Yarkant (Yarkand) County (altitude 1,189 metres (3,901 ft), population 373,492 in 2003), is a county in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, located on the southern rim of the Taklamakan desert in the Tarim Basin. It is one of 11 counties administered under Kashgar Prefecture. Yarkant, usually written Yarkand in English, was the seat of an ancient Buddhist kingdom on the southern branch of the Silk Road.
The fertile oasis is fed by the Yarkand River which flows north down from the Kunlun Mountains known historically as Congling mountains (lit. ‘Onion Mountains’ – from the abundance of wild onions found there). The oasis now covers 3,210 square kilometres (1,240 sq mi), but was likely far more extensive before the period of desiccation began to afflict the region from the 3rd century CE onwards.
Today, Yarkant is a predominantly Uyghur city. The irrigated oasis farmland produces cotton, wheat, corn, fruits (especially pomegranates, pears and apricots), and walnuts. Yak and sheep graze in the highlands. Mineral deposits include petroleum, natural gas, gold, copper, lead, bauxite, granite and coal.
Geography
Yarkant is strategically located about half way between Kashgar and Khotan, at the junction of a branch road north to Aksu. It also was the terminus for caravans coming from Kashmir via Ladakh and then over the Karakoram Pass to the oasis of Niya in the Tarim Basin.[13] The Xinjiang-Tibet Highway China National Highway 219, built in 1956 commences in Yecheng/Yarkant and heads south and west, across the Ladakh plateau and into central Tibet.
From Yarkant another important route headed southwest via Tashkurgan Town to the Wakhan corridor from where travellers could cross the relatively easy Baroghil Pass and Badakshan.
Climate
Yarkant has a desert climate (Köppen BWk), with a mean total of only 53 millimetres (2.09 in) of precipitation per annum. As spring and autumn are short, winter and summer are the main seasons. Monthly daily averages range from ?5.5 °C (22.1 °F) in January to 25.4 °C (77.7 °F) in July; the annual mean is 11.7 °C (53.1 °F). The desert climate means that differences between day and night are often large and sunshine is abundant year-round, totalling 2860 hours.
