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'Börtala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture' (Traditional Chinese: 博爾塔拉蒙古自治州; Simplified Chinese: 博尔塔拉蒙古自治州, pinyin: Bó'ěrtǎlā Měnggǔ Zìzhìzhōu, Mongolian in Cyrillic script: ''Борталын Монгол өөртөө засах тойрог'', Uyghur: بۆرتالا موڭغۇل ئاپتونوم ئوبلاستى) is a Mongol autonomous prefecture in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. It has an area of 27,000 square kilometers. Bole is its capital. "Börtala" comes from the Mongol language, and means "silvery grasslands".

Contents

Geography

Administrative divisions

History

Demographics

Economy

Geography

Börtala is located in the southwestern part of the Dzungarian Basin. It borders Kazakhstan to the north and west, and has an international border of 385 km. To the east it borders Wusu City and Toli County of Tacheng Prefecture; to the south it borders Nilka County, Yining County, and Huocheng County of Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture.

Administrative divisions

Börtala is divided into one county-level city, Bole, and two counties: Jinghe County and Wenquan County. In addition, it is home to the Fifth Agricultural Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and its 11 regiment-level farms / ranches.

History

The Tang Dynasty created the Shuanghe Protectorate (双河都督府) in this area. During the Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty the area was the territory of the Oirats. During the Qing Dynasty, Chahar Mongols were moved here from Kalgan, as well as Torghuud Oirats moving eastwards from the Volga.
The People's Republic of China established the autonomous prefecture on July 13, 1954.

Demographics

There are 35 nationalities in Börtala. 67% of the 424,300 inhabitants are Han Chinese, while the remainder are Mongol, Uyghur, Kazakh, Hui, or of other nationalities.

Economy

In 2004 the prefecture had a total gross domestic product of 3.69 billion Renminbi (including the XPCC 5th division), an increase of 11.9% over the previous year. Annual total imports and exports totalled US$ 554 million, an increase of 96.8% over the previous year. Average annual salary was 11000 Renminbi, an increase of 7.6%; average annual pure income per capita for agricultural workers was 3904 Renminbi, an increase of 10.8%.
Alashankou is a port of entry with both railroads and roads linking China with Kazakhstan; it is also one of China's national first-class ports of entry. The volume of imports / exports passing through Alashankou accounts for 90% of the total for all of Xinjiang, and has been second to only Manzhouli, Inner Mongolia among land ports-of-entry in China for 8 days.