Yining City

Yining
غۇلجا
قۇلجا
伊宁
Ghulja
—  County-level city  —
伊宁市
Town square in Yining city (Ghulja), July 2005
Yining
Location in Xinjiang
Yining
Location in China
Coordinates:
Country China
Province Xinjiang
Prefecture Ili (Kazakh)
Area
 • Total 629 km2 (242.9 sq mi)
Population (2003)
 • Total 430,000
 • Density 683.6/km2 (1,770.6/sq mi)
Time zone Beijing Time (UTC+8)
Area code(s) 0999
Website Official website

Yining City (simplified Chinese: 伊宁; traditional Chinese: 伊寧; pinyin: Yīníng; also spelled Ining), unofficially referred to as Ghulja(Ĝulja) City (Uyghur: غۇلجا‎, also spelled Kuldja, Kulja, Gulja; Kazakh: قۇلجا), also called Ili or Yili (following pinyin orthography), is a county-level city in western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of northwestern China, and the capital of the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. Historically, Yining is the succcessor to the ruined city of Almaliq in Huocheng County.

Its name variant Kulja was also a name of the Ili region in the past.

Contents

Area and Population

Administratively, the City of Yining is a county-level administrative unit. As of 2004, it occupied 629 km2 (243 sq mi), with the population of 430,000 people.[1] The city is located at the elevation of about 640 metres (2,100 ft).

The land area and population of the City of Yining were smaller before 2004; the increase resulted from the transfer of two villages with some 100 km2 (39 sq mi) of land from the adjacent Yining County, which is a separate administrative unit from the City of Yining.

History

Note on historical place names

From 13-15th century it was under the control of Chagatai Khanate known as Almaligh. Another Mongolian empire—the Zunghar Khanate—established its capital in the area. In the 19th and early 20th century, the word Kuldja or Kulja was often used in Russia and in the West as the name for the entire Chinese part of the Ili River basin as well as for its two main cities. The usage of 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica is fairly characteristic: it defines Kulja as a "territory in north-west China" bounded by the Russian border and the mountains that surround the Ili basin, and it talks about two major cities of the region:[2]

Suiding was located some 40 km (25 mi) to the northwest of Yining, in today's Huocheng County; the regional capital was moved there circa 1883, prior to which the apellation New Kulja or Manchu Kulja was applied to the Huiyuan Cheng fortress, which was a bit closer to Yining.

Qing Dynasty

Yining was the site of the Sino-Russian Treaty of Kulja 1851, which opened the area for trade.

In 1864-66, the city suffered severely from fighting during the Muslim Rebellion. The city and the rest of the Ili River basin was seized by the Russians in 1871 during Yakub Beg's independent rule of Kashgaria. It was restored to China under the terms of the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881).

Republic of China

During the Ili Rebellion, the Chinese Muslim officer Liu Bin Di engaged in combat against Soviet backed Turkic muslim rebels, and was killed in action in November 1944 in Yining (Ghulja).[3]

People's Republic

Yining became the capital of an autonomous district in 1954. In 1962, major Sino-Soviet clashes took place along the Ili River.

In 1997, it what came to be known as the Gulja Incident or massacre, the city was rocked by two days of demonstrations or riots[4] followed by a government crack down resulting in at least 9 deaths following the execution of 30 Uighur activists.[5]

Geography

Yining (Ghulja) City
Climate chart (explanation)
J F M A M J J A S O N D
 
 
18
 
−2
−15
 
 
19
 
0
−12
 
 
20
 
9
−3
 
 
28
 
20
6
 
 
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25
10
 
 
29
 
29
14
 
 
20
 
31
16
 
 
14
 
30
14
 
 
15
 
26
9
 
 
26
 
18
3
 
 
28
 
9
−3
 
 
25
 
1
−10
Average max. and min. temperatures in °C
Precipitation totals in mm
Source: CMA [6]

Yining is located on the northern side of the Ili River in the Dzungarian basin, near the border with Kazakhstan, and about 710 km (440 mi) west of Ürümqi. The Ili River valley is far wetter than any other part of Xinjiang and has rich grazing land.

The City of Yining borders on Huocheng County in the west and the Yining County in the east; across the river in the south is Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County.

Climate

Yining (Ghulja) has a semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk), without the strong variation in seasonal precipitation seen across most of China. Dry and sunny weather dominates year-round. Winters are cold, with a January average of −8.8 °C (16.2 °F). Yet the influence of the mountain range to the north helps keep the city warmer than other cities of similar latitude located further east. Summers are hot, with a July average of 23.1 °C (73.6 °F). Diurnal temperature ranges tend to be large from April to October. The annual mean temperature is 9.0 °C (48.2 °F).

Economy

Yining is the chief city, agricultural market, and commercial centre of the Ili River valley. It is an old commercial center trading in tea and cattle, and it is still an agricultural area with extensive livestock raising. It has fruit orchards. Iron, coal and uranium are mined nearby.

Transportation

References

  1. ^ Administrative division of Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture (Chinese)
  2. ^ "Kulja" in Encyclopædia Britannica 1911, e.g
  3. ^ Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs (1982). Journal of the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, Volumes 4-5. King Abdulaziz University. p. 299. http://books.google.com/books?ei=rs-PTPXyL4G0lQf-s5zcDw&ct=result&id=4J0uAAAAIAAJ&dq=Liu+Bin+di%27s+mission%2C+however+was&q=Liu+Bin+di%27s+mission%2C+hi. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
  4. ^ "Xinjiang to intensify crackdown on separatists", China Daily, 10/25/2001 [1]
  5. ^ 1997 Channel 4 UK report which can be seen here
  6. ^ a b "中国地面国际交换站气候标准值月值数据集（1971－2000年）". 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 2010-05-23. 
  7. ^ Xingjiang’s first electrified railway rails laid 2009-09-17
  8. ^ Tickets of train from Urumqi to Yining put on sale (2010-06-22)
  9. ^ Xinjiang's first electrified railway passenger train (2010-07-07)

External links