Korla is the capital of the Bayangol Mongol Autonomous Prefecture which occupies an area of 478,700 square kilometers in the southern part of Xinjiang. Situated on the northern fringe of the Tarim Basin and at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, between latitude 41??14??and 42??14??north and longitude 85??12??and 86??27??east Korla, which is 471 kilometers from Urumqi, covers an area of 7,449.7 square kilometers at an average elevation of 933.2 meters.

HISTORY

At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, this prefecture was the place where eleven kingdoms (Ruoqiang, Loulan, Quli, Shanshan, Qiemo, Xiaowan, Shanguo, Wulei, Luntou, Weili, Yanqi and Weixu) of the thirty-six in the Western Region were located. During the Sui and the Tang dynasties, the government of the Western Region, the Yanqi Superintendent's Office and the Quli Superintendent's Office were established here. From the Five Dynasties to the Song Dynasty it was under the Jurisdiction of Xizhou Huigu. During the Yuan Dynasty it was under the administration of Bieshibali Executive Chancery. During the reign of Qing Dynasty Emperor Qianlong, it was administered by Zhuledusi after the Mongolian Torgut tribe conceded to the central government. In 1884, in the tenth year of the Qing Dynasty Emperor Guangxu, when the province of Xinjiang was founded, first Karashar Prefecture directly under the administration of the central government was established in the Korla area, then was upgraded to Yanqi Prefecture. Under the Republic of China, the prefecture of Yanqi and Yanqi Administrative Area were set up.

During the Western Han Dynasty Korla was the territory of the Quli Kingdom, then was annexed by the Yanqi Kingdom after the Eastern Han Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty it was administered by a third-rank Uygur governor appointed by the Qing court, and under the Karashar executive minister. In 1917, the sixth year of the Republic of China, an office of the assistant magistrate of Yanqi Prefecture was set up here and it was under the jurisdiction of Yanqi Prefecture. In 1930, the nineteenth year of the Republic of China, it was changed to an administrative bureau under the administration of Yanqi Administrative Area. In 1939, the twenty-eighth year of the Republic of China, a county government was established here and it was under the administration of the Yanqi Administrative Supervisor's Office. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was first under the administration of the Yanqi Prefectural Commissioner?ˉs Office, then under the administration of the Korla Prefectural Commissioner's Office and now it is under the administration of the Bayangol Mongol Autonomous Prefecture.

POPULATION AND NATIONALITIES

The prefecture has a population of 800,000, of which the Han nationality makes up 53.92 percent, the Mongol 4.99 percent, the Uygur 35.27 percent, the Hui 5.32 percent, the Tibetan 0.13 percent and other nationalities 0.24 percent.

The city of Lorla has a population of 220,000, with an urban population of 120,000. Of the whole population of the city, the Han nationality accounts for 63.28 percent, the Uygur 33.93 percent, the Hui 1.89 percent and the Mongol 0.64 percent.

ADMINISSTRATIVE DIVISIONS

The prefecture has under its jurisdiction one city (Korla), eight counties (Yanqi, Hijing, Heshuo, Bohu, Luntai, Weili, Ruoqiang and Qiemo), seventy-five townships and fifty-six locally-administered state agricultural, tree, livestock and fish farms.

Korla City has under its administration four neighborhood committees (Korla, Xincheng, Tashidian and Tuanjie), ten townships (Qarbag, Yingxia, Tiekeqi, Shanghu, Langan, Heshilike, Tuobuliqi, Awat, Harayugong and Puhui) and seven state farms (Korchu Horticultural Farm, Baotouhu Farm, Puhui livestock Farm, the Seed Multiplication Farm, Huolashan Livestick Farm and Chaohu Livestock Farm).

CLIMATE AND NATURAL RESOURCES

Dominated by a continental climate, the prefecture is dry with light rainfall, a high evaporation rate, lots of sun and a huge temperature disparity between day and night. The city of Korla has an annual mean temperature of 11.4?? and an annual precipitation of 50 millimeters. The prefecture has 186,667 hectares of forested land. There are over forty rivers, the Kaidu River, the Konqi River, the Tarim River, the Dina River and the Cherchen River, which have an annual runoff of 8.92 billion cubic meters. Besides dried-up Lop Nur, there are natural lakes with a total water surface of 2,210 square kilometers. The prefecture has 40,000 hectares of reeds in the Bosten Lake area and 206,667 hectares of bluish dogbane along the banks of the Tarim River. These natural resources provide favorable conditions for the development of the paper making and textile industries. The wildlife in the prefecture includes the snow leopard, takin, marmot, snow cock, brown bear, red deer, wild camel and Asiatic wild ass, as well as the endangered species of swan and wild duck. The prefecture has a great variety of Chinese medicinal herbs such as the snow lily, Chinese grom well, fritillary, codonopsis pilosula, licorice root and ophedra. The lakes of the prefecture all teem with many kinds of fish, such as the bighead, common carp, silver carp, grass carp and crucian carp. In the last few years, clams, shrimps, crabs, muskrats and minks have been bred in these lakes. There is a great variety of fruit, such as the peach, apricot, grape, apple and pear, and the Korla fragrant pear enjoys a good reputation far and wide.

The mineral resources in the prefecture include iron, lead, coal, zinc, manganese, copper, gold, asbestos, graphite, jade and vermiculite, copper, gold, asbestos, graphite, jade and vermiculite, totaling twenty-nine kinds, with manganese, magnesite, asbestos, gypsum and potter's clay making up forty percent of the total of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

ECONOMY

The prefecture has more than 180 industrial enterprises with 10,000 or more workers and staff members. Major industries include coal, electric power, cement, woolen textiles, cotton textiles, paper, wine making, electric cells, hide processing, pharmaceuticals, printing, agricultural machinery, timber, grain processing, foodstuffs, asbestos, and jade mining. The prefecture has 2.9 million hectares of land suitable for farming, forestry or husbandry, three million of which has been reclaimed and cultivated. It has 8,600 hectares of grassland, 22,000 square kilometers of which is the Bayanbulak Grassland in Hejing County, which is the Bayanbulak Grassland in Hejing County, which is the key livestock production area in the prefecture. Domestic animals include horses, of which the Yanqi area produces the best, cattle, sheep and camels.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, CULTURE AND PUBLIC HEALTH

Korla City has one branch of Central Television University, five specialized secondary schools, forty-seven ordinary secondary schools, 116 elementary schools and seven kindergatens. There are fourteen hospetals, seventy-two clinics, 1,500 hospital beds and 2,500 medical personnel in the city, while the three scientific research institutions located here have made noteworthy achievements in scientific and technological research.

SCENIC SPOTS AND PLACES OF INTEREST

Bosten Lake

Fifty-seven kilometers north of Korla City and under the jurisdiction of Bohu County, Bosten is the biggest freshwater lake in Xinjiang, covering an area of 960 square kilometers. On the banks of the lake grow luxuriant and dense reeds, and a great variety of fish, such as bighead, blunt-snout bream, crab and shrimp, live in its waters. Bosten Lake is the summer resort of Korla area people, since the temperature here in summer is much lower than that of the urban area.