15 Facts About Hotan

1.

Hotan is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, an autonomous region in Western China.

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2.

The city proper of Hotan broke off from the larger Hotan County to become an administrative area in its own right in August 1984.

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3.

An important station on the southern branch of the historic Silk Road, Hotan has always depended on two strong rivers—the Karakash River and the White Jade River to provide the water needed to survive on the southwestern edge of the vast Taklamakan Desert.

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4.

Oasis of Hotan is strategically located at the junction of the southern branch of the Silk Road joining China and the West with one of the main routes from ancient India and Tibet to Central Asia and distant China.

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5.

The main historical sources are to be found in the Chinese histories when China was interested in control of the Western Regions, the accounts of several Chinese pilgrim monks, a few Buddhist histories of Hotan that have survived in Classical Tibetan and a large number of documents in the Iranian Saka language and other languages discovered, for the most part, early this century at various sites in the Tarim Basin and from the hidden library at the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang.

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6.

Shortly after the Communists won the civil war in 1949, Hotan was incorporated into the People's Republic of China.

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7.

In June 2011, Hotan opened its first passenger-train service to Kashgar, which was established as a special economic zone following the riots.

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8.

In June 2011, authorities in Hotan Prefecture sentenced Uyghur Muslim Hebibullah Ibrahim to ten years imprisonment for selling "illegal religious materials".

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9.

Hotan is the last municipality in Xinjiang with a majority Ugyhur presence in the core of the city.

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10.

Sultanim Cemetery in central Hotan was a historical Uyghur graveyard that included a religious shrine.

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11.

Hotan has a temperate zone, cold desert climate, with a mean annual total of only 36.

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12.

Hotan is served by China National Highway 315, which runs along the southern Tarim Basin from Ruoqiang to Kashgar, and the Trans-Taklamakan Desert Highway, which run north to Luntai.

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13.

Hotan is connected to the rest of China's rail network via the Kashgar–Hotan Railway, which opened to freight traffic in December 2010, and passenger service in June 2011.

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14.

Chinese historical sources indicate that Hotan was the main source of the nephrite jade used in ancient China.

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15.

Oldest piece of kilim which we have any knowledge was obtained by the archaeological explorer Aurel Stein; a fragment from an ancient settlement near Hotan, which was buried by sand drifts about the fourth century CE.

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