Alashankou


Alashankou is a border city in Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. It is a port of entry by both railroad and highway from Kazakhstan as part of the Eurasian Land Bridge.

Overview

The city is named after the Dzungarian Gate, a pass connecting the two countries through the Dzungarian Alatau mountains. West of the pass, the port of entry on the Kazakhstan side is Dostyk. Alashankou is from Bole, from Ürümqi, and from Almaty. The weather in Alashankou is harsh.
Alashankou is one of China's national first-class ports of entry. The volume of imports and exports passing through Alashankou accounts for 90% of the total for all of Xinjiang. Since 2010 it has surpassed Manzhouli, Inner Mongolia to become the busiest land port-of-entry in China.
Formerly a township-level port commission under the administration of Bole City, Alashankou was upgraded to a county-level city in December 2012. The city governs an area of, including of built-up area, which is divided into Alatao and Aibihu subdistricts. It has a permanent population of 10,000 and a floating population of 30,000.

Transport

The agreement between the Soviet Union and the China to connect Kazakhstan with Western China by rail was achieved in 1954. On the Soviet side, the railway reached the border town of Druzhba in 1959. On the Chinese side, however, the westward construction of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang railway was stopped once it reached Urumqi in 1962. Due to the Sino-Soviet split, the railway link was not completed until September 12, 1990. The highway port of entry was opened in December 1995.
The railway networks of the two countries use different gauges, so there are breaks of gauge. It is proposed to build a standard gauge Transcontinental Railway to link Europe and China to bypass these two breaks of gauge. This project was signed in 2004.
On July 10, 2010, Bole Alashankou Airport was opened with scheduled flights to Ürümqi.

Administrative divisions