Aral, Xinjiang
Aral is a sub-prefecture-level city surrounded by Aksu Prefecture in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. Aral means "island" in Uyghur. The city's name is also often written as Alar. History. According to Radio Free Asia, a United States government-funded news service, Aral was created in the 1950s by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps to facilitate Han Chinese immigration to the region. Aral became a city in 2002 and its population increased to 166,205 in 2010. On January 23, 2013, of territory was transferred from Awat County (Awati) to Aral city and of territory  was transferred from Aksu city (Akesu) to Aral city. Geography. The city has an administrative area of . It is bordered by mountainous regions to the north and northwest and the Taklamakan Desert to the east and south. Demographics. As of 2015, 167,697 (93.6%) of the 179,214 residents of the county were Han Chinese, 6,036 (3.4%) were Uyghur and 5,481 were from other ethnic groups. Education. Tarim University is located in Aral.