(Chinese, Shach’e), a city in Northwest China, in the Sinkiang-Uighur Autonomous Region, in the Yarkand valley, on the western edge of the Takla Makan Desert. Population, 30,000 (1956). Yarkand is a transportation center on the Northern Kunlun Road. It is the center of an agricultural oasis, where wheat and cotton are planted on irrigated lands; also of importance are fruit growing and sericulture. Yarkand is noted for its cottage industries, including the manufacture of carpets, tussah, and silk and cotton goods.

(in the upper course, Raskem Darya), a river in western China. A headstream of the Tarim River, the Yarkand is 1,068 km long. It is formed by meltwater from glaciers of the Karakoram. Upon emerging from the mountains, it forms an alluvial fan with numerous channels. Before its confluence with the Aksu (Ak’osu Ho) and Khotan (Hot’ien Ho), other headstreams of the Tarim, it flows along the northwestern margin of the Tarim Basin in a shifting channel. High water, caused by rain and by meltwater from snow and glaciers, occurs in the summer. The river flows intermittently on the plains in the spring. The mean flow rate is approximately 170 cu m per sec. The Yarkand irrigates the Yarkand Oasis.