Place Names in Xinjiang  
- Chinese Character Order -
- in Chinese Characters and Pinyin -

The main section of this page is a list of nearly 1,000 place names in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. The names are shown both in Chinese characters and Pinyin. Next to each place name on the main list, its immediately superior administrative place name is also given.

The list on this page is provided in Chinese character order (in the order that Microsoft Excel sorts Chinese characters) . This list is also available in administrative order, that is, with each place name listed next to its next higher administrative division. This list is also available in alphabetic order by Pinyin letters.

Initial Chinese Characters in Xinjiang Place Names

Before three small lists and the main list, with the place names, are two tables. These may be helpful to the reader for using these lists in conjunction with a Chinese map or other source with Chinese place names. Each table has a list of the 281 distinct initial Chinese characters found in the nearly a thousand Xinjiang place names from the full list below, along with its Pinyin equivalent. The table on the left is ordered by Chinese character. The table on the right is ordered in roman alphabetic order by the Pinyin letters of the place name.

About Xinjiang Place Names

Every place name in Xinjiang also has a Uyghur name as well as its Chinese name. Since Xinjiang is a Uyghur Autonomous Region, Uyghur and Chinese are both legal languages for government and both Uyghur and Chinese place names are legal names. The reader can see the Chinese and Uyghur names for all administrative units down to the county level at List of Administrative Divisions of Xinjiang at Wikipedia. For more information on adminstrative units in China, see Political Divisions of China at Wikipedia.

Each place in the main list below (in the first two columns) is matched with the administrative division under which is is administered (in the second two columns).

Xinjiang, an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, is made up of the following administrative divisions:

• 14 prefecture-level divisions
• 2 prefecture-level cities
• 7 prefectures
• 5 autonomous prefectures
• 99 county-level divisions
• 20 county-level cities
• 62 counties
• 6 autonomous counties
• 11 districts
• 1009 township-level divisions
• 10 district public offices
• 299 towns
• 582 townships
• 43 ethnic townships
• 145 subdistricts

Generally, a village is administered by a township, a township and a town by a county, a county by a prefecture and a prefecture by a province or region. However, there are many exceptions. Some cities, for example, are administratively prefecture-level cities (地级市 dìjíshì); that is, they are administered directly by the provincial / regional government rather than by a prefecture. A few prefectures are administered by other prefectures. Villages may be administered by a township, a larger town, a city or a county.

In China, administrative units with a high population ratio of a particular nationality group have certain autonomous (自治 zì zhì) rights and are often given different unit designation. Take the example of province and region. Gansu is called Gansu Province (省 shěng), while Xinjiang, with its high population of Uyghurs, is called Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; these are both provincial-level areas. Different characters are used for regular prefectures (地区 dìqū) and autonomous prefectures (州 zhōu), though the English translation for both characters is the same. The same character is used for regular and autonomous counties (州 xiàn), though some English sources translate that character as district.

Before the main section, there are three additional brief tables:

• A list of Chinese characters and Pinyin for different types of administrative units in Xinjiang, along with their approximate equivalent in English.
• A list of ethnic designations used in Xinjiang administrative units.
• A list of prefectures and prefecture-level citites in Xinjiang.

Place-Type Characters in this List

(The Pinyin place names often don't include the place type designation,
unless needed to distinguish, for example, between Hetian City and Hetian County.
The place type is generally included in the Chinese-character version of the name.)

Ethnic Designations in this List

Xinjiang Prefectures and
Prefecture-Level Cities

Place Names in Xinjiang  
- Chinese Character Order -
- in Chinese Characters and Pinyin -

Data source: http://www.zwsky.com/indexChina/chinaxinjiang.jsp

Adapted by http://www.centralasiatraveler.com