Sunan Yugur Autonomous County () is an

autonomous county Autonomous counties () and autonomous banners () are county-level autonomous administrative divisions of China. The two are essentially identical except in name. There are 117 autonomous counties and three autonomous banners. The latter are fo ...

under the administration of the

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. During the Republican era, many of China' ...

of Zhangye, Gansu Province, China, bordering

Qinghai Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...

province to the south. It is home to the majority of the

Yugur The Yugurs, Yughurs, Yugu (; Western Yugur: ''Sarïg Yogïr''; Eastern Yugur: ''Šera Yogor''), traditionally known as Yellow Uyghurs, are a Turko- Mongolic ethnic group and one of China's 56 officially recognized ethnic groups, consisting ...

ethnic group. The seat of government is in the

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 ...

of (). The autonomous county spans an area of , and is home to a total population of 39,283 as of 2021. The autonomous county is ethnically diverse, with large populations of

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 ...

s, and

Tibetans The Tibetan people (; ) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 6.7 million. In addition to the majority living in Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans live ...

, with none comprising a majority. Sùnán Yugur Autonomous County consists of three separate areas: Mínghua District, situated in the plains in the northwest, and Huángcheng District, situated in the mountains in the southeast, are separated from the main part of the county.

Toponymy

The autonomous county's name refers to its location to the south () of Suzhou (), the former name of

Jiuquan Jiuquan, formerly known as Suzhou, is a prefecture-level city in the northwesternmost part of Gansu Province in the People's Republic of China. It is more than wide from east to west, occupying , although its built-up area is mostly located in ...

History

Sunan Yugur Autonomous County was established in 1954.

Geography

Sunan Yugur Autonomous County is located in the middle portion of the

Hexi Corridor The Hexi Corridor (, Xiao'erjing: حْسِ ظِوْلاْ, IPA: ), also known as the Gansu Corridor, is an important historical region located in the modern western Gansu province of China. It refers to a narrow stretch of traversable and relativ ...

, along the northern foot of

Qilian Mountains The Qilian Mountains (, also romanized as Tsilien; Mongghul: Chileb), together with the Altyn-Tagh (Altun Shan) also known as Nan Shan (, literally "Southern Mountains"), as it is to the south of Hexi Corridor, is a northern outlier of the Kunl ...

. The

is particularly long and narrow, extending just to from north to south, but spans over from east to west. The autonomous county is bordered by Bairi Tibetan Autonomous County to the east and

Subei Mongol Autonomous County The Subei Mongol Autonomous County (; Mongolian: ) is an autonomous county within the prefecture-level city of Jiuquan in the northwest of Gansu Province, China, bordering Xinjiang to the west, Qinghai Province to the southeast and Mongolia's Gov ...

to the west. The autonomous county's northern border is formed by

Liangzhou District Liangzhou District () is a district and the seat of the city of Wuwei, Gansu province of the People's Republic of China, bordering Inner Mongolia to the east. Geography Liangzhou District is located in east Hexi Corridor, north to the Qilian Mo ...

Suzhou District Suzhou District is a district of the city of Jiuquan, Gansu Province in the People's Republic of China. It was an important city in its own right. Today, as the seat of Jiuquan's administration, it is usually marked Jiuquan on maps. Ganzhou and ...

, Jiayuguan, and Yumen from east to west. Sunan Yugur Autonomous County is bordered by

Menyuan Hui Autonomous County Menyuan Hui Autonomous County ( zh, s=门源回族自治县, t=門源回族自治縣, p=Ményuán Huízú Zìzhìxiàn, Xiao'erjing: ; bo, སེམས་ཉིད་ཧུའེ་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཞན།) is a coun ...

to the south. The physical geography of the region includes many

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited Summit (topography), summit area, and ...

canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

s, and

alluvial plain An alluvial plain is a largely flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A floodplain is part of the process, being the sma ...

s. The southern portion of the autonomous county is more mountainous, while the northern portion includes more plains. Elevation within Sunan Yugur Autonomous County ranges from to above sea level, with an average elevation of about above sea level. Prominent mountains within the autonomous county include Suzhu Lian () and the

July 1 Glacier __NOTOC__ The July 1 Glacier or Qiyi Glacier () is a glacier in Jiayuguan City, Gansu, China, and on the northern slope of the Tola Mountain in the Qilian Mountains. It is the closest glacier to cities in Asia, but it has been shrinking in r ...

. Major rivers that flow through Sunan Yugur Autonomous County include the

Ruo Shui Ejin River (), also Etsin Gol, Ruo Shui () or Ruo He in ancient times, is a major river system of northern China. It flows approximately from its headwaters on the northern Gansu side of the Qilian Mountains north-northeast into the endorheic ...

