Balykchy

Balykchy Балыкчы
Fish vendors at Balykchy selling dried fish to a transit bus passenger
Coat of arms
Balykchy Location in Kyrgyzstan
Coordinates: 42°28′N 76°11′E / 42.467°N 76.183°E / 42.467; 76.183
Country	Kyrgyzstan
Province	Issyk Kul Province
Area
• Total	38 km2 (15 sq mi)
Population
• Total	40,000

Balykchy (Kyrgyz: Балыкчы. Balıkçı) is a town with a population about 40,000 people located at the western end of Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan, at 42°28′N 76°11′E / 42.467°N 76.183°E / 42.467; 76.183 and an elevation of about 1,900 metres. A major industrial and transport centre (wool and crop processing, lake shipping, rail terminal, and road junction) during the Soviet era, it lost most of its economic base after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the closure of virtually all of its industrial facilities.

It was named Rybachye (fishing place in Russian) in 1909-1993. In the early 1990s, following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the town was known as Issyk-Kul, taking the name of the adjacent lake. Shortly after independence, its name was changed to Balykchy [1] which means fisherman in Kyrgyz language.

The main road from Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, to China, a part of the ancient Great Silk Road, passes through Balykchy before it starts its long and arduous way across the alpine ranges of Naryn Province in central Kyrgyzstan to the Chinese border at Torugart Pass. Plans for the rail road from the Chinese border to Balykchy, where the line from Bishkek currently ends, are under discussion. Two other roads go around the north and south sides of Issyk Kul to Karakol and then around the east end of the Kungey Alatau to the far southeast of Kazakhstan.

References

Balykchy Government Office

• Falling Rain Genomics, Inc. "Geographical information on Balykchy, Kyrgyzstan" (in English). http://www.fallingrain.com/world/KG/7/Balykchy.html. Retrieved 2008-11-27. 

External links

Media related to Balykchy at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 42°27′40″N 76°10′49″E / 42.46111°N 76.18028°E / 42.46111; 76.18028

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