Kuqa County

Kuqa County
كۇچا ناھىيىسى
库车县
—  County  —
Location of Kuchar County within Xinjiang
Coordinates:
Country China
Province Xinjiang
Prefecture-level divisions Aksu Prefecture
Time zone China Standard (UTC+8)

The Kuqa County[1] (simplified Chinese: 库车县; traditional Chinese: 庫車縣; pinyin: Kùchē Xian; Uyghur: كۇچا ناھىيىسى‎, ULY: Kucha Nahiyisi, UPNY: Kuqa Nah̡iyisi?) is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is under the administration of the Aksu Prefecture. It contains an area of 15,200 km². According the 2002 census, it has a population of 450,000. It was once the home of an ancient Buddhist Kingdom of Kucha.

Contents

Geography

The county is located at the southern periphery of the Tian Shan range, the northern portion of the Tarim Basin, and the centre of the autonomous region. It occupies part of the eastern portion of Aksu Prefecture, bordering Xinhe County, Xayar County, and Luntai County, Heiing County, and Lopnur County in Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Region.

Kuqa County was 9 towns and 6 townships under its administration, including Kuqa City, Wuqia Town, Alakaga Town, Yaha Town, Uzun Township, Bixibage Township, Agger Township. etc.

Kuqa has a continental desert climate (Koppen BWk), with an average annual temperature of 11.4 °C (52.5 °F). The average annual rainfall is 74.6 millimetres (2.94 in) and the frost-free period lasts for 266 days on average.

Climate data for Kuqa County (1971-2000)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) −1.3
(29.7)		 4.4
(39.9)		 12.7
(54.9)		 21.5
(70.7)		 26.8
(80.2)		 30.2
(86.4)		 32.0
(89.6)		 31.0
(87.8)		 26.4
(79.5)		 19.0
(66.2)		 9.0
(48.2)		 0.5
(32.9)		 17.68
(63.83)
Average low °C (°F) −11.9
(10.6)		 −6.4
(20.5)		 1.7
(35.1)		 9.2
(48.6)		 14.0
(57.2)		 16.9
(62.4)		 18.7
(65.7)		 17.5
(63.5)		 12.7
(54.9)		 5.4
(41.7)		 −2.1
(28.2)		 −9.4
(15.1)		 5.53
(41.95)
Precipitation mm (inches) 1.8
(0.071)		 2.9
(0.114)		 3.4
(0.134)		 2.7
(0.106)		 8.7
(0.343)		 18.1
(0.713)		 12.9
(0.508)		 11.6
(0.457)		 7.0
(0.276)		 3.2
(0.126)		 1.1
(0.043)		 1.2
(0.047)		 74.6
(2.937)
% humidity 64 52 40 31 34 39 41 44 45 49 55 66 46.7
Avg. precipitation days 2.3 1.8 1.7 1.5 3.1 6.0 6.9 6.1 3.4 1.3 0.7 1.2 36
Sunshine hours 184.1 179.4 199.2 220.2 252.8 265.9 281.0 268.3 255.1 237.6 197.8 170.5 2,711.9
Source: China Meteorological Administration [2]

Transport

Kuqa is served by China National Highway 217 and the Southern Xinjiang Railway.

Economy

The Kuqa County contains soil-rich geothermal resources. It is an important base especially for the Tarim Oil and Gas Development projects. The natural gas reserves comprises two trillion cubic meters - which accounts for more than 90% of all proven reserves in the Tarim Basin. There are also oil reserves of 700 million tons, accounting for more than 70% of proven reserves. The well known oil and gas fields are the Yakerla (雅克拉), Tahe (塔河), Donghetang (东河塘), Yaha (牙哈), Yiqikelike (伊奇克里克) and Dalaoba (大涝坝). There are also proven coal reserves of 1.56 billion tons and Rock salt reserves of 36 million tons.

The County comprises an area of 790,000 square kilometres of arable land of which approximately 3,500,000 square kilometres of land is unable to be exploited.

Footnotes

  1. ^ The official spelling is "Kuqa" according to Zhōngguó dìmínglù 中国地名录 (Beijing, Zhōngguó dìtú chūbǎnshè 中国地图出版社 1997); ISBN 7-5031-1718-4; p. 306.
  2. ^ "中国地面国际交换站气候标准值月值数据集（1971－2000年）" (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. http://cdc.cma.gov.cn/shuju/search1.jsp?dsid=SURF_CLI_CHN_MUL_MMON_19712000_CES&tpcat=SURF&type=table&pageid=3. Retrieved 2010年6月19日.