Qinggil County (Uyghur), also Chinggil County, Qinghe County, is a county of Altay Prefecture in northeastern Xinjiang, China, bordering Bayan-Ölgii Province and Khovd Province in Mongolia to the east. It has an area of 15,722 km2 with a population of 60,000. Qinghe was the site of a meteorite impact in 1898 and a Mongolian–Chinese border clash in the spring of 1944.

Name

Qinggil County is named for the Qinggil River (青格里河), a tributary of the Ulungur River. 'Qinggil' is from Mongolian and means 'beautiful and crystal clear'.

History

In 1941/4, Qinggil County was established. In 2012, Araltobe Township was made a town.

Administrative divisions

Qinggil County is divided into 5 towns, 3 townships.

Climate

Economy

Qinggil County has forests as well as coal and mica. Industries include mining, livestock product processing, wool-spinning, leather-making and others. Animal husbandry is common.

Demographics

, 76.47% of the residents of the county were Kazakh, 18.27% were Han Chinese, and 5.26% were from other ethnic groups. As of 2015, 50,091 of the 65,290 residents of the county were Kazakh, 11,892 were Han Chinese and 3,307 were from other ethnic groups. As of 1997, 75.2% of the population of Qinggil County was Kazakh.

Wildlife

The Sino-Mongolian beaver, Castor fiber birulai, is found only in the basin of the Ulungur River. The population is considered endangered. The Bulgan Beaver Nature Reserve (46.2°N, 90.75°W) has been established on the Bulgan River (a tributary of the Ulungur River) in Qinggil (Qinghe) County in 1980 to protect the creatures.