Xinjiang???

[Ian_Lee]

Some other interesting questions about Xinjiang.

Many fellow posters posed some interesting questions about that region:

(1) Xinjiang means "New Dominion". Therefore it is a newly acquired territory.

Xinjiang used to be called "Northern and Southern Routes of Tien Shan". Only in 1888 when Qing incorporated this frontier region into a province did they give it a new name "Xinjiang".

Per such logic, then the state of New Mexico may probably be a new land acquired from Mexico!

(2) Han Chinese are newcomers to this region.

It does not seem that way. The famous "Silk Road" left traces of Han Chinese settlement as early 100 A.D. all along Xinjiang. In fact, even in neighboring countries like Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the mountain range that straddles from Xinjiang into their countries is also called "Tien Shan" -- the Celestial Mountain.

If Han Chinese has left no legacy in this region, why would they adopt and use this old Chinese name?

(3) Uygurs are natives in this region:

The term "Uygur" was first found in historical record around the 6th-7th Century. They only moved into present day Xijiang in the 7th Century. So they were about 500 years later than Han Chinese in settling into this region.

(4) East Turkestan is the original name of this region:

East Turkestan only briefly appeared in this region during 1944-1949. But even at its peak, this short-lived republic just covered 1/3 of the total area of this region and it never encompassed Xinjiang's capital -- Diwa (Present day Urumqi).

Moreover, a lot of the government officials especially the military were staffed by the Soviets. So was it just another Manchukuo?

Finally, how far is western Turkestan -- Turkey -- from Xinjiang? How far are other parts of China from Xinjiang? Judged by distance, it seems the latter was probably more likely to be the early settlers.

[Quest]

Territories always belong to the victor. History plays no role in it.

[yan]

Finally, how far is western Turkestan -- Turkey -- from Xinjiang? How far are other parts of China from Xinjiang? Judged by distance, it seems the latter was probably more likely to be the early settlers

The origin of the turkic - speaking peoples is the Altai region, not Turkey (Asia minor began to become turkish only after the 11th century)

Altai is not THAT far from Xinjiang.

[yan]

slightly off-topic, but here is how New Mexico got its name:

http://web.state.nm.us/BLUEBOOK/hist01.htm

[skylee]

Also off-topic, a part of Hong Kong is called New Territories, which means the same thing as Xinjiang. The only difference is that it was the new territories acquired by Britian.