Qitai County

Coordinates: 44°01′N 89°35′E / 44.017°N 89.583°E / 44.017; 89.583

The Qitai County (simplified Chinese: 奇台县; traditional Chinese: 奇台縣; pinyin: Qitai Xian; Uyghur: گۇچۇڭ ناھىيىسى‎, ULY: Guchung Nahiyisi, UPNY: Guqung Nah̡iyisi^?), also known as Gucheng (古城), is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China and is under the administration of the Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture. It contains an area of 16,641 km². According to the 2002 census, it has a population of 230,000.

History

Located on one of the main routes of the Silk Road, the old Gucheng (often referred in the European writing of the past as "Ku Ch'eng-tze" etc., using Wade-Giles or Postal Romanization systems), was the western terminal for one of the caravan routes across the Gobi Desert. Owen Lattimore in The Desert Road to Turkestan leaves an account of his travel along this route in 1926-27.