Karamay Karamai | |
|---|---|
 The Karamay River running throughKaramay District | |
| Etymology: FromUyghur wordsqara may (قارا ماي), meaning "black oil" | |
.png) Location of Karamay City jurisdiction in Xinjiang | |
  Karamay Location of the city centre in Xinjiang Show map of Dzungaria Karamay Karamay (Xinjiang) Show map of Xinjiang Karamay Karamay (China) Show map of China | |
| Coordinates (Karamay municipal government):45°34′48″N84°53′21″E / 45.5799°N 84.8892°E /45.5799; 84.8892 | |
| Country | People's Republic of China |
| Region | Xinjiang |
| Municipal seat | Karamay District |
| Subdivisions | |
| Area | |
• Total | 7,734 km2 (2,986 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 354 m (1,161 ft) |
| Population (2020) | |
• Total | 490,348 |
| • Density | 63.40/km2 (164.2/sq mi) |
| • MajorNationalities | Han - 74.8% |
| GDP[1] | |
| • Total | CN¥ 97.3 billion US$ 14.1 billion |
| • Per capita | CN¥ 210,426 US$ 30,452 |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (China Standard) |
| Postal code | 834000 |
| Area code | 0990 |
| ISO 3166 code | CN-XJ-02 |
| License Plate Prefix | 新J |
| Website | www |
| Karamay | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 克拉玛依 | ||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 克拉瑪依 | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Uyghur name | |||||||||||||||
| Uyghur | قاراماي | ||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | black oil | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Karamay (also spelledKaramai) is aprefecture-level city in the north of theXinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. It issurrounded on all sides byTacheng Prefecture. The name of the city comes from theUyghur language and means "black oil", referring to the oil fields near the city.
Karamay was the site of one of the worst disasters in modern Chinese history, the1994 Karamay fire, when 324 people, including 288 school children, lost their lives in a cinema fire on 8 December 1994.[2]
Karamay City has jurisdiction over fourdistricts (区;qū). They are not contiguous asDushanzi District is located south of the Lanxin Railway and forms an exclave, separated from the rest of Karamay City byKuytun City. Together with Kuytun City, Karamay City forms an enclave surrounded on all sides byTacheng Prefecture.
| Map | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| District | Hanzi | Hanyu Pinyin | Uyghur (UEY) | Uyghur Latin (ULY) | Population (2020 Census) | Area (km2) | Density (/km2) |
| Karamay | 克拉玛依区 | Kèlāmǎyī Qū | قاراماي رايونى | Qaramay Rayoni | 337,188 | 3,834 | 87.95 |
| Dushanzi | 独山子区 | Dúshānzǐ Qū | مايتاغ رايونى | Maytagh Rayoni | 84,395 | 400 | 210.99 |
| Baijiantan | 白碱滩区 | Báijiǎntān Qū | جەرەنبۇلاق رايونى | Jerenbulaq Rayoni | 50,825 | 1,272 | 39.96 |
| Orku | 乌尔禾区 | Wū'ěrhé Qū | ئورقۇ رايونى | Orqu Rayoni | 17,940 | 2,228 | 8.05 |
Karamay is located in the northwest of theDzungarian basin, with an average elevation of 400 meters (1,300 ft). Its administrative area ranges in latitude from 44° 07' to 46° 08' N and in longitude from 80° 44' to 86° 01' E and has a maximal 240 km (150 mi) north–south extent and reaches 110 km (68 mi) in east–west width. It bordersHoboksar Mongol Autonomous County to the northeast,Shawan County to the southeast,Toli County andWusu to the west andKuytun to the south.
The naturally available water supply in the Karamay area is limited: it mostly consists of two small rivers (theBaiyang River and the Da'erbute River (达尔不特河) flowing into theDzungarian Basin from the mountains of its northwestern rim. In addition, the city receives water from theIrtysh River, over theIrtysh–Karamay Canal, which was officially opened in 2008.[3]
A number of natural (Ailik Lake) and artificial (Fengcheng, Huangyangquan) reservoirs are located in Karamay's northeasternUrho District; they all are replenished, directly or indirectly, by water from the Irtysh–Karamay Canal.
