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¡ã C in January and the hottest 40.1¡ãC 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.

ECONOMY

The industry of Kashgar was developed very slowly. Nowdays variors industrial sys-tems have been completed, including coal, electric power, cement, building materials, chemistry, farming machinery,textile, leather products, ceramics, paper-making and food processing industries. Cotton printing and dyeing,cement producing, and hydropower are the key industrial enterprises of Kashgar. The highway network, Taking Kashgari as a hub,
Are:
Tibet-Xinjiang Highway crossing the Kunlun Mountains with a total length of 1,184 kilometers.
Xinjiang-Qinhai Highway (go along the southern Silk Road)
Famous Karakoram highway(KKH)
Highway to Kyrgyzstan via Torugart Pass and Erkashtam Pass
Kashgar-Urunqi Highway

Kashgar Prefecture has 415,620 hectares of cultivated land, 1.33 million hectares of reclaimable l-and and 2.26 million hectares of pastureland, of which 239,467 hectares is first rate. The content of organic substances of the soil generally ranges from 0.5 to 10 percent. Wheat, maize and cotton are the main crops.In Kashgar also grows rice, barley, highland barley, rape, sesame, peanuts and flax.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, CULTURE AND COMUNICATION

Kashar has two institutions fro advanced learning, one is branch of the Central Television Universiy,Kasshgar teacher's college, seven specialized secondary schools, 172 ordinary secondary schools and 1,098 elementary schools.There are fourteen professional organizations fro litireture, art, photograph, dance. Kashgar Daily is published here in Uyghur and Chinese. Kasgar has fine television broadcasting system and tlecom system.International call and internet is available everywhere.Most of the part can receive CCTVprogram in different chanels. l.