Bortala Overview

  • Basic Information Chinese Name: 博尔塔拉蒙古自治州
  • Location: Situated located in the southwestern part of the Dzungarian Basin, and northwestern edge of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China
  • Area: About 24,896 square kilometers
  • Population: 443,900
  • Language: northern mandarin Chinese, Uygur language, the Kazak language, Mongolian, Mandarin, etc.

Administrative Divisions

Bortala is divided into 2 county-level cities and 2 counties. In addition, it is home to the Fifth Agricultural Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and its 11 regiment-level farms / ranches.

To know more about Bortala Administrative Divisions.

Geography

Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, abbreviated to Bortala, is a Mongol autonomous prefecture in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Located in the hinterland of the Eurasian, northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and the western margin of Junggar Basin, it borders Tacheng Prefecture in east, Ili Kazak Autonomous Autonomous Prefecture in south, and Kazakhstan in northwest. With a length of 315 kilometers from west to east and a width of 125 kilometers from north to south, it has an area of 27,000 square kilometers and a 380-kilometer border line. The highest point of Bortala is E’ergetugeshan Mountain (厄尔格图尔格山) with an elevation of 4,569 meters in west of Alataoshan Mountain (阿拉套山). The lowest place is Ebinur Lake which is only 189 meters above the sea level.

Climate

Bortala belongs to a continental arid semi-desert and desert climate, with long sunshine duration and large temperature differences. Springs experience frequent temperature change; summers experience high temperature and hot climate with dry and hot winds; autumns are cool and winters are long and cold. The annual average temperature is about 5.6 ℃.

Things to Do

Bortala is an autonomous Mongolian prefecture so that experiencing the Mongolian culture is the first thing you are recommended to do in Bortala visiting. The architecture and cuisine could make you feel the Mongolian culture. Then, the Nadam Grassland Festival which is one of the three most grand tourism festivals in Xinjiang, by taking part in it, you could be closer with the local people and culture. Then, Bortala is blessed with various and splendid tourist attractions, so visiting wonderful scenery there is a  recommended thing to do in Bortala visiting, you could pay a visit to tourist spots like Sayram Lake, Guaishiyu Scenic Spot (怪石峪风景区), Alafaw Pass, Ebinur Lake, etc.

The Best Time to Go

The best time to visit Bortala is spring and autumn. Although springs experience weather change but the weather is neither too hot nor too cold. Autumn sees cool days so it is a good season for visiting. Winter and summer are too cold and too hot respectively. But what you need to notice is that Bortala experiences large temperature differences so you had better take suitable clothes with you no matter which season you would visit Bortala.

History & Culture

In the Spring and Autumn Period, Bortala was the nomadic place of the Scythes, and in early Western Han Dynasty, it was the nomadic place of Yuezhi (月氏), Xiongnu (匈奴) and Wusun (乌孙) people. In Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties, Rouran (柔然) and Yueban (悦般) people lived in Bortala. From the Western Wei Dynasty to Sui Dynasty, it was controlled by the West Turkistans. In 584 of Sui Dynasty, the West Turkistans came over and pledged allegiance to the Sui Dynasty so that Bortala recovered its relation with the central government. To know more about Bortala Culture.

Tourism

Recent years, Bortala prefecture is trying to make differences and bring favorable changes in order to facilitate Bortala tourism forward. For example, Bortala aims at promoting Sayram Lake Scenic Spot to a 5A-level tourist spot and Wenquan County as a national tourism demonstration area. Besides, by summarizing experience on the border tourism activity of 1 free-visa day for Kazakhstan people to Alataw Pass, Bortala tries to improve the tourist attractions and shopping centers, standardize the frontier trade market management, and promote the development of border tourism of Alataw Pass healthily and rapidly. In addition, according to the space layout of tourism resources and tourism scenic spots there, Bortala highlights the regional tourist circle of Toto Township, Jinghe County, Alashankou City, Bole City, Wenquan County and Sayram Lake. Meanwhile, it launches distinctive tourist boutique routes like rural tourism, folk tourism, mountain tourism, desert tourism, hot spring tourism, and tour products of different days, such as one or three days of Bortala tour. By the guidance of demonstration of leading scenic spots, the quality of the prefecture tourism got improved. By the end of 2017, there are 4 4A-level tourist spots, 3 3A-level ones and 3 2A-level tourist attractions. In 2018, Bortala received 5 million tourists and achieved total tourism consumption of 5 billion yuan, with an increase of 35% and 30% respectively.

Transportation

Bortala Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture borders with Kazakhstan, with the borderline of 372 kilometers, and it is an important point of junction for China and foreign counties for the Silk Road Economic Belt. The second Asia-Europe continental bridge goes through the prefecture, and China-Kazakhstan oil pipeline and the second line of the West-East natural gas transmission pass through there. Bortala is the intersection of two major traffic arteries, and two major ports. National highway 312 and provincial highway 219, Jinghe-Yining-Horgos Railway and Northern Railway meet in Bortala. Alafaw Pass is the first-class pass with preferential development which integrates four kinds of mode of transportation including railway, highway, aviation and pipeline. Recent years, there are 39 designed train lines passing the pass to reach Europe, covering 1,200 trains. In 2018, Bortala completed highway freight volume of 19.19 million tons, with an increase of 13.8%. The road freight turnover reached 3.419 billion ton-km, up by 13%. Highway completed the passenger traffic volume of 3.47 million, down 26.2%. The highway passenger turnover was 197 million passenger-kilometer, down 21.8%.

Economy

In 2018, the GDP of Bortala totaled 33.034 billion yuan, with an increase of 6.0%. Among them, the first industrial added value of 6.385 billion yuan, with an increase of 6.1%, accounting for 19.3% of the GDP. The second industry added value of 8.857 billion yuan, increasing by 4.8% and accounting for 26.8% of GDP. The tertiary industry added value of 17.792 billion yuan, with an increase of 6.7% and accounting for 53.9% of GDP. The third industry became the main power of growth. The per capita GDP of the prefecture totaled 69,259 yuan, with an increase of 6% if calculated at comparable prices. The local urban per capita disposable income reached 31,280 yuan, with an increase of 7%, and the local rural residents per capita disposable income was 16,361 yuan, with an increase of 7.9%.

Festivals

Bortala is an Mongolian autonomous prefecture so that the main nationality there is Mongolian whose important traditional festivals are Spring Festival and the Small New Year that falls on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, and the day was called Xiaonian (the Small New Year) in Mongolian. The fifteenth day of the first month of lunar year is the Mongolian Maide’er Festival (麦德尔节) which is the most grand temple fair every year there. For people like the Uyghur, Kazak, Hui who believe in Islam, their grand festivals are Corban Festival and Id Al-fitr. To know more about Bortala Festivals.

Dining

Bortala cuisine mainly presents the Mongolian characteristics, so the major meat is beef and mutton. In addition to the Mongolian styles, there are lots of food with Uyghur features as well. Because of the mixture of people from different places, there are also many other dishes and snacks, such as Sichuan cuisine. For many people, the staple food there is Nang. To know more about Bortala Dining.

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