Huocheng County () as the official romanized name, also transliterated from Uyghur as Korgas County (; ), is situated within 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 ...

and under the administration of the

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 Cit ...

. It is located between

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 ...

and the border city

Khorgas Khorgas, officially known as KorgasThe official spelling according to , (Beijing, '' SinoMaps Press'' 1997); ( zh, s=霍尔果斯, t=霍爾果斯, p=Huò'ěrguǒsī; kk, قورعاس, Qorǵas), also known as ''Chorgos'', ''Gorgos'', ''Horgos ...

, occupying an area of and has a population of 360,000 (2004 estimate). Including the Han and Uyghur nationalities, there are twenty nine ethnic groups living in the county. North of Huocheng County is

Wenquan County Wenquan County as the official romanized name, also transliterated from Mongolian as Arixang County, is a county in the northwest of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is under the administration of the Börtala Mongol Autonomous Prefectur ...

; to the south lies the Ili River. Its Western side is Khorgas City;

lies about to the east.

History

Within Huocheng County lies the important ruined site of ancient Almaliq. The mausoleum of the first khan of

Moghulistan Moghulistan (from fa, , ''Moghulestân'', mn, Моголистан), also called the Moghul Khanate or the Eastern Chagatai Khanate (), was a Mongol breakaway khanate of the Chagatai Khanate and a historical geographic area north of the Ten ...

Tughlugh Timur Tughlugh Timur Khan (also Tughluq Tömür or Tughluk Timur) (1312/13–1363) was the Khan of Moghulistan from c. 1347 and Khan of the whole Chagatai Khanate from c. 1360 until his death. Esen Buqa (a direct descendant of Chagatai Khan) is believe ...

is within the county as well. In the 1760s, nine fortresses were built in the Ili River Basin and four of them were located within the modern Huocheng County. Huiyuan was the headquarter of the

General of Ili The General of Ili ( Officially ), also known in western sources as the Kuldya Military Governor, was a position created during the reign of the Qing Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735-1799) to "pacify" Dzungaria (now part of Xinjiang) and suppress uprising ...

and as such it was the military and administrative center of

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 ...

until the 1860s. Suiding County () was established in 1888 with

Suiding Shuiding (), formerly Suiding (Suiting) () is a town in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China and the county seat of Huocheng County. It is located some to the northwest of Yining, the main city of the pre ...

as county seat. In 1914, the western area of Shuiding County was organized into Khorgas County, later abbreviated to Huocheng County, with Gongchen (

) as county seat. In 1965 Suiding was renamed Shuiding. In 1966, Shuiding County merged into Huocheng County with Shuiding as the county seat of the new Huocheng County. In 2014,

became a county-level city separate from Huocheng County.

Administrative divisions

The county includes five

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 ori ...

and four

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 ...

. Towns: *

Shuiding Shuiding (), formerly Suiding (Suiting) () is a town in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China and the county seat of Huocheng County. It is located some to the northwest of Yining, the main city of the pre ...

/ Süydüng () (the county seat), * Qingshuihe / Chingsixoza (), * Lucaogou / Losigung (), * Huiyuan / Küre (), * Sarbulaq (, ''Sarbulaq'') Townships: * Lengger (), * Sandixoza (), * Sengung (), * Dashigu () There are 5

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 ...

s in Huocheng County, which are as follows: *ئىزاھات: There are 4 Township in Huocheng County, which are as follows:

Climate

Economy

In agriculture, the local population cultivate

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

, corn and other crops including sugar beet,

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

apples An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

, animal husbandry with

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

and

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...

. The main

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...

s extracted in the area include

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

, Iceland

spar SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, ...

and

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

, etc.

Transport

Huocheng is served by

China National Highway 312 China National Highway 312 (312国道), also referred to as Route 312 or The Mother Road, is a key east-west route beginning in Shanghai and ending at Khorgas, Xinjiang in the Ili River valley, on the border with Kazakhstan. In total it spans ...

and the Jinghe-Yining-Khorgas Railway. There is a border crossing into Kazakhstan at

, where the road continues to Zharkent in Panfilov District. The Jinghe–Yining–Khorgas Railway through Huocheng county was completed in 2010, reaching practically to the Kazakhstan border. There are plans to construct a connecting railway line on the Kazakh side, creating China's second railway link to

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, 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 t ...

besides

Alashankou Alashankou is a border city in Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. It is a port of entry by both railroad and highway from Kazakhstan as part of the Eurasian Land Bridge. Overview The city is named a ...

References

External links

Huocheng County information
at the site of

County Map

Thoughts about the history of Yining City and Huocheng County
(the writer's point of view on how the places ''should'' be called) * Henry Lansdell, "Russian Central Asia: Including Kuldja, Bokhara, Khiva and Merv", vol. I
Full text
available at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

; there is also a 2001 facsimile reprint of the 1885 edition, . (Chapters XIV-XVI in Volume I describe Lansdell's visit to the area in the early 1880s, soon after the Russian withdrawal). {{Xinjiang County-level divisions of Xinjiang Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture