Aksay Kazak Autonomous County 阿克塞哈萨克族自治县

Setting and landscape

The county is a long strip, 425 kilometres east to west, rising from 1,500 metres in the northwest to 5,798 metres in the southeast. Five ranges, among them the Altun Mountains (阿尔金山) and the Danghe Nanshan (党河南山), run northwest to southeast around it, with permanent snow and glaciers above the snowline. Between them the Sugan Lake basin (苏干湖盆地) spreads gobi and desert at 2,800 to 3,000 metres. The Greater and Lesser Harteng rivers (哈尔腾河) feed the two Sugan lakes: the larger is salt, the smaller fresh. Rainfall ranges from 18.8 to 176 millimetres a year, and the county's wildlife includes wild camels, wild yaks, argali and snow leopards.

History

In ancient times the area belonged to Sanwei (三危); the Yuezhi and Wusun grazed here in the Warring States, Qin and Han periods, and the Tang placed it under Shazhou (沙州). Aksay's Kazakhs came from the Altay, Hami and Barkol areas of Xinjiang, moving into Gansu and Qinghai as herders from the early 20th century. The autonomous county was founded in April 1954 with its seat at Boluozhuanjing (博罗转井), and in 1998 the whole seat moved to Hongliuwan (红柳湾镇), today's county town.

What to see

The former seat at Boluozhuanjing is now the old county town film base, where films including Jiuceng Yaota (九层妖塔) were shot. In Duobagou (多坝沟), a fertile, irrigated farming valley, the Euphrates poplar gorge turns gold in autumn against red, wind-carved sandstone, and an old beacon-tower site stands among the trees. The Haizi grassland (海子草场), named from the Kazakh word for lake, is one of the county's three main pastures. Kazakh felt yurts serve as places to eat Kazakh food and watch traditional song and dance, and the county lists 102 intangible heritage items, and schools run heritage clubs for the dombra (冬不拉) and Kara Zhorga (黑走马).

Highlights

• Old county town film base 阿克塞老县城: The county seat at Boluozhuanjing until 1998, now a film base.
• Duobagou poplar gorge 多坝沟胡杨峡: Euphrates poplars and red sandstone cliffs, with an old beacon-tower site.
• Sugan lakes 苏干湖: A salt lake and a fresh lake fed by the Harteng rivers in a high basin at 2,800–3,000 m.