15 Facts About Aksai Chin

Aksai Chin is a region administered by China as part of Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang and Rutog County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet.

Aksai Chin is first mentioned by Muhammad Amin, the Yarkandi guide of the Schlagintweit brothers.

Aksai Chin explained its meaning as "the great white sand desert".

Some sources have interpreted Aksai to have Uyghur meaning "white stone desert", including several British colonial, modern Western, Chinese, and Indian sources.

Amin's Aksai Chin was not a defined region, stretching indefinitely east into Tibet south of the Kunlun Mountains.

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In 1895, the British envoy to Kashgar told the Chinese Taotai that Aksai Chin was a "loose name for an ill-defined, elevated tableland", part of which lay in Indian and part in Chinese territory.

At this point the British had still made no attempts to establish outposts or control over the Aksai Chin, nor was the issue ever discussed with the governments of China or Tibet, and the boundary remained undemarcated at India's independence.

Aksai Chin was easily accessible to the Chinese, but was more difficult for the Indians on the other side of the Karakorams to reach.

Indian position, as stated by Prime Minister Nehru, was that the Aksai Chin was "part of the Ladakh region of India for centuries" and that this northern border was a "firm and definite one which was not open to discussion with anybody".

Local authorities in Ningxia claim that their model of Aksai Chin is part of a tank training ground, built in 1998 or 1999.

Aksai Chin is one of the two large disputed border areas between India and China.

China claims that Aksai Chin is part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Tibet Autonomous Region.

The line that separates Indian-administered areas of Ladakh from Aksai Chin is known as the Line of Actual Control and is concurrent with the Chinese Aksai Chin claim line.

Aksai Chin area has number of endorheic basins with many salt or soda lakes.

China National Highway 219 runs through Aksai Chin connecting Lhatse County and Xinjiang in the Tibet Autonomous Region.