Xinjiang: No longer "Thinly Populated"

In the eyes of most people, Xinjiang has been a vast thinly populated place in China. But statistics from population departments of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region tell that this view should be righted.

Though Xinjiang is a vast land yet most parts of it are deserts. It is merely a few hundred of various sizes of oases over an area totaling 40,000 sq.km that support a population of 18 million residing on this land. The population density averages 249 persons per sq.km, the same as that of Hunan or Hubei province. In contrast, the density in other arid lands of the world is no more than 7 per sq.km.

Also as is told, Xinjiang is still at a time facing a continuous growth in population in the coming 15 years, not to say the fact it has already been burdened by a new population of 340,000 people descending on the land every year.

People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/