Xinjiang

History of Xinjiang - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The known history of Xinjiang dates back to the 2nd millennium BC. Throughout ... Xinjiang" is a relatively new name for this ancient region. ...
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Xinjiang
Xinjiang is far from the sea on all sides and has a typical continental climate. ... (1) Xinjiang covers one-sixth of the total area of China. ...
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Xinjiang Travel Guide: Xinjiang Tour, Map, History, Climate, Sights
The best time to visit Xinjiang is in the autumn, when the days are long, the sky is clear and temperatures more bearable than in the heat of the summer.
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Xinjiang Uygur: Definition from Answers.com
Xinjiang Uygur also Sinkiang Uighur or Sinkiang Uigur ( ) An autonomous region of extreme western China ... dynasty, it was established as Xinjiang province c. ...
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XINJIANG
This paper is a product of "The Xinjiang Project" involving eighteen. of the most competent specialists on Xinjiang, who collaborated over ...
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Xinjiang travel guide - Wikitravel
Open source travel guide to Xinjiang, featuring up-to-date information on ... China Xinjiang Mountaineering Association / Vehicle Sports Association ...
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{{Infobox PRC province| Header = Uyghur language:شىنجاڭ ئۇيغۇر ئاپتونوم رايونى Shinjang Uyghur Aptonom RayoniChinese language:新疆维吾尔自治区Xīnjiāng Wéiwú'ěr Zìzhìqū| Name = Xinjiang| Abbreviation = 新| AbbrevPinyin = Xīn| ISOAbbrev = 65| Map = China-Xinjiang.png| OriginOfName = 新 xīn - new 疆 jiāng - territory
"new territory"| AdministrationType = Autonomous region of China| Capital = Ürümqi| Secretary = [Wang Lequan| Area = 1,660,000| AreaRank = 1st| PopYear = 2004| Pop = 19,630,000| PopRank = 24th| PopDensity = 11.8| PopDensityRank = 29th| GDPYear = 2005| GDP = 260.9 billion| GDPRank = 25th| GDPperCapita = 13,907| GDPperCapitaRank = 13th| Languages = [Uyghur language, Mandarin Chinese - 45%
[Han Chinese - 41%
Kazakhs - 7%
Hui people - 5%
Kyrgyz - 0.9%
Mongol - 0.8%
Dongxiang people - 0.3%
Tajik (China) - 0.2%
Xibe - 0.2%])-->Xinjiang (Uyghur language: , Shinjang; ; Chinese Postal Map Romanization: Sinkiang) is an autonomous region of China (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) of the People's Republic of China. It is a large, sparsely populated area which takes up about one sixth of the country's territory. Xinjiang borders the Tibet Autonomous Region to the south and Qinghai and Gansu provinces to the southeast, Mongolia to the east, Russia to the north, and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and the Pakistan- and India-controlled parts of Kashmir to the west. It administers most of Aksai Chin, a region claimed by India as part of Jammu and Kashmir.

"Xinjiang" or "Ice Jecen" in Manchu Language, literally means "New Frontier", a name given during the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China. It is home to a number of Turkic peoples, the largest of which are the Uyghur people. The region is often referred to as Chinese Turkestan or East Turkestan.

History Early history

According to JP Mallory, the China describe the existence of "white people with long hair" or the Bai people in the Shan Hai Jing, who lived beyond their northwestern border."The strange creatures of the Shanhai jing: (...) we find recorded north of the territory of the "fish dragons" the land of the Whites (Bai), whos bodies are white and whose long hair falls on their shoulders. Such a description could accord well with a Caucasoid population beyond the frontiers of ancient China and some scholars have identified these Whites as Yuezhi." JP Mallory, "The Tarim Mummies", p55 ISBN 0500051011

The very well preserved Tarim mummies with Caucasian race features, often with reddish or blond hair, today displayed at the Ürümqi Museum and dated to the 3rd century BCE, have been found in precisely the same area of the Tarim Basin. Various nomadic tribes, such as the Yuezhi were probably part of the large migration of Indo-European languages speaking peoples who were settled in eastern Central Asia (possibly as far as Gansu) at that time. The Ordos culture situated at northern China east of the Yuezhi, are another example.

