| Shanshan County | |
| Other Name: | Piqan, Pichan |
| Pushpin Map: | Xinjiang#China |
| Pushpin Label: | Shanshan |
| Pushpin Label Position: | right |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of the seat in Xinjiang |
| Seat Type: | County seat |
| Seat: | Shanshan Town |
| Settlement Type: | County |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | China |
| Subdivision Type1: | Autonomous region |
| Subdivision Name1: | Xinjiang |
| Subdivision Type2: | Prefecture-level city |
| Subdivision Name2: | Turpan |
| Area Total Km2: | 39,550 |
| Population Total: | 242,310 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Footnotes: | [1] |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Population Density Urban Km2: | auto |
| Coordinates: | 42.869°N 90.213°W |
| Timezone: | China Standard |
| Utc Offset: | +8 |
| S: | 鄯善县 |
| T: | 鄯善縣 |
| P: | Shànshàn Xiàn |
| S2: | 皮羌县 |
| T2: | 皮羌縣 |
| P2: | Píqiāng Xiàn |
| Uig: | پىچان ناھىيىسى |
| Uly: | Pichan Nahiyisi |
| Uyy: | Piqan Nah̡iyisi |
| Sgs: | Piqan Nahiyisi |
| Usy: | Пичан Наһийиси |
| Order: | st |
Shanshan County as the official romanized name, also transliterated from Uyghur as Piqan County (;), is a county within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is under the administrative jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Turpan. It contains an area of 39548km2, occupying the eastern majority of Turpan. According to the 2002 census, it has a population of .
The county seat is in Shanshan Town.
The county is named after the ancient Shanshan Kingdom, although the kingdom was actually located mostly outside of the borders of the modern county, in the Lop Nur area. The place was originally named Piqian, and the Grand coordinator and provincial governor of Xinjiang proposed the name of Shanshan when Guangxu Emperor decided to set up a county in 1902.[2]
The local geology and the desert climate made it possible to discover a number of important fossil sites in the area, including China's largest cluster of fossilized dinosaur tracks and China's largest dinosaur.[3] Important dinosaur sites are associated with the Lianmuqin Formation (named after Lianmuqin Town) and the Subashi Formation (named after Subashi Village (42.9212°N 89.7441°W) in Tuyugou Township (Chinese: [[:zh:吐峪沟乡|吐峪沟乡]]).[4] The Shanshanosaurus is named after Shanshan.
In 2008 - 2011, a team of German and Chinese paleontologists discovered and studied an "enormous" accumulation of Jurassic turtle fossils at a site they nicknamed "Mesa Chelonia", approximately 25km (16miles) NNE of Shanshan Town. It is estimated that at least 1,800 skeletons of freshwater turtles, preliminary identified as belonging to the Annemys species were buried in this bone bed, in a stratigraphic layer probably belonging to the Qigu Formation. The researchers suggest that during a drought the turtles congregating at one of the few remaining water sources, and died there once that last water hole dried out. Then the skeletons were transported to the present location by a debris flow during a catastrophic rainfall event, forming a Konzentrat-Lagerstätte.
According to the paleontologist Walter Joyce, the Shanshan find has more than doubled the total number of Jurassic turtle specimens known to science. The excavated fossils have been transported to Shanshan Town, where they will be housed in the county museum (currently under construction).
On January 6, 2009, five well-preserved mummies of ethnic Han men who lived during the Qing dynasty were excavated at a construction site near the Flaming Mountains in the county.[5]
In June 2013, an incident in Lukchun lead to the deaths of dozens.[6]
Shanshan County is divided into 7 towns, 2 townships, 1 ethnic township and 2 other township-level divisions.
| Name | Simplified Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Uyghur (UEY) | Uyghur Latin (ULY) | Administrative division code | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Towns | ||||||
| Shanshan Town | Chinese: 鄯善镇 | 650421100 | ||||
| Chiqtim Town (Qiketai Town) | Chinese: 七克台镇 | 650421101 | ||||
| Railway Station Town | Chinese: 火车站镇 | 650421102 | ||||
| Lemjin Town (Lianmuqin Town) | Chinese: 连木沁镇 | 650421103 | ||||
| Lükchün Town (Lukeqin Town) | Chinese: 鲁克沁镇 | 650421104 | ||||
| Pichan Town | Chinese: 辟展镇 | 650421105 | ||||
| Dighar Town | Chinese: 迪坎镇 | 650421106 | ||||
| Ethnic township | ||||||
| Dungbazar Hui Ethnic Township | Chinese: 东巴扎回族乡 | 650421201 | ||||
| Townships | ||||||
| Tuyuq Township (Tuyugou Township) | Chinese: 吐峪沟乡 | 650421202 | ||||
| Dalankariz Township (Dalangkan Township) | Chinese: 达朗坎乡 | 650421203 | ||||
| Township-level divisions | ||||||
| Nanshan Mining District | Chinese: 南山矿区 | 650421400 | ||||
| Shanshan Horticultural Ground | Chinese: 园艺场 | 650421401 | ||||
Biratar Bulak is a spring in the southern part of the county.[7] [8]
Shanshan is served by China National Highway 312, the Lanzhou–Xinjiang Railway and Shanshan Airport.