[Lijahsbubbe]

Is it a populated area? (is that a dumb question?)

[Red_Devil 232]

I guess there was a quake of about 6.0 or 6.2 a few years ago that killed some 200 people. A 7.2 is about 32 x’s the 6.0. And this is near the Paki and Afgan border! May be Osama finally bit the dust!

[JimSEA]

Hotan seems to be a pretty big city with several dams with large reservoirs in the mountains to the south. Doesn't seen to be much outside of the cities — bleak desert. It is worth a look in Google Earth as it is at the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Hotan has a 4500 ft elevation and within a few miles to the south you are climbing up to 10,000 feet with 20,000 + just south of that.

[Slip18]

No, it’s not populated.