Nomadic cultures such as the Yuezhi are documented in the area of Xinjiang from the 1st millennium BCE. The first known reference to the Yuezhi was made in 645 BC by the Chinese Guan Zhong in his Guanzi (text) 管子(Guanzi Essays: 73: 78: 80: 81) . He described the Yuzhi 禺氏, or Niuzhi 牛氏, as a people from the north-west who supplied jade to the Chinese from the nearby mountains of Yuzhi 禺氏 at Gansu."Les Saces", Iaroslav Lebedynsky, ISBN 2877723372, p59 The supply of jade from the Tarim Basin from ancient times is indeed well documented archaeologically: "It is well known that ancient Chinese rulers had a strong attachment to jade. All of the jade items excavated from the tomb of Fuhao of the Shang dynasty, more than 750 pieces, were from Khotan in modern Xinjiang. As early as the mid-first millennium BCE the Yuezhi engaged in the jade trade, of which the major consumers were the rulers of agricultural China." (Liu (2001), pp. 267-268).

The nomadic tribes of the Yuezhi are also documented in detail in Chinese historical accounts, in particular the 2nd-1st century BCE "Records of the Great Historian", or Shiji, by Sima Qian. According to these accounts:

"The Yuezhi originally lived in the area between the Qilian or Heavenly Mountains (Tian Shan) and Dunhuang, but after they were defeated by the Xiongnu they moved far away to the west, beyond Dayuan, where they attacked and conquered the people of Daxia and set up the court of their king on the northern bank of the Gui Oxus River. A small number of their people who were unable to make the journey west sought refuge among the [Qiang barbarians in the Southern Mountains, where they are known as the Lesser Yuezhi.",Watson, Burton. Trans. 1993. Records of the Grand Historian of China: Han Dynasty II. Translated from the Shiji of Sima Qian. Chapter 123: "The Account of Dayuan," Columbia University Press. Revised Edition. ISBN 0-231-08166-9; ISBN 0-231-08167-7 (pbk.), p. 234.

According to Han accounts, the Yuezhi "were flourishing" during the time of the first great Chinese Qin Shi Huang, but were regularly in conflict with the neighbouring tribe of the Xiongnu to the northeast.

Struggle between Xiongnu and Han China Traversed by the Silk Road, Western Regions or Xinjiang is the Chinese language name for the Tarim and Dzungaria regions of what is now northwest China. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 220), the region was subservient to the Xiongnu, a powerful nomadic people based in modern Mongolia. In the 2nd century BC, Han China sent Zhang Qian as an envoy to the states in the region, beginning several decades of struggle between the Xiongnu and Han China over dominance of the region, eventually ending in Chinese success. In 60 BC Han China established the Protectorate of the Western Regions (西域都護府) at Wulei (烏壘; near modern Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture) to oversee the entire region as far west as the Pamir Mountains.

During the usurpation of Wang Mang in China, the dependent states of the protectorate rebelled and returned to Xiongnu domination in 13. Over the next century, Han China conducted several expeditions into the region, re-establishing the protectorate from 74-76, 91-107, and from 123 onward. After the fall of the Han Dynasty (AD 220), the protectorate continued to be maintained by Cao Wei (until 265) and the Western Jin Dynasty (from 265 onwards).

A summary of Classical sources on the Seres (Greek and Romain name of China) (essentially Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy) gives the following account: " The region of the Seres is a vast and populous country, touching on the east the Ocean and the limits of the habitable world, and extending west nearly to Pamir Mountains and the confines of Bactria. The people are civilised men, of mild, just, and frugal temper, eschewing collisions with their neighbours, and even shy of close intercourse, but not averse to dispose of their own products, of which raw silk is the staple, but which include also silk stuffs, furs, and iron of remarkable quality." (Henry Yule, "Cathey and the way thither")

A succession of peoples , Xinjiang. 5th century. This is an example of Serindian art.The Western Jin Dynasty succumbed to successive waves of invasions by nomads from the north at the beginning of the 4th century. The short-lived non-Han Chinese kingdoms that ruled northwestern China one after the other, including Former Liang, Former Qin, Later Liang, and Western Liáng, all attempted to maintain the protectorate, with varying extents and degrees of success. After the final reunification of northern China under the Northern Wei empire, its protectorate controlled what is now the southeastern third of Xinjiang. Local states such as Shule, Yutian, Guizi and Qiemo controlled the western half, while the central region around Turpan was controlled by Gaochang, remnants of a state (Northern Liang) that once ruled part of what is now Gansu province in northwestern China.

