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Khorgos
County-level city in Xinjiang, China From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Khorgos (from Russian: Хоргос; Chinese: 霍尔果斯), officially known as Korgas[2] (Kazakh: قورعاس; Uyghur: قورغاس), is a county-level city in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, China. It straddles the country's border with Kazakhstan;[3] on the Kazakh side of the border is a city also named Horgos in Russian and Korgas in Kazakh.
Khorgos area is a hub of the New Eurasian Land Bridge, 200 km from the Alataw Pass, the historically important Dzungarian Gate, with a cross-border visa-free special economic zone for trade and shopping (ICBC), a dry port for transporting goods and two new cities, one on either side of the border.[4][5]: 24
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History
In 1851, the Russian Empire signed an agreement with Qing China to have Khorgos and Tacheng opened as port of entries along the Qing-Russian border.[6]
In 1977, the 61st Regiment Farm fire in Khorgos killed 694 and injured 161.[7][8] It is one of the worst human-made disasters in China by death toll.
Transportation
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The Jinghe–Yining–Khorgos railway was completed in late 2009 and as of 2012 provides train service from Ürümqi and Yining to Khorgos.[9]
Passenger trains from Ürümqi started on 1 July 2010; however, they initially only ran to Yining and not all the way to Khorgos.[10][11] In December 2013, one of the daily Ürümqi-Yining passenger trains was extended to Khorgos. The travel time from Khorgos to Yining then was just over an hour.[12]
In December 2011, a 293-kilometre (182 mi) railway from the Khorgos border crossing to Zhetygen terminal (near Almaty) was completed; on 2 December 2012, the tracks from the Chinese and Kazakhstan sides of the borders were connected.[13] For some months, the railway on the Kazakh side was still operating in a test mode.[14] The railway border crossing (port of entry) at Khorgos became operational in the late 2012;[15] the first regular trains from the two countries crossed the border on 22 December 2012.[13] Thus, Khorgos, an international dry port, connects land-locked Kazakhstan to the sea port of Lianyungang in China.[16]
The railway border crossing is expected to handle up to 15 million tons of freight per year initially, the volume rising to 30 million tons per year in the long run,[13] opening up the second Europe-China rail link via Kazakhstan.[17]
Khorgos is a major break of gauge interchange. 41-ton gantry cranes are used to move shipping containers between standard gauge Chinese trains and Russian gauge Kazakh trains,[18] connecting to Altynkol railway station on a spur line of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy.
In June 2017, the Ürümqi Railway Bureau of the China Railway started daily passenger service from Ürümqi to Astana via Khorgos.[19]
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Economy
As of at least 2024, Khorgos is the second-largest dry port in the world.[5]: 57
In 2017, Boshihao Electronics, a robot manufacturing company, moved production from Shenzhen to Khorgos.[20]
Climate
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Administrative divisions
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Khorgos is divided into 4 subdistricts, 1 ethnic township, and 2 township-equivalent regions.
Others:
- 61st Regiment Farm (六十一团)
- 62nd Regiment Farm (六十二团)
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See also
- Transport in China
- Transport in Kazakhstan
- Railway stations in China
- Railway stations in Kazakhstan
- Nurkent
Gallery
The 1758 Victory of Khorgos, a 1774 engraving by Jacques-Philippe Le Bas (1707-1783), after Jean-Denis Attiret (1702-1768). Musée Guimet, Paris.[23]
Soviet border guards near Korgas (1984)
Korgas port gate
Notes
- Locals in Xinjiang frequently observe UTC+6 (Xinjiang Time), two hours behind Beijing.
References
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