Ruoqiang Town


Ruoqiang Town 若羌; Uyghur: Чакилик: Qakilik or Charklik is a town in Ruoqiang County, Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture in southeastern Xinjiang, People's Republic of China. Ruoqiang Town is the county seat of the Ruoqiang County, and therefore is the place that less detailed maps label as "Ruoqiang County" or just "Ruoqiang". The postal code is 841 800.
There is a two-laned asphalt highway to Korla, north, and west to Hotan. There is no motorable road east to Dunhuang in Gansu, but one can now drive southeast through the Altun Shan range and then north through part of the Tsaidam to Dunhuang.

Names

has recorded the following names for Ruoqiang Town :

History

A site within or adjoining Ruoqiang Town, Yüni 扜泥 was an ancient settlement of the independent kingdom of Kroraina. During the latter part of the Former Han and throughout the Later Han, Yüni was the capital of the kingdom of Shanshan, a Han vassal state that succeeded Kroraina.
The modern Ruoqiang Town was founded in 1984.
In 2014, Xincheng and Loulan were established as residential communities.

Geography

Almost adjacent to the town are the Tieganlike Town, to the east, and Wutamu Township, to the west. They, however, are not administratively part of Ruoqiang Town, but are separate township-level administrative units.
Ruoqiang Town was used by numerous notable explorers as a launching point to the Lop Nor archaeological sites, which are located within to the northeast.

Climate

Ruoqiang has a cold desert climate with extreme seasonal variation in temperature. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from in January to, and the annual mean is. Precipitation totals only annually, and mostly falls in summer. No month has less than 60% of possible sunshine, and the area receives close to 3,100 hours of bright sunshine annually.

Administrative divisions

As of 2018, the town was made up of five residential communities:
Residential Communities
  • Shengli, Wenhua, Tuanjie, Xincheng, Loulan

    Transportation

The town is the junction of China National Highway 315 and China National Highway 218, and is the southern terminus of the latter.