Turk Empire In the late 5th century the Tuyuhun and the Rouran began to assert power in southern and northern Xinjiang, respectively, and the Chinese protectorate was lost again. In the 6th century the Turkic peopless began to emerge in the Altay region, subservient to the Rouran. Within a century they had defeated the Rouran and established a vast Turk Empire, stretching over most of Central Asia past both the Aral Sea in the west and Lake Baikal in the east. In 583 the Turks split into western and eastern halves, with Xinjiang coming under the western half. In 609, China under the Sui Dynasty defeated the Tuyuhun, gaining control of southeastern Xinjiang.

The Tang Dynasty and the Khanates The Tang Dynasty was established in 618, and would prove to be one of the most expansionist dynasties in Chinese history. Starting from the 620's and 630's, Tang China conducted a series of expeditions against the Turks, eventually forcing the surrender of the western Turks in 657. Xinjiang was placed under the Anxi Protectorate (安西都護府; "Protectorate Pacifying the West"). The protectorate did not outlast the decline of Tang China in the 8th century. During the devastating Anshi Rebellion, Tibet invaded Tang China on a wide front from Xinjiang to Yunnan, sacking the Tang capital in 763, and taking control of southern Xinjiang by the end of the century. At the same time, the Uyghur Khaganate took control of northern Xinjiang, as well as much of the rest of Central Asia, including Mongolia, where their empire originated.

Both Tibet and the Uyghur Khaganate declined in the mid-9th century. The Kara-Khanid Khanate, which arose from a confederation of Turkic tribes scattered after the destruction of the Uyghur empire, took control of western Xinjiang in the 10th century and the 11th century. Meanwhile, after the Uyghur khanate in Mongolia had been smashed by the Kirghiz, branches of the Uyghur people established themselves in the area around today's Turfan and Urumchi in 840. This Uyghur state would remain in eastern Xinjiang until the 13th century, though it would be subject to various overlords during that time. Some scholars have argued, that the Kara-Khanids were likewise "Uyghurs," as some of the components in the Kara-Khanid federation were likewise from the ruling clans of the Uyghur empire. The Kara-Khanids converted to Islam, whereas the Uyghur state in eastern Xinjiang remained Manicheaean, while tolerating Buddhism and Christianity.

In 1132, remnants of the Khitan Empire from Manchuria entered Xinjiang, fleeing the onslaught of the Jurchens into north China. They established an exile regime, the Kara-Khitan Khanate, which became overlord over both Kara-Khanid-held and Uyghur-held parts of the Tarim Basin for the next century.

Arrival of the Mongols After Genghis Khan had unified Mongolia and began his advance west, the Uyghur state in the Turfan-Urumchi area sensibly offered its allegiance to the Mongols in 1209, contributing taxes and troops to the Mongol imperial effort. In return, the Uyghur rulers retained control of their kingdom. By contrast, Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire conquered the Kara-Khitan in 1218. Because the Kara-Khitan had persecuted Islam, the Mongols were met as liberators in the Kashgar area. After the break-up of the Mongol Empire into smaller khanates, Xinjiang, though nominally ruled by the Chagatai Khanate, one of the successor states of the empire, in fact was fought over by successor regimes based in Mongolia and in China. In the 15th century the Chagatai Khanate disintegrated into separate states in Gulja, Yarkand, and Turpan.

In the 17th century, the Dzungars (Oirats, Kalmyks) established an empire over much of the region. Kalmyks controlled a vast area known as Grand Tartary or the Kalmyk Empire to Westerners, which stretched from the Great Wall of China to the Don River (Russia), and from the Himalayas to Siberia.

The Manchu Empire The Qing Empire, established by the Manchus in China, gained control over eastern Xinjiang as a result of a long struggle with the Zunghars (Dzungars) that began in the seventeenth century. In 1755, the Manchu Empire attacked Ghulja, and captured the Zunghar khan. Over the next two years, the Manchus and Mongol armies of the Qing destroyed the remnants of the Zunghar khanate, and attempted to divide the Xinjiang region into four sub-khanates under four chiefs. Similarly, the Qing made members of a clan of sufi shaykhs known as the Khojas, rulers in the western Tarim Basin, south of the Tianshan Mts. In 1758-1759, however, rebellions against this arrangement broke out both north and south of the Tian Shan mountains. The Qing was thus forced, contrary to its initial intent, to establish a form of direct military rule over both Zungharia (northern Xinjiang) and the Tarim Basin (southern Xinjiang). The Manchus put the whole region under the rule of a General of Ili (), headquartered at the fort of Huiyuan, Xinjiang (the so-called "Manchu Kuldja", or Yili), 30 km west of Ghulja (Yining).

