Xinjiang Facts for Kids

Map of Xinjiang region within China

The Pamir Mountains south of Kashgar

Pro independence flag for East Turkestan used by Uyghurs also known as Kök bayraq

Xinjiang (also transliterated as Sinkiang) is a northwestern region of the People's Republic of China. Like all of China, it is also claimed by the Republic of China. It is a large area with few people. It is over 1.6 million km², which takes up about one sixth of the country's land. It is mainly inhabited by Uyghurs who are Turkic people.

In the 19th century, when the name of the Silk Road was first used by a German geographer, it just included the land route from Xinjiang to Central Asia. Xinjiang sits at the heart of the Silk Road in China. At that time, the country was often called "Chinese Turkestan" for its many Turkic peoples.

Xinjiang borders the Tibet Autonomous Region and Jammu and Kashmir's Leh District to the south and Qinghai and Gansu provinces to the southeast, Mongolia to the east, Russia to the north and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan to the west, Pakistan and Kashmir region to the southwest.

Ürümqi is the capital of Xinjiang and the largest city in Western China. It also holds the world record for being the most remote city from any sea in the world; it is 2,500 km from any coastline.

The east-west chain of the Tian Shan Mountains separate Dzungaria in the north from the Tarim Basin in the south. Dzungaria is dry steppe. The Tarim Basin is desert surrounded by oases. In the east is the Turpan Depression. The Taklamakan Desert is also in Xinjiang. Ürümqi, the capital, Turpan, Kashgar, Karamay, Yining and Shihezi are the major cities.

Images for kids

Dzungaria (Red) and the Tarim Basin or Altishahr (Blue)
Physical map showing the separation of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (Altishahr) by the Tien Shan Mountains
The Roman and Han Empires, around AD 1
The Tarim Basin in the 3rd century AD
A Sogdian man on a Bactrian camel. Sancai ceramic statuette, Tang dynasty
Mongol states from the 14th to the 17th centuries: the Northern Yuan dynasty, Four Oirat, Moghulistan and Kara Del
The Dzungar–Qing Wars, between the Qing Dynasty and the Dzungar Khanate
The Battle of Oroi-Jalatu in 1756, between the Manchu and Oirat armies
Scene from the 1828 Qing campaign against rebels in Altishahr
Yakub Beg, ruler of Yettishar
19th-century Khotan Uyghurs in Yettishar
Kuomintang in Xinjiang, 1942
Governor Sheng Shicai ruled from 1933 to 1944.
Close to Karakoram Highway in Xinjiang.
Pamir Mountains and Muztagh Ata.
Taklamakan Desert
Tianchi Lake
Kanas Lake
Largest cities and towns of Xinjiang
Statue of Mao Zedong in Kashgar
Nur Bekri, Chairman of the Xinjiang Government between 2007 and 2015
The distribution map of Xinjiang's GDP per person (2011)
Wind farm in Xinjiang
Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport
Three Uyghur girls at a Sunday market in the oasis city Khotan
Karakorum highway
"Heroic Gesture of Bodhisattvathe Bodhisattva", example of 6th-7th-century terracotta Greco-Buddhist art (local populations were Buddhist) from Tumxuk, Xinjiang
Sogdian donors to the Buddha, 8th century fresco (with detail), Bezeklik, Eastern Tarim Basin
A mosque in Ürümqi
People sporting in snow by a statue of bodhisattva Guanyin in Wujiaqu
Temple of the Great Buddha in Midong, Ürümqi
Taoist Temple of Fortune and Longevity at the Heavenly Lake of Tianshan in Fukang, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture
Emin Minaret
Id Kah mosque in Kashgar, largest mosque in China

Xinjiang facts for kids

Images for kids

See also