Karamay has an extremely continentaldesert climate (Köppen climate classificationBWk,TrewarthaBWac), typified by great seasonal extremes in temperature, varying by 43.0 °C (77.4 °F); with long, very hot summers (for its latitude) and long, severely cold winters with brief spring and autumn in between. The monthly 24-hour average temperature is −15.2 °C (4.6 °F) in January and soars to 27.8 °C (82.0 °F) in July and the annual mean is 8.91 °C (48.0 °F), warmer than most places at the corresponding latitude, due to the long summers. Annual precipitation is 119 millimeters (4.69 in) and the summer months record the most rainfall, despite relative humidity levels averaging around 30%. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 37% in December to 71% in September, sunshine is generous, only occurring less than 50% of the time in November and December and the annual average total is 2,694 hours.
| Climate data for Karamay, elevation 450 m (1,480 ft), (1991–2020 normals) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 5.8 (42.4) | 12.9 (55.2) | 24.9 (76.8) | 35.6 (96.1) | 39.5 (103.1) | 40.7 (105.3) | 44.0 (111.2) | 42.7 (108.9) | 39.1 (102.4) | 29.9 (85.8) | 20.2 (68.4) | 9.5 (49.1) | 44.0 (111.2) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −11.9 (10.6) | −6.6 (20.1) | 6.4 (43.5) | 19.7 (67.5) | 26.4 (79.5) | 31.7 (89.1) | 33.4 (92.1) | 31.8 (89.2) | 25.0 (77.0) | 15.3 (59.5) | 3.5 (38.3) | −8.0 (17.6) | 13.9 (57.0) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −15.9 (3.4) | −10.8 (12.6) | 1.7 (35.1) | 14.0 (57.2) | 20.5 (68.9) | 26.0 (78.8) | 27.7 (81.9) | 26.0 (78.8) | 19.5 (67.1) | 10.5 (50.9) | −0.2 (31.6) | −11.4 (11.5) | 9.0 (48.2) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −18.9 (−2.0) | −14.3 (6.3) | −2.4 (27.7) | 9.2 (48.6) | 15.2 (59.4) | 20.7 (69.3) | 22.5 (72.5) | 20.8 (69.4) | 14.7 (58.5) | 6.5 (43.7) | −3.2 (26.2) | −14.0 (6.8) | 4.7 (40.5) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −35.9 (−32.6) | −34.3 (−29.7) | −26.7 (−16.1) | −10.4 (13.3) | 2.1 (35.8) | 9.0 (48.2) | 12.3 (54.1) | 8.2 (46.8) | 0.3 (32.5) | −7.7 (18.1) | −27.2 (−17.0) | −34.3 (−29.7) | −35.9 (−32.6) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 4.6 (0.18) | 3.3 (0.13) | 3.4 (0.13) | 9.5 (0.37) | 14.0 (0.55) | 17.8 (0.70) | 27.2 (1.07) | 17.4 (0.69) | 9.2 (0.36) | 7.3 (0.29) | 5.6 (0.22) | 6.1 (0.24) | 125.4 (4.93) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 0.1 mm) | 7.5 | 5.6 | 2.9 | 4.5 | 5.3 | 7.5 | 9.5 | 7.1 | 4.6 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 8.5 | 70.8 |
| Average snowy days | 12.7 | 10.2 | 3.8 | 0.6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 | 5.4 | 13.7 | 46.9 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 78 | 75 | 56 | 35 | 31 | 32 | 35 | 34 | 35 | 46 | 63 | 77 | 50 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 127.2 | 150.7 | 218.9 | 259.9 | 306.7 | 299.3 | 301.2 | 301.6 | 264.2 | 222.3 | 135.9 | 97.9 | 2,685.8 |
| Percentagepossible sunshine | 44 | 50 | 58 | 63 | 66 | 64 | 64 | 71 | 72 | 67 | 49 | 36 | 59 |
| Source:China Meteorological Administration[4][5][6] | |||||||||||||
According to the 2010 census, over 80% of Karamay's population areHan Chinese, with minorities such asUighur,Kazakhs,Mongols andHui making up the rest. The population of 2010 is 391,008, a rise from the 270,232 of 2000 census. The population density is 50.6 inhabitants per km2.[7] The 2015 population estimate is 401,468.[8]
| Ethnicity | Population | % |
|---|---|---|
| Han Chinese | 319,265 | 81.65% |
| Uyghur | 44,866 | 11.47% |
| Kazakhs | 11,620 | 2.97% |
| Hui | 8,238 | 2.11% |
| Mongol | 2,348 | 0.60% |
| Manchu | 754 | 0.19% |
| Xibe | 681 | 0.17% |
| Tujia | 678 | 0.17% |
| Russian | 471 | 0.12% |
| Uzbek | 177 | 0.05% |
| Dongxiang | 133 | 0.03% |
| Kyrgyz | 117 | 0.03% |
| Tajik | 35 | <0.01% |
| Others | 1,625 | 0.42% |
| Total | 391,008 | 100% |
In 1955, one of the largestoil fields in China was discovered there. Since then, the city has grown into an oil-producing and refining center.
In 2008, the GDP reached¥66.1 billion and GDP per capita reached¥242,391 (US$34,901), ranking first among 659 cities in mainland China.
Karamay has established a Cloud Computing Industry Park as part of its economic diversification strategy away from traditional oil extraction. The park leverages the city's abundant power supply and cool, dry climate to host data centers and attract IT companies, positioning itself as a key node for data services in Western China.[11]
Links to related articles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Geographic | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