By the mid-19th century, the Russian Empire was encroaching upon Qing China along its entire northern frontier. The Opium Wars and Taiping and other rebellion's in China proper had severely restricted the dynasty's ability to maintain its garrisons in distant Xinjiang. In 1864 both Chinese Muslims (Hui people) and Uyghurs rebelled in Xinjiang cities, following an on-going Chinese Muslim Rebellion in Gansu and Shaanxi provinces further east. Qing control of the region was swept away. In 1865, Yakub Beg, a warlord from the neighbouring Khanate of Kokand, entered Xinjiang via Kashgar, and conquered nearly all of Xinjiang over the next six years. In 1871, Russia took advantage of the chaotic situation and seized the rich Ili River valley, including Gulja. By then, Qing China held onto only a few strongholds, including Tacheng.

Yaqub Beg's rule lasted until General Zuo Zongtang (also known as General Tso) reconquered the region between 1875 and 1877 for Qing China. In 1881, Qing China recovered the Gulja region through diplomatic negotiations (Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881)). In 1884, Qing China established Xinjiang ("new frontier") as a province, formally applying onto it the political system of China proper.

After the Qing Dynasty In 1912 the Qing Dynasty was replaced by the Republic of China. Yuan Dahua, the last Qing governor of Xinjiang, fled. One of his subordinates Yang Zengxin (杨增新), acceded to the Republic of China in March of the same year, and maintained control of Xinjiang until his death in 1928. Following insurgencies against Governor Jin Shuren (金树仁) in the early 1930s, a rebellion in Kashgar led to establishment of the short-lived First East Turkistan Republic (1st ETA) in 1933. Xinjiang was eventually brought under the control of Han Chinese Sheng Shicai (盛世才), who ruled Xinjiang for the next decade with close support from the Soviet Union, many of whose ethnic and security policies Sheng instituted in Xinjiang. Sheng invited a group of Chinese Communists to Xinjiang, including Mao Zedong's brother Mao Zemin, but in 1943, fearing a conspiracy, Sheng killed all communists, including Mao Zemin, in Xinjiang. A Second East Turkistan Republic (2nd ETA, also known as the Three Districts Revolution) existed from 1944-1949 with Soviet Union support in what is now Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in northern Xinjiang.

The Second East Turkistan Republic came to an end when the People's Liberation Army (PLA) entered Xinjiang in 1949. According to the PRC interpretation, the 2nd ETA was Xinjiang's revolution, a positive part of the communist revolution in China; the 2nd ETA acceded to and welcomed the PLA when they entered Xinjiang, a process known as the Peaceful Liberation of Xinjiang. However independence advocates view the ETA as an effort to establish an independent state, and the subsequent PLA entry as an invasion. The autonomous region of the PRC was established on October 1, 1955, replacing the province. The PRC's first nuclear testing was carried out at Lop Nur, Xinjiang, on October 16, 1964.

Continued tensions There continues to be concern over tensions in the region, centering upon Uyghur Uyghur people#Culture to independence, and resentment towards what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch describe as repression of non-Han Chinese#culture.

Conversely, many Han Chinese perceive PRC policies of ethnic autonomy as discriminatory against them (see autonomous entities of China). Independence advocates view Chinese rule in Xinjiang, and policies like the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps as Chinese imperialism.

The tensions have occasionally resulted in major incidents and violent clashes during the PRC period. For example, in 1962 60,000 Uyghur and Kazak refugees fled northern Xinjiang into the Soviet Union, escaping famine and political purges of the Great Leap Forward era; in the 1980s there was a scattering of student demonstrations and riots against police action that took on an ethnic aspect; and the Baren Township riot in April, 1990, an abortive uprising, resulted in more than 50 deaths.

A police round-up of suspected separatists during Ramadan resulted in large demonstrations that turned violent in February 1997, and episode known as the Ghulja / Yining Incident and led to in at least 9 deaths . The Urumqi bus bombs of February 25, 1997, perhaps a response to the crackdown that followed the Ghulja Incident, killed 9 and injured 68. Despite much talk of separatism and terrorism in Xinjiang, especially after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and the War in Afghanistan (2001–present), the situation in Xinjiang was quiet from the late nineties through mid-2006, though inter-ethnic tensions no doubt remained.

