HISTORY OF KASHGAR 2

LOCATION AND AREA
Kashgar is 141,600 square kiolmeters in total area and between latitude 35 20 to 40 18 north and longitude 73 20 to 79 57 east in the sourthen part of Xinjiang, is contiguous with the Taklimakan Desert on its east and borders Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to its west and southwest respectively. The city of Kashgar, a place of strategic importance in south Xinjiang, has an area of fifteen square kilometers with an average elevation of 1289.5 meters. The city is located between latitude 39 25 to 39 35 north and longitude 75 56 to 76 04 east and lies 1,473 kilometers from Urumchi,capital city of of Xinjianng Uihgur Autonomous Region.



POPULATION AND NATIONALITIES
Kashi Prefecture has a population of 3.3 million, of which the Uygur nationality comprises 92.92 percent, the Han, 5.6 percent and the Tajik, 1.03 percent, with the other 0.45 percent made up of Hui, Kirgiz, Ozbek, Kazak, Manchu, Xibe, Mongol, Tatar and Daur nationalities.The city of Kashar has a population of 200,000, 74.62 percent of which is Uyghur and 24.32 percent of which is Han Chinese and other minorities.
ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS
Kashar Prefecture has one city (Kashag) and eleven counties: Tokkuzak(Shufu in Chinese), Yengishar (Shule), Yengisar, Yopurga, Payzawatt, Yarkant(Shache), Poskam(Zepu), Kahilik(Yecheng), Markit, Maralbashi (Bachu) and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County,under its jurisdiction. There are twenty-six towns and subdistrict offices, 134 townships, 2,310 villagers' committees and ninety-six neighborhood committees in Kashgar.
CLIMATE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Kashgar is located in the temparate zone of a continental climate. The climate in this area varies greatly because of the varied topograghy. Specifically, the Kashgar can be divid-ed into zones plain climate, desert climate, mountain climate, the Pamir Plateau climate and the Kunlun Mountains climate. Located in the plain climate zone with the clear four seasons, Kashgar has a long summer and a short winter. The annual mean temperature is 11.7 C, with the lowest temperature of -24.4° C in January and the hottest 40.1°C in July. The frost-free period averages 215 days. The annual mean precipitation is 27 millimeters. The two river system of the Yarkant River and the Kashgar River in this area have five big rivers with a total annual runoff of 10.9 to 11.9 billion cubic meters. The volume of underground water in this area is about one billion cubic meters. The per capita water volume of the whole prefecture is about 5,000 cubic meters, twice the national figure. The hydropower reserves of the prefecture are about 7.6 million kilowatt, 1,2 million of which can be easily exploited. Mineral resoures in the prefecture include coal, mica, asbestos,g-ypsum, limestone, natural sulphur, vanadium, titaniun, iron copper, zinc, nickel, phosphorus, beryllium, white marble and so on. Oil deposits, in particular, are considerably large and several of oil wells have been drilled in Kasgar. Flora resources in the prefecture include mountain vegetation, plain vegetation, oasis vegetation, desert vegetation and marshland vegetation. The proportion of forested-land is 1.7 percent with 94,667 hectares of primitive forests. In Kashgar grows variety of trees,sush as poplar, willow, mulberry, narrow-leaved oleaster, Chinese scholartree, Chinese parasol, pine, China fir, cypress, divesiform-leaved poplar and red willow. Average Temperature per month 　 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecMaximum 0 4 14 22 26 30 32 31 26 20 10 1Minimum -11 -6 2 9 13 16 19 18 12 5 -2 -8