Definition of "Qira"
Qira
proper noun
A county of Hotan prefecture, Xinjiang, China.
Quotations
Passing through Qira County on our way, we were asked to stay by Wang Yijun, Director of the Office of the County Party Committee. He said he was an amateur archaeologist and an old acquaintance of Li Yuchun’s. In 1978 the two men had gone together to the desert in northern Qira County to survey a buried ancient city.
1989, 车慕奇 [Che Muqi], “Visit to an Ancient City Buried in the Desert”, in 丝绸之路今昔 [The Silk Road, Past and Present], Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, Newly Discovered Relics in the Desert, page 293
Tamarix forests not only effectively control local sand movement, wind erosion and disasters caused by wind-blown sand, but can also stop sand grains brought by the wind. For example, on the 3333.3 hectacres of planted Tamarix forest at the outer Qira Oasis with 60-70% coverage, the annual sand-blocking amount can reach 700,000 m³. When the wind passes through a Tamarix forest, besides blocking sand, the twigs and leaves of the trees also obstruct the passage of the dust in the air, improving the health situation of humans and livestock. For example, when the wind velocity is 15 m/s, the dust content at 2m height is 1/18 of the content measured at the same height in the outer oasis (observed at Qira County in 1987).
2001, Wenjiang Liu, Mingting Liu, “Reversing Desertification with Tamarix in China”, in Dov Pasternak, Arnold Schlissel, editors, Combating Desertification with Plants, page 310
A farmer checks the condition of dates in Qira County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Sept. 1, 2019.
2019 September 11, “Local villagers shake off poverty through plantation, livestock breeding in Xinjiang”, in Lu Hui, editor, Xinhua News Agency, archived from the original on December 14, 2019