main cities of xinjiang: hetian(hotan) , kashgar , korla , ili , urumqi , turpan , yining , hami , karamay , aksu , shihezi
location: situated in the southwest frontier of china; south foot of the mt. tianshan, the hinterland of xinjiang uygur autonomous region; the edge of taklamakan desert; the northeast edge of the largest basin in china, tarim basin
neighboring areas: gansu and qinghai provinces, tibet autonomous region
physical features: higher north and lower south terrain, forming sloping oasis like a fan; kongquehe river flows its way through its whole area; the branch of tarim river flows through the south of the urban
population: 330,000
urban population: 20,0000
area: 7116.9 sq km
nationalities: mongolian, uygur, han, hazake, hui, kerkezi, xibo, tajike, wuzibieke, tataer, dawoer, manchu and russian
history: with thousands years history, korla is a throat in the middle of the silk road in history; it was set up as a county early in 1940, a prefecture in 1954, merged into the bayin'guoleng mongolia autonomous prefecture in 1960, being approved to be as a city on october 1979
climatic features: dominated by continental climate, the area is dry with light rainfall, a high evaporation rate, lots of sun and a huge temperature disparity between day and night
average temperature: 7-14c annually with great daily temperature difference
rainfall: annual precipitation 25-100 mm
mountains: the tianshan mountain chain; mt. aerjinshan
rivers: the bosten lake, kongquehe river, tarim river, kuerchu brook, the yinyanghu lake, and the lianhuahu lake
local highlights: korla sweet pear; tomato; muskmelon; little apricot in white; fig; mulberry