On January 5 2007 the Chinese Public Security Bureau raided a "terrorist training camp" in the mountains near the Pamir Plateau in southern Xinjiang. According to reports 18 "terrorists" were killed and another 17 captured in a gun battle between the East Turkestan Independence Movement and PRC forces. One Police Officer was killed and "over 1,500 hand grenades... were seized."

Historic names Once part of Western Regions, later, East Turkestan.

Subdivisions Xinjiang is divided into two prefecture-level cities, seven prefecture of Chinas, and five autonomous prefectures. (Two of the seven prefectures are in turn part of Ili, an autonomous prefecture.) These are then divided into eleven districts, twenty county-level cities, sixty-two counties, and six autonomous counties. Four of the county-level cities do not belong to any prefecture, and are de facto administered by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

{]
()! Uyghur Latin
()! Hanzi! Pinyin! Remarks]| style="text-align: right;" | ئۈرۈمچى شەھرى| | 乌鲁木齐市| Wūlǔmùqí Shì||-| Karamay| style="text-align: right;" | شىخەنزە شەھرى| | 石河子市| Shíhézǐ Shì| rowspan="4" | Administered de facto by the [Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps| style="text-align: right;" | تۇمشۇق شەھرى| | 图木舒克市| Túmùshūkè Shì|-| [Aral, Xinjiang| style="text-align: right;" | ئارال شەھرى| | 阿拉尔市| Ālā'ěr Shì|-| Wujiaqu| style="text-align: right;" | تۇرپان ۋىلايىتى| Turpan Vilayiti| 吐鲁番地区| Tǔlǔfān Dìqū||-| [Kumul Prefecture| style="text-align: right;" | خوتەن ۋىلايىتى| Hotən Vilayiti| 和田地区| Hétián Dìqū||-| [Aksu Prefecture| style="text-align: right;" | قەشقەر ۋىلايىتى| | 喀什地区| Kāshí Dìqū||-| [Tacheng Prefecture|-| [Altay Prefecture| style="text-align: right;" | قىزىلسۇ قىرغىز ئاپتونوم ئوبلاستى| | 克孜勒苏柯尔克孜自治州| Kèzīlèsū Kē'ěrkèzī Zìzhìzhōu||-| [Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture| style="text-align: right;" | بايىنغولىن موڭغۇل ئاپتونوم ئوبلاستى| | 巴音郭楞蒙古自治州| Bāyīnguōlèng Měnggǔ Zìzhìzhōu||-| Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture| style="text-align: right;" | بۆرتالا موڭغۇل ئاپتونوم ئوبلاستى| | 博尔塔拉蒙古自治州| Bó'ěrtǎlā Měnggǔ Zìzhìzhōu||-| [Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture| style="text-align: right;" | ئىلى قازاق ئاپتونوم ئوبلاستى| | 伊犁哈萨克自治州| Yīlí Hāsàkè Zìzhìzhōu||-|}

Geography and geology Xinjiang is the largest Political divisions of China - it accounts for more than one sixth of China's total territory and a quarter of its boundary length. It is divided into two basins by Mount Tianshan. Dzungarian Basin is in the north, and Tarim Basin is in the south. Xinjiang's lowest point is the Turfan Depression, 155 metres below sea level (lowest point in the People's Republic of China as well). Its highest peak, K2, is eight-thousander, on the border with Kashmir.Most of Xinjiang is young geologically, having been formed from the collision of the Indian plate with the Eurasian plate, forming the Tian Shan, Kunlun Shan, and Pamir mountain ranges. Consequently, Xinjiang is a major earthquake zone. Older geological formations occur principally in the far north where the Junggar Block is geologically part of Kazakhstan, and in the east which is part of the North China Craton.

Xinjiang has within its borders the point of land remotest from the sea (Lat. 46 degrees 16.8 minutes N, Long. 86 degrees 40.2 minutes E) in the Dzoosotoyn Elisen Desert, 1,645 miles (2648 km) from the nearest coastline (straight-line distance).

The Tian Shan mountain range marks the Xinjiang-Kyrgyzstan border at the Torugart Pass (3752 m). The Karakorum highway (KKH) links Islamabad, Pakistan with Kashgar over the Khunjerab Pass.

The Extreme points of the world, the point on land farthest from any ocean, is located approximately 320 km (200 mi) from the city of Urumqi, within the boundary of Xinjiang.

