Aksu Prefecture[4][5] is located in mid-Western Xinjiang, China. It has an area of 131,161 km2 (50,642 sq mi) and 2.714 million inhabitants at the 2020 census whom 715,319 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made up of Aksu urban district.[6] The name Aksu is Turkic for 'white water'. Aksu Prefecture has a 263.8 km (163.9 mi) long international boundary with Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
The name Aksu comes from the name of the Aksu River which is Turkic for 'white water'.[7] The name is similar to that of the nearby Zhetysu region which means "seven rivers".[8] The name of Aksu Prefecture's Onsu County (Wensu) means "ten water" in Uyghur and other Turkic languages, and 'Kizilsu' in Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture means 'red water'- all of these names consist of a descriptor followed by 'su' (river; water).[9]
In 717 AD, the Arabs, guided by their Turgesh allies, besieged Buat-ɦuɑn (撥換, Aksu) and Dai-dʑiᴇk-dʑiᴇŋ (大石城, Uqturpan) in the Battle of Aksu.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China, 214 Uyghur workers were sent to Jiujiang, Jiangxi.[10]
The prefecture occupies the northwestern part of the Tarim Basin and the southern slopes of the Tian Shan. The southern part of the prefecture is within the Taklamakan desert. Agriculture is only possible in the areas irrigated by the Tarim River and its glacier-fed tributaries, the Aksu River and the Muzart River. Aksu Prefecture surrounds Aral, Xinjiang.
Aksu Prefecture is divided into 2 county-level cities and 8 counties:
As of 2020, 2,051,412 (80.1%) of the 2,561,674 residents of the county were Uyghur, 475,323 (18.6%) were Han Chinese and 34,939 were from other ethnic groups.[11]
As of 1999, 75.0% of the population of Aksu (Aqsu, Akesu) Prefecture was Uyghur and 23.7% of the population was Han Chinese.[12]
阿克苏市,维吾尔语意为"白水城",
Jeti Suu{...}Seven Waters
温宿,维吾尔语意为"十股水"
Recent reports by the official Xinjiang Daily and Chinanews.com said that from Feb. 22-23, "400 youths were transferred to the provinces of Hunan, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi." Of those, 114 from Awat (in Chinese, Awati) county, in the XUAR's Aksu (Akesu) prefecture, were sent to Jiangxi's Jiujiang city on Feb. 23, 100 from Aksu city were sent to Jiujiang on Feb. 22, and 171 from Hotan (Hetian) prefecture were sent to Changsha city in Hunan province, the reports said, without providing a date for the last transfer.
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