AralThe official spelling according to , (Beijing, ''

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'' 1997); is a

sub-prefecture-level city A sub-prefectural municipality (), sub-prefectural city, or vice-prefectural municipality, is an unofficial designation for a type of administrative division of China. A sub-prefectural city is officially considered to be a county-level city, bu ...

surrounded by

Aksu Prefecture Aksu PrefectureThe official spelling according to is located in mid-Western Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and 2.714 million inhabitants at the 2020 census whom 715,319 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made up of Aksu urban district. T ...

in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. Aral means "island" in Uyghur. The city's name is often written as Alar. Aral is the headquarter of the 1st Division of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and currently administered by the 1st Division. Aral implemented the "division and city integration" ( 师市合一, ''shī shì héyī'') management system, it shares the same leader group with the 1st Division.

History

According to

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, a

United States government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...

-funded news service, Aral was created in the 1950s by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps to facilitate Han Chinese immigration to the region. Aral became a city in 2002 and its population increased to 166,205 in 2010. On January 23, 2013, of territory was transferred from Awat County (Awati) to Aral city and of territory was transferred from Aksu city (Akesu) to Aral city.

Administrative divisions

Aral contains three subdistricts, 15

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

, a township, and two township-equivalent regions:

Geography

The city has an administrative area of . It is bordered by mountainous regions to the north and northwest and the

Taklamakan Desert The Taklamakan Desert ( ) is a desert in northwest China's Xinjiang region. Located inside the Tarim Basin in Southern Xinjiang, it is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, the Pamir Mountains to the west, the Tian Shan range to the ...

to the east and south.

Demographics

As of 2015, 167,697 (93.6%) of the 179,214 residents of the county were

Han Chinese The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's la ...

, 6,036 (3.4%) were Uyghur and 5,481 were from other ethnic groups.

Climate

Education

Tarim University is located in Aral.

Transportation

Ala'er Talimu Airport is a regional airport located at 12 km south from Aral city. Aral Railway Station is located at southwest suburban of the city.

Notes

References

{{Navboxes , list = {{Xinjiang {{Prefectural-level divisions of the People's Republic of China {{Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps cities {{Most populous cities in Xinjiang {{Metropolitan cities of the People's Republic of China Populated places in Xinjiang Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps County-level divisions of Xinjiang Socialist planned cities