Rivers include:

Tarim River

Major Cities:

Urumqi
Turpan
Kashgar
Karamay
Yining
Shihezi
Qinggir

Economy 's city center taken from Red Mountain (Hong Shan).Xinjiang is known for its fruits and produce, including grapes, melons, pears, cotton, wheat, silk, walnuts and sheep. Xinjiang also has large deposits of minerals and petroleum.

Xinjiang's nominal GDP was approximately 187 billion Renminbi (about 23 billion USD) in 2003, and increased to 220 billion RMB (about 28 billion USD) in 2004, due to the China Western Development policy introduced by the State Council to boost economic development in Western China. Its per capita GDP for 2003 was 9,710 RMB (1172 USD).

Oil and natural gas extraction industry in Aksu and Karamay is booming, with the West-East Gas Pipeline connecting to Shanghai.

Xinjiang's exports amounted to 3.047 billion USD, while import turned out to be 2.589 billion USD in 2004. Most of the overall import/export volume in Xinjiang was directed to and from Kazakhstan through Ala Pass . China's first border free trade zone (Horgos Free Trade Zone) was located at the Xinjiang-Kazakhstan border city of Horgos . Horgos is the largest land port in China's western region and it has easy access to the Central Asian market. Xinjiang will also open its second border trade market to Kazakhstan in March 2006, the Jeminay Border Trade Zone.

Demographics Xinjiang is home to several Muslim Turkic peoples groups including the Uyghur peoples and the Kazakhss. Other PRC minority List of Chinese ethnic groups include Hui Chinese, the Kyrgyz, the Mongols, the Russian peoples, the Xibes, the Tajik (China), the Uzbeks, the Tatars, and the Manchus.

The percentage of ethnic Han Chinese in Xinjiang has grown from 6 percent in 1949 to an official tally of over 40 percent at present. This figure does not include military personnel or their families, or the many unregistered migrant workers. Much of this transformation can be attributed to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a semi-military organization of settlers that has built farms, towns, and cities over scattered parts of Xinjiang. The demographic transformation is held by Uyghur independence advocates as a threat to Uyghurs and other non-Han ethnicities in maintaining their culture, similar to the case of Tibet. While at the same time, the minorities of Xinjiang were exempted from the One-Child Policy and many Uyghur people emigrated out of Xinjiang to other parts of China, the percentage of Uyghur people in the total population of China has increased steadily.

{] !! Population !! Percentage|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Uyghur people || 8,345,622|| 45.21|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Han Chinese || 7,489,919 || 40.58|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Kazakhs ||1,245,023 || 6.74|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Hui Chinese || 839,837|| 4.55|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Kyrgyz ||158,775 ||0.86|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Oirat || 149,857 || 0.81|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Dongxiang people || 55,841|| 0.30|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Tajik (China) || 39,493|| 0.21|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Xibe ] || 19,493||0.11|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Tujia ] || 12,096|| 0.066|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Russian people || 8935 || 0.048|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Hmong people || 7006|| 0.038|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Tibetan people || 6153|| 0.033|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Zhuang ] || 5541|| 0.030|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Tatar ] || 3260|||-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Salar ] in active service.Source: Department of Population, Social, Science and Technology Statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics of China (国家统计局人口和社会科技统计司) and Department of Economic Development of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission of China (国家民族事务委员会经济发展司), eds. Tabulation on Nationalities of 2000 Population Census of China (《2000年人口普查中国民族人口资料》). 2 vols. Beijing: Nationalities Publishing House (民族出版社), 2003. (ISBN 7-105-05425-5)

In general, Uyghur peoples are the majority in western Xinjiang, including the prefectures of Kashgar, Khotan, Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture, and Aksu, as well as Turpan prefecture in eastern Xinjiang. Han Chinese are the majority in eastern and northern Xinjiang, including the cities of Urumqi, Karamay, Shihezi and the prefectures of Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Börtala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture (especially the city of Kuitun), and Kumul. Kazakhss are mostly concentrated in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture prefecture in northern Xinjiang.

{| class="wikitable"! align=center colspan=5 | Major ethnic groups in Xinjiang by region, 2000 census|-! !! Uyghur peoples !! Han Chinese !! Kazakhs !! others] PLC || 12.8% || 75.3% || 2.3% || 9.6%|-| Karamay PLC ] || 70.0% || 23.3% ||