Yining (Gulja / Qulja) (Chinese: 伊宁), also known as Ghulja (Uyghur: غۇلجا; Kazakh: قۇلجا), and formerly Ili and Kulja, 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.
Administratively, the City of Yining is a county-level administrative unit. As of 2004, it occupied 629 km2 (243 sq mi), with the population of 430,000 people. The city is located at an elevation of about 640 m (2,100 ft).
The land area and population of the City of Yining were smaller before 2004; the increase resulted from the transfer of two villages with some 100 km2 (39 sq mi) of land from the adjacent Yining County, which is a separate administrative unit from the city.
From 13-15th century it was under the control of Chagatai Khanate known as Mughulistan empire with its capital Almaligh, Turpan, Tashkent, Yarkent and Kashgar. Another Mongul 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:
I just hung up the phone
I was talking to you
We said good bye
I sat down and cry
Coz' I remembered the things
That we've done
When we were sitting together
And our love has begun
For more and more
I want to go back in time
I'll always love you
I hope you know
But on and on
I need to wait
Chorus:
7 1/2 years that was our pact
7 1/2 years there is no turning back
7 1/2 years till I get to see you again
I am looking at the pictures
Of me and you
Both of us were smiling
For this damn photo-shoot
That was the day when it all began
But all I want to now
Is to see you again
For more and more
I want to go back in time
I'll always love you
I hope you know
But on and on
I need to wait