Take office as Mayor of Hotan

Hotan, China · 570,000 people · Heritage City

The Hotan Prefecture Government and the Xinjiang Desert Control Research Institute manage a Silk Road oasis city at the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert — sourcing water from the Hotan and Karakash rivers draining the Kunlun Mountains — operating biological sand barrier green belts around the city perimeter to halt desert encroachment, maintaining ancient jade trading bazaar heritage, and sustaining the mulberry orchards and irrigation networks that underpin the region's silk production economy.

The record Hotan keeps on the Board of Mayors is still unwritten. Take office and write its opening chapter.

The city

Landmark: Hotan Bazaar & Jade Dragon Karakash River.

• The Xinjiang Desert Control Research Institute manages a biological sand barrier programme around Hotan — planting a living green belt of drought resistant trees (saxaul, poplar, and tamarisk) 10–15 km wide around the city's southern edge where the Taklamakan Desert actively advances — preventing dune encroachment that would otherwise bury the city's irrigation channels, with a permanent workforce monitoring dune movement via satellite and deploying emergency sand net barriers when advancing dunes approach critical infrastructure.
• Hotan has been a centre of nephrite jade trading since at least 1500 BCE — the Hotan and Karakash rivers carry jade tumbled from the Kunlun Mountains, historically hand collected from riverbeds by jade pickers — with the Hotan Jade Association now managing a city market where Uyghur craftsmen produce traditionally carved ornaments, requiring municipal heritage protocols that distinguish certified artisan jade carving workshops from industrial processing operations.

How a term works

Take office and each day brings a live situation from the city's services: a decision to make and a result that is measured. A term is judged on approval, infrastructure, environment and innovation, within the city's budget, and every term adds to the record Hotan keeps on the Board of Mayors. Mayors message and confer with one another, form councils, trade with neighbouring cities and send aid where it is needed. Cities rise together.

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