Qiemo County
Encyclopedia
Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture
Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture , short for Bayingol is an autonomous prefecture of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest autonomous prefecture of China with an area of 462,700 km²...
in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. Its area is 138645 square kilometres (53,531.1 sq mi) and, according to the 2002 census, it has a population of 60,000. The county seat is at Qiemo Town
Qiemo Town
The oasis town of Qiemo or Cherchen is the capital of Qiemo County, of the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, China is on the Qiemo River, at the foot of the Qilian Mountains, on the old Southern Silk Route...
.
Name
."Qiemo 且末 = modern Cherchen or Charchan (Uighur: Qarqan). There has been some confusion about this name as Chavannes (1907), p. 156, and
then Stein (1921a), Vol. I, 296 ff., gave an incorrect romanization for the first character (Chavannes, using the French EFEO romanization system, gave tsiu, and Stein used the Wade-GilesWade-GilesWade–Giles , sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a romanization system for the Mandarin Chinese language. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade during the mid-19th century , and was given completed form with Herbert Giles' Chinese–English dictionary of 1892.Wade–Giles was the most...
equivalent, chü). In fact, the character is correctly rendered k’ie in EFEO, ch’ieh in Wade-Giles and qie in pinyin. Nevertheless, there has never been any serious dispute about its identification with modern Cherchen."
Lionel Giles
Lionel Giles
Lionel Giles was a Victorian scholar, translator and the son of British diplomat and sinologist, Herbert Giles. Lionel Giles served as assistant curator at the British Museum and Keeper of the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books...
has recorded the following names for Ruoqiang Town (with his Wade-Giles
Wade-Giles
Wade–Giles , sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a romanization system for the Mandarin Chinese language. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade during the mid-19th century , and was given completed form with Herbert Giles' Chinese–English dictionary of 1892.Wade–Giles was the most...
forms of the Chinese names converted to pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
):
- Jumo HanHan-China:* China , an abbreviation or adjectival modifier for things Chinese* Han Chinese , the dominant majority ethnic group of China and overseas Chinese...
- Zuomo (左末) Song YunSong YunSong Yun was a Chinese Buddhist monk who was sent by the devout Buddhist Empress Hu 胡 of the Northern Wei Dynasty with some companions including the monk Hui Zheng, Fa Li and Zheng Fouze, to northwestern India to search for Buddhist texts...
- Jumo Jun [Sui]
- Zhemotuona (折摩鴕那) XuanzangXuanzangXuanzang was a famous Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator who described the interaction between China and India in the early Tang period...
- Boxian Zhen [Tang, after A.D. 674]
- Jurjān [Mīrzā Haidar, sixteenth century]
- Charcahn [modern name]
Geography
From the south to the north, the lands of the county run from the main range of the Kunlun MountainsKunlun Mountains
The Kunlun Mountains are one of the longest mountain chains in Asia, extending more than 3,000 km. In the broadest sense, it forms the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau south of the Tarim Basin and the Gansu Corridor and continues east south of the Wei River to end at the North China Plain.The...
(which forms the border with the Tibet Autonomous Region
Tibet Autonomous Region
The Tibet Autonomous Region , Tibet or Xizang for short, also called the Xizang Autonomous Region is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China , created in 1965....
) to the middle of the Taklamakan
Taklamakan
The Taklamakan Desert , also known as Taklimakan and Teklimakan, is a desert in Central Asia, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China...
Desert. The southernmost area of the county includes the northern side of part of the Ulugh Muztagh
Ulugh Muztagh
Ulugh Muztagh or Ulugh Muztag and Muztag Feng , is an extremely remote mountain group on the northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Located on the border between the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, it is part of the main range of the Kunlun Mountains of East-Central...
range (the main range of the Kunlun), and a section of the Altyn-Tagh
Altyn-Tagh
Altyn-Tagh, Astyn-Tagh, Altun Mountains, Altun Shan or Aerjin Shan Tagh proper is a part of the range south of Lop Nor), is a mountain range in northwestern China that separates the eastern Tarim Basin from the Tibetan Plateau...
range which runs roughly parallel to the main range of the Kunlun. Most of the county population lives in the northern foothills of the mountains, in the oases
Oasis
In geography, an oasis or cienega is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source...
watered by snow-fed rivers.
The Qiemo River
Qiemo River
The Qiemo River , also called the Cherchen or Qarqan River, runs across the Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It feeds into the Lop Nor salty marshes.- See also :* Qiemo County* Qiemo Town...
(Qarqan River) near the town of Qiemo is frozen for two to three months in the winter. From the foot of the mountains to the oasis of Qiemo, it has a faIl of nearly 4000 feet.
Climate
History
The modern county is based on the ancient kingdom of Qiemo (且末) mentioned in the Hanshu and the Hou Hanshu. According to the Hanshu, during the Early Han it had 230 households, 1,610 individuals and 320 persons able to bear arms.- "The ancient Chü-mo seems to have been located on the east of the Cherchen (Charchan) river, across from the modern Cherchen (Cherchen Bazar)."