, the Shiyang River, and the

Shule River The Shule River ( zh, c=疏勒河, p=Shūlè Hé) is the second largest inland river in Gansu Province, China, and one of the three major inland river systems in the Hexi Corridor. Water system The Shule River system is composed of the main stre ...

Climate

Sunan Yugur Autonomous County has an

semi-arid A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical weather (climate) for elevations above the tree line, where trees fail to grow due to cold. This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate. Definition There are multiple definitions of ...

, with cold winters and cool summers. The average temperature in the autonomous county is , with cooler regions in the northwest averaging , and warmer regions in the southeast averaging . There is more precipitation in summer months than winter months. The average annual precipitation in the autonomous county is , with drier regions in the northwest averaging about , and wetter regions in the southeast averaging about . The autonomous county has short frost-free periods, and a high amount of sunshine.

Administrative divisions

Sunan Yugur Autonomous County is divided into 3

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 ...

, 2

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, Ca ...

, 3

ethnic townships An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

and 2 other

township-level divisions The administrative divisions of China have consisted of several levels since ancient times, due to China's large population and geographical area. The constitution of China provides for three levels of government. However in practice, there a ...

. These township-level divisions then, in turn, administer 102

village-level division The administrative divisions of China have consisted of several levels since ancient times, due to China's large population and geographical area. The constitution of China provides for three levels of government. However in practice, there a ...

s. The autonomous county's three towns are (), (), and (). The autonomous county's two townships are Dahe Township () and (). The autonomous county's three ethnic townships are (), (), and (). The autonomous county's two other township-level divisions are () and ().

Demographics

As of 2021, Sunan Yugur Autonomous County has a population of 39,283, an increase of 25 people from 2020. This figure is up from 35,869 in 1999, and 35,500 in 1993. The

recorded 14,932

household A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...

s that year, down 56 from 2020, giving it an average household size of 2.63 people.

Ethnic groups

Sunan Yugur Autonomous County is an ethnically diverse area. No single ethnic group comprises a majority of its population as of 2021. The largest ethnic groups in the autonomous county are the

s, and

. Other groups with sizable populations within the autonomous county include the

Hui The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...

, the

Monguor Mongour, formerly also known by various names including Tu and Dchiahour, may refer to: * Monguor people * Monguor language The Monguor language (; also written Mongour and Mongor) is a Mongolic language of its Shirongolic branch and is part of ...

, and the

Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...

. A large amount of ethnic Tibetans lived in the now-defunct Xishui Tibetan Ethnic Township.

Historic ethnic composition

Economy

Sunan Yugur Autonomous County had a total

gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a money, monetary Measurement in economics, measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjec ...

(GDP) of 3.306 billion

renminbi The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 2022. ...

(RMB) as of 2021, an increase of 5.8% from 2020. Of this, the

primary sector The primary sector of the economy includes any industry involved in the extraction and production of raw materials, such as farming, logging, fishing, forestry and mining. The primary sector tends to make up a larger portion of the economy in de ...

constituted 829 million RMB (25.08% of total GDP), an increase of 7.2% from 2020; the

secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in construction. ...

totaled 1.244 billion RMB (37.63% of total GDP), an increase of 5.2% from 2020; the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

totaled 1.232 billion RMB (37.27% of total GDP), an increase of 5.3% from 2020. Total retail sales totaled 617 million RMB in 2021, a 12.3% increase from 2020. In 2021, the

per capita ''Per capita'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "by heads" or "for each head", and idiomatically used to mean "per person". The term is used in a wide variety of social sciences and statistical research contexts, including government statistic ...

disposable income Disposable income is total personal income minus current income taxes. In national accounts definitions, personal income minus personal current taxes equals disposable personal income. Subtracting personal outlays (which includes the major c ...

of the autonomous county's urban residents totaled 33,531 RMB, a 7.5% increase from 2020; the disposable income of rural residents totaled 21,783 RMB, a 10.0% increase from 2020. Tourism accounts for a significant portion of Sunan Yugur Autonomous County's economy. In 2021, the autonomous county received a total of 3.15 million tourists, a 23.7% increase from 2020. Total revenue from tourism totaled 1.572 billion RMB, a 29.2% increase from 2020. Sunan Yugur Autonomous county is home to a sizable mining industry, and rich in deposits of

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 dea ...

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 ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolat ...

chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

, and other mineral resources.

Government and politics

The

of () serves as the seat of government.

References

{{authority control County-level divisions of Gansu Zhangye Autonomous counties of the People's Republic of China

Toponymy

History

Geography

Climate

Administrative divisions

Demographics

Ethnic groups

Historic ethnic composition

Economy

Government and politics

See also

References