Kazak Pastoralists on the Tarbaghatai Frontier under the Ch'ing." In: Proceedings of the International Conference on China Border Area Studies. Lin En-hsien in Enxian ed. Taipei: National Chengchi University, 1985, pp. 953–996. * Wiens, Herold J. "Change in the Ethnography and Land Use of the Ili Valley and Region, Chinese Turkestan". Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 59, No. 4. (Dec., 1969), pp. 753–775.


External links


Map of the City of Tacheng
*Webpage on the Bakktu border crossing i

{{Authority control Populated places in Xinjiang China–Kazakhstan border crossings Tacheng Prefecture County-level divisions of Xinjiang