Shanshan County

Name

The county is named after the ancient Shanshan Kingdom, although the kingdom was actually located mostly outside of the borders of the modern county, in the Lop Nur area. The place was originally named Piqian, and the Grand coordinator and provincial governor of Xinjiang proposed the name of Shanshan when Guangxu Emperor decided to set up a county in 1902.

History

The local geology and the desert climate made it possible to discover a number of important fossil sites in the area, including China's largest cluster of fossilized dinosaur tracks and China's largest dinosaur. Important dinosaur sites are associated with the Lianmuqin Formation (named after Lianmuqin Town) and the Subashi Formation (named after Subashi Village () in Tuyugou Township (吐峪沟乡). The Shanshanosaurus is named after Shanshan.

In 2008–2011, a team of German and Chinese paleontologists discovered and studied an "enormous" accumulation of Jurassic turtle fossils at a site they nicknamed "Mesa Chelonia", approximately 25 km NNE of Shanshan Town. It is estimated that at least 1,800 skeletons of freshwater turtles, preliminary identified as belonging to the Annemys species were buried in this bone bed, in a stratigraphic layer probably belonging to the Qigu Formation. The researchers suggest that during a drought the turtles congregating at one of the few remaining water sources, and died there once that last water hole dried out. Then the skeletons were transported to the present location by a debris flow during a catastrophic rainfall event, forming a Konzentrat-Lagerstätte.{{citation

According to the paleontologist Walter Joyce, the Shanshan find has more than doubled the total number of Jurassic turtle specimens known to science. The excavated fossils have been transported to Shanshan Town, where they will be housed in the county museum (currently under construction).

On January 6, 2009, five well-preserved mummies of ethnic Han men who lived during the Qing dynasty were excavated at a construction site near the Flaming Mountains in the county.

In June 2013, an incident in Lukchun lead to the deaths of dozens.

Subdivisions

Shanshan County is divided into 7 towns, 2 townships, 1 ethnic township and 2 other township-level divisions.

Geography

Biratar Bulak is a spring in the southern part of the county.

Climate

|Jan record high C = 8.0 |Feb record high C = 17.3 |Mar record high C = 29.3 |Apr record high C = 38.5 |May record high C = 40.9 |Jun record high C = 45.5 |Jul record high C = 46.5 |Aug record high C = 46.2 |Sep record high C = 41.2 |Oct record high C = 32.9 |Nov record high C = 20.5 |Dec record high C = 9.8 |Jan record low C = -24.7 |Feb record low C = -22.2 |Mar record low C = -11.9 |Apr record low C = -2.7 |May record low C = 3.4 |Jun record low C = 9.0 |Jul record low C = 12.4 |Aug record low C = 8.8 |Sep record low C = 1.3 |Oct record low C = -5.6 |Nov record low C = -13.5 |Dec record low C = -23.7

Demographics

Transportation

Shanshan is served by China National Highway 312, the Lanzhou–Xinjiang Railway and Shanshan Airport.

Notes

References

References

1. [http://www.citypopulation.de/en/china/xinjiang/admin/ Xinjiang: Prefectures, Cities, Districts and Counties]
2. "鄯善县 - 吐鲁番地区 - 新疆维吾尔自治区 - 行政区域网".
3. [http://english.sina.com/technology/p/2012/0415/458241.html Large Jurassic dinosaur fossil discovered in Xinjiang], ''Xinhua'', 2012-04-15
4. "2017年统计用区划代码".
5. [http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-01/07/content_7373756.htm "Well preserved mummies found in Xinjiang", China Daily]
6. [[Shohret Hoshur]], Joshua Lipes. (28 July 2013). "Two Uyghurs Believed Killed in Hotan Violence".
7. (2016). "Complete Atlas Of The World". [[Penguin Random House]].
8. {{GEOnet2. 32FA8827A3123774E0440003BA962ED3. Biratar Bulak (Approved - N), [[National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency]]
9. link. [[China Meteorological Administration]]
10. (2020-06-10). "". link. Statistical Bureau of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region