Definition of "Yarkant"

In 1870, Tsarist troops occupied Guldja in the north-west of the province. The same year, and again in 1873, the British agent Douglas Forsyth led a mission to Yarkant to establish diplomatic relations with Yakub Beg, the feudal warlord of Kashgaria, who was consolidating his rule over the area.

1994, Christa Paula, The Road to Miran‎, HarperCollins, page 17

Kishen Singh headed north again in 1873, when he and Nain Singh accompanied British diplomats to the city of Yarkant (now in the Chinese region of Xinjiang Uyghur). The following year, he explored the area south of Yarkant and ventured into the rugged Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan. His greatest achievements, however, was yet to come.

1999, “Singh, Kishen”, in Explorers from Ancient Times to the Space Age‎, volume 3, page 73

On the south side of the Taklimakan Desert stands a Central Asian oasis, the edge of a dusty city that was once the centre of a great Buddhist kingdom. As early as the second century A.D., Yarkant (Suoju, Shache, or So-ch'e in Chinese) was responsible for ideas and texts that changed the Chinese empire. These days Yarkant is a market town for low-income Uighurs, Islamic farmers and herders who have lived here for more than a millennium, and a strategic base for China's domestic security forces. With some of the lowest annual incomes in China, these ethnic-minority farmers and herders scratch out a living based on the trickle of moisture that flows from the Kunlun mountain range to the near south. Yarkant is literally wedged in between the outer edge of the Himalayas and a vast desert filled with hidden energy treasure.

2009, Gordon Laird, The Price of a Bargain‎, McClelland & Stewart, page 195

A court in the far western region sentenced 12 people to death on Monday for an attack in Xinjiang's southern Yarkant county on July 28, in which the government said 59 "terrorists" were gunned down by security forces, while 37 civilians were killed.

2014 October 15, “China broadcaster says Xinjiang attack mastermind sought Islamic state”, in Reuters‎, archived from the original on 08 January 2016