The city was sometimes called Tarbaghatay or Tarbagatai (Mongolian: 'having marmots') and in European languages as Chuguchak (based on its name in the Mongolian language).[2]
The current official Chinese name Tacheng is an abbreviation of "Tarbaghatay City". The current Uyghur name is Qöqäk transliterated from Mongolian.
It is located in the Dzungarian Basin, some 10 km (6.2 mi) from the Chinese border with Kazakhstan. For a long time it has been a major center for trade with Central Asia because it is an agricultural hub. Its industries include food processing, textiles, and utilities.
History
In the mid-19th century, Chuguchak was considered the most important commercial center of Western China after Ghulja (Yining), being an important center of trade between China and Russia, in particular in tea. The city, surrounded by an earth wall, was the residence of two Qing ambans and had a garrison of some 1,000 Chinese soldiers and 1,500 Manchu and Mongol soldiers.[2]
Chuguchak suffered harshly in 1865 during the fighting between the Qing forces and the Dungan and Hui rebels.
Border crossing
The Bakhtu border crossing (simplified Chinese: 巴克图口岸; traditional Chinese: 巴克圖口岸; pinyin: Bākètú Kǒu'àn) into Kazakhstan is located 17 km (11 mi) from Tacheng. The checkpoint on the Kazakh side of the border is also known as Bakhty and is located 60 km (37 mi) from Makanchi in East Kazakhstan Province. In April 1962, during the Ili-Tacheng Incident Yita Incident [zh] (伊塔事件),[3] over 60,000 Chinese nationals, including around 48,000 Tacheng residents, illegally crossed the Xinjiang–Kazakh SSR border,[3] leading to massive economic loss in Tacheng; the border crossing closed in August of that year.[3] The crossing re-opened on 20 October 1990,[3] and was deemed a "first-class port of entry" (一类口岸) on 14 March 1994.[3] On 1 July 1995, the crossing opened to use by third nations.[3]
Tacheng has a typical Xinjiang cool semi-arid climate (KöppenBSk) that is almost moist enough to be a hot summer humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa), as being on the west side of the Altay Mountains the region receives more winter snowfall than most of Xinjiang.
Climate data for Tacheng (1981–2010 normals, extremes 1971–2010)
Khālidī, Qurbanʻali, Allen J. Frank, and Mirkasym Abdulakhatovich Usmanov. An Islamic Biographical Dictionary of the Eastern Kazakh Steppe, 1770-1912. Brill's Inner Asian library, v. 12. Leiden: Brill, 2004.
Saguchi Toru. "Kazak Pastoralists on the Tarbaghatai Frontier under the Ch'ing." In: Proceedings of the International Conference on China Border Area Studies. Lin En-hsien [Lin Enxian], ed. Taipei: National Chengchi University, 1985, pp. 953–996.
Wiens, Herold J. "Change in the Ethnography and Land Use of the Ili Valley and Region, Chinese Turkestan". Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 59, No. 4. (Dec., 1969), pp. 753–775.
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