Yengisar County


Yengisar County ; via Mandarin Chinese known as Yingjisha, is a county in the southwest of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It is under the administration of the Kashgar Prefecture. It contains an area of. As of the 2002 census, it had a population of 230,000.
The county seat is the city of Yengisar, a town that is best known among the local Uyghurs for its handmade knives. The finely-tuned skill of knife making used to be passed down among generations in Yengisar, but is slowly dying due to China's strict response to deadly clashes in the Xinjiang region.

History

In 1499, Ahmad Alaq seized Kashgar and Yengisar from Mirza Abu Bakr Dughlat.
In 1847 and again in 1857, Kashgar and Yengisar were captured.
In 1882, Yengisar Zhili Ting was created.
In 1913, Yengisar Zhili Ting became Yengisar County.
The Battle of Yangi Hissar took place here in April 1934, when Ma Zhancang led the Chinese Muslim 36th division to attack the Turkic Muslim Uighur forces at Yangi Hissar, wiping out the entire Uighur force of 500 and killing the Emir Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra.
In September 2017, Horigul Nasir, then 21, was jailed for ten years for allegedly promoting the wearing of head scarves. Her brother Yusupjan Nasir was subsequently demoted from his position as an assistant officer of the Saghan township police office to a security guard at the township's Family Planning Department.

Administrative Divisions

, Yengisar County included four towns, ten townships, and two other areas:
Town
Township
Others
As of 2015, 297,290 of the 302,542 residents of the county were Uyghur, 25,404 were Han Chinese and 851 were from other ethnic groups.
As of 1999, 97.82% of the population of Yengisar County was Uyghur and 1.79% of the population was Han Chinese.

Transportation

Yengisar is served by China National Highway 315 and the Southern Xinjiang railway.

Wildlife

The city of Yengisar gave its name to Yangihissar gecko lizard species, which occurs throughout eastern Central Asia, including Xinjiang and Gansu Province.

Notable persons