Nice little map titled  Oasis de Barkoul et de Hami,  from wood engraving with fine detail and clear impression, nice hand coloring.  Overall size approx. 17 x 16 cm, image size approx. 11 x 10.5 cm. From La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes, 19 vol. (1875-94), great work of Elisee Reclus. Cartographer is Charles Perron.

Barkol

Barköl Kazak Autonomous County (sometimes Barkul or Balikul in English) is part  of Kumul Prefecture in Xinjiang and has an area of 38,445.3 km2 (14,843.8 sq  mi). It forms part of the China–Mongolia border (bordering the Mongolian  provinces of Khovd and Govi-Altai) on the county's north, while bordering Yizhou  District to the south, Yiwu County to the east, and Changji's Mori Kazakh  Autonomous County to the west.

Barköl was made an autonomous county on October 1, 1954. It is noted for camel  and horse breeding with the Barköl horse well known throughout China. Due to the  large number of camels, which is unparalleled in China, the county is nicknamed  of the "county of ten thousand camels".

Hami

Wade-Giles romanization Ha-mi , Uighur Qomul

city and oasis, eastern Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, China. An important  stage on the roads from Gansu province into Central Asia and to the west, Hami  was known to the Chinese in early times as Yiwu, the name Hami being the Chinese  rendering of the Mongolian version (Khamil) of the Uighur name for the city. The  Chinese occupied the oasis in early times, when they pursued an expansionist  policy in western Asia. In 73 CE, during the Dong (Eastern) Han period (25–220  CE), a commandery called Yihe (Yiwu) was established there. It was again  temporarily occupied in 610 during the Sui dynasty (581–618) and yet again  during the Tang dynasty (618–907) after 630, when it became the seat of a  regular prefecture, under the name Yizhou, remaining under Chinese domination  until 763, when the Tibetans overran northwestern China. In the 9th century it  came under the rule of the Uighurs, until they were supplanted by the Mongols in  the 13th century. After the Mongol withdrawal it became one of the various small  Uighur states and in 1473 was annexed by its neighbour, the sultanate of Turfan  (Turpan). In the late 16th and 17th centuries it came under the control of the  Dzungars. From 1698 onward, the Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12), embroiled with the  Dzungars, used it as a base for their campaigns and incorporated it into their  empire. It was badly damaged, like most of Xinjiang, in the Muslim Rebellion of  1860–70.

Since 1949 Hami has been provided with both rail and highway communications with  the rest of China. A coalfield nearby, with substantial reserves, produces coal  to supply industry in Ürümqi, the capital of Xinjiang. In the late 1950s Hami  became a major iron and steel producer. The discovery in the 1990s and  subsequent exploitation of petroleum in the Turfan and Hami basins also boosted  the city's economy. The oases nearby yield abundant farm products, and Hami  muskmelons are a local specialty. Pop. (2003 est.) 237,042.