Altay

The Altay Mountains to the north prevent rain clouds from reaching the Gurbantünggüt Desert, which fills the center of the Junggar Basin in China's northwest corner.

The Kazaks were struggling in poverty before liberation. Some 2,000 people died of starvation in the Altay Prefecture from 1944 to 1945, and 40 per cent of the Kazak herdsmen in Altay County alone were homeless in 1946.