Journey to Central Asia

Author: Pan Zhiping / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: That is a magical land. Central Asia is located in the heart of the Eurasian continent, adjacent to Xinjiang, China. It includes five countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. It spans about 3,000 kilometers from east to west, equivalent to the straight-line distance from Shanghai to Lhasa; from north to south, it is also more than 2,000 kilometers, like the distance from Guangzhou to Beijing. The total area is nearly 4 million square kilometers, which is about two-fifths of China's land area, but the total population is only over 50 million, less than the population of a medium-sized province in China, such as Anhui Province. The five Central Asian countries vary in size. Kazakhstan is the largest, covering an area as big as the combined Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Gansu provinces in China; Tajikistan is the smallest, only as large as Liaoning Province in China. Uzbekistan is a major population center in Central Asia, accounting for only 1/9 of the total area of Central Asia, yet it holds 46% of the region's total population. Regarding the geographical concept of "Central Asia," its boundaries are not very clear. In ancient Greece and Rome, Central Asia referred to the regions beyond the Oxus River. The Amu Darya River had many names in ancient times, and Oxus was one of them. To the Arabs, Central Asia meant the land between the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya rivers, including Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, as well as southern Kazakhstan. Therefore, the five Central Asian countries are often referred to as "Central Asia and Kazakhstan." The eastern boundary of the five Central Asian countries is marked by the southern range of the Tian Shan Mountains, the southern boundary by the Kobi-Darai Mountains, the middle and upper reaches of the Amu Darya River, and the Panj River, which do not align with the local natural geographical boundaries. This is a result of the conquest of Central Asia by the Russian Empire in the last century and the encroachment on China's western territories. Its northern boundary has extended beyond the Kazakh Steppe and into the Irtysh River basin on the southern edge of Western Siberia, also not aligning with the natural geographical boundaries there. Only its western boundary is a natural boundary, where it is the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea. The coastline winds, forming some peninsulas, islands, and alluvial spits. In terms of natural geographical features, it can be roughly described as: the deserts, mountains, and oases in the south contrast with the grasslands, plains, and hills in the north, with the dividing line roughly running from the northern bank of the Ili River and the Syr Darya River to the Caspian Sea. P003