Yining (), also known as Ghulja () or Qulja () and formerly Ningyuan (), is a county-level city in Northwestern Xinjiang, People's Republic of China and the seat of the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. Historically, Yining is the successor to the ruined city of Almaliq in neighbouring Huocheng County. Yining is the third largest city in Xinjiang after Ürümqi and Korla. Area and population The city of Yining is a county-level administrative unit located along Ili River. As of 2015, it has an estimated population of 542,507, with a total land area of . It is the most populous city in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. The land area and population of the City of Yining saw an increase in 2003; the increase resulted from the transfer of two villages with some of land from the adjacent Yining County, which is a separate administrative unit from the city. History Note on historical place names From 13-15th century it was under the control of Chagatai Khanate. Another Mongol empire—the Zunghar Khanate—established around Ili area. In the 19th and early 20th century, the word Kuldja or Ghulja was often used in Russia and in the West as the name for the entire Chinese part of the Ili River basin as well as for its two main cities. The usage of 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica is fairly characteristic: it defines Kulja as a "territory in north-west China" bounded by the Russian border and the mountains that surround the Ili basin and it talks about two major cities of the region: Kulja (i.e. today's Yining) or more specifically Old Kulja (elsewhere, also called Taranchi Kulja), which was the commercial center of the region. Suidun (i.e. Suiding, now called Shuiding) or more specifically New Kulja, Manchu Kulja or Ili (elsewhere, also Chinese Kulja), the Chinese fortress and the regional capital. Until the 1860s, Huiyuan to the south of Suiding was the regional capital. Qing dynasty The fort of Ningyuan () was built in 1762 to accommodate new settlers from southern Xinjiang. The forts of Huining () and Xichun () built later in 1765 and 1780 were also located within the modern Yining City. The Sino-Russian Treaty of Kulja 1851 opened the area for trade. In 1864–66, the city suffered severely from fighting during the Dungan Revolt. The city and the rest of the Ili River basin were seized by the Russians in 1871 during Yakub Beg's