Aral, Xinjiang

Aral, also known as Alar, is a sub-prefecture-level city surrounded by Aksu Prefecture in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. Aral means "island" in Uyghur.
Aral is the headquarter of the 1st Division of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and currently administered by the 1st Division. Aral implemented the "division and city integration" management system, it shares the same leader group with the 1st Division.

History

According to Radio Free Asia, a United States government-funded news service, Aral was created in the 1950s by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps to facilitate Han Chinese immigration to the region.
Aral became a city in 2002 and its population increased to 166,205 in 2010.
On January 23, 2013, of territory was transferred from Awat County to Aral city and of territory was transferred from Aksu city to Aral city.

Aral contains three subdistricts, 15 towns, a township, and two township-equivalent regions:

The city has an administrative area of. It is bordered by mountainous regions to the north and northwest and the Taklamakan Desert to the east and south.

As of 2015, 167,697 of the 179,214 residents of the county were Han Chinese, 6,036 were Uyghur and 5,481 were from other ethnic groups.

Tarim University is located in Aral.

Ala'er Talimu Airport is a regional airport located at 12 km south from Aral city.
Aral Railway Station is located at southwest suburban of the city.