Urumqi Overview

Basic Information

  • Chinese Name: 乌鲁木齐
  • Location: Situated in the middle of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
  • Area: About 14,216 square kilometers
  • Population: 2,220,000
  • Language: Lanyin official dialect, Uygur language, the Kazak language, Mandarin, etc.
  • Main Nationality: Han, Uygur, Hui and Kazak Nationality

Administrative Division

As the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumqi has jurisdiction over 7 districts and 1 county.  

Geography

As the largest city in northwest of China, Urumqi is located in the middle part of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Eurasian hinterland, north of Mount Tianshan and south of Junggar Basin. It has earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records, as the most remote city from any sea in the world. Urumqi borders Turpan city in east, Changji city in west, and Nanshan Mine Lot in south.

Broad rugged mountainous areas account for large part of Urumqi’s landform, with high southern and northeastern part as well as low central and northern areas. The highest peak here is Bogeda Peak of Tianshan Mountain, with an altitude of 5445 meters; the lowest point locates in the south of Mengjin Reservoir (猛进水库) which is 490.6 meters above sea level. The two points has 75-kilometer horizontal distance and 4954.4-meter elevation difference.Mountain areas take up more than 50% of its total area.

Urumqi city is surrounded by mountains in three sides, with Bodashan Mountain (博达山), Kalatag Mountain (喀拉塔格山) and Dongshan Mountain in east, Kalazha Mountain and Xishan Mountain (喀拉扎山) in west, and Tiange’ershan Mountain and Tugedabantage Mountain (土格达坂塔格) in south. Its north belongs to plain.

Landform here is roughly divided into three levels: the first level belongs to mountain, with elevation from 2500 to 3000 meters or more; the second is inter-montane basins and hills, with elevation from 1000 to 2000 meters above sea level; the third level is plain, with the elevation of 600 meters above sea level.

Climate

As a city that is the most remote from the sea, Urumqi belongs to continental semi-arid climate, with the hottest time in July and August, and during this period, the mean temperature is about 25.7℃. The coldest days here come in January, with the average tend of -15.2℃. The climate appears with very large differences between summer and winter. It has warm summers and very cold winters. The city is semi-arid, with summers slightly wetter than winters, but sunny weather is much more likely in the warmer months, and relative humidity is the lowest during summer. To Know More Details About Urumqi Climate.

The Best Time to Go

The best time to visit Urumqi is August and September (autumn). During this time, the weather starts to be cool and various melons are ripe. Especially the early September, the month attracts lots of photography lovers to come. The period from May to October is suitable for regular travel, but from December to February, there is no winter tourism project. July is too hot and January is quite cold, so the two months are not the best seasons.

Things to Do

When it comes to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, most people first think of its food, such as excellent fruit like grapes, honey-dew melon, delicious and fragrant roast mutton, hand grasping rice, etc. As the capital of Xinjiang, Urumqi could offer you all mentioned delicacy and other local unique food.

In addition to its food, as a city that quite far away from the sea, it is blessed with stunning inland natural scenery. There are lots of mountains that offer you spectacular national sites and snow-covered landscape.

Then, there is Han, Uygur, the Kazak and other 43 nationalities in Urumqi, so you could feel various minority culture and customs as well.

Transportation

Urumqi is a transportation hub that connects other areas domestically, South Asia as well as Europe. There are many national highway and national trunk lines so that it is an important national highway node. As the capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, it provides a convenient transportation system that varies from bus to plane. To Know More Details of Urumqi Transportation.

History& Culture

In New Stone Age, there were human beings thriving in the area. Situated near the northern route of the Silk Road, the ancient Jushi people were said to be the first inhabitants in this land, making a nomadic living on the north slope of the Tianshan Mountains. The place lies in distant inland areas, so it suffered poor economic growth conditions. However, with its own advantages of location and climate, in different dynasties, varied governance policies were carried out. Gradually, the place develops better and better. In 1954, it got the original name Urumqi back.

Xinjiang was known as the Western Regions in ancient time. From thousands years, Urumqi is the key place of the ancient silk road. Therefore, it’s the center that gathered western and Chinese culture. Also, it played role of a place of economic and cultural exchanges between the East and West. Urumqi presents multi-cultural characteristics with open, enthusiastic, generous, enthusiastic and striving features. It is the most dynamic city in central Asia. As a place that gathered system of Chinese culture, Indian culture, Islamic culture as well as the collection of European and American culture, a dozen people thrived, with inclusiveness and exchanges. A cosmopolitan bright culture was created here.

Economy

Urumqi is a nodal city of the second Asia-Europe continental bridge economic belt and economic center of western China. It is adjacent to central Asian countries, so it is an important hub that makes communication for western and eastern trade since the ancient times. And it has strong radiation effect of central Asia. Bordering with eight countries surrounding the land, Xinjiang has 17 category-1 ports and 10 category-2 ports, which sets good foundation of its economic development.

Owing to the surrounding eight countries, nearly 200 commodity trading markets of various types have been established, among which 32 market achieving more than one hundred million yuan’ annual turnover and 10 with more than 1 billion. A multi-level and multi-channel radiation central Asia trade network has formed, which makes it the forefront of the city in the west of China.

Dining

The diet here possesses distinctive features owing to diverse ethnic people here. Uyghur’s hand grasping rice, Nang (馕), roast mutton, baking steamed buns, Youtazi (油塔子), noodles served with soy sauce, chow mein, etc., Mongolian hand grasping meat, cheese, dried milk cake, stewed mutton, hot pot, baking bread, fried cake, etc., Russian bread, biscuits, dairy products, etc., all offer you multiple choices for eating. In addition, cuisine of other places could be seen here, such as Sichuan dishes, Cantonese cuisine. Of course, all kinds of fast food are everywhere as well. Except the staple food, high-quality fruits are convenient and delicious for the land enjoys good climate conditions of planting fruits. To know more about Urumqi Dining. 

Tourism

Urumqi is an important tourist attraction and distributing center of tourism for Xinjiang and even the whole country. Mount Tianshan is blessed with appalling snowy landscape, mountain forest view and grassland landscape, which gives colorful and abundant scenery for tourists’ sightseeing and exploration. Then, ethnic culture and art, as well as folk customs, offer cultural sites with characteristic of minority. Also, Tourist destinations with strong Xinjiang folk customs like Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar, Xinjiang Minjie Street (新疆民街), and Erdaoqiao Street are renowned at home and abroad. Besides, the ice and snow tour, and clothing fair and exhibition activities with characteristic of the Silk Road culture, etc. have been the name card of Urumqi city.

In 2017，Urumqi received more than 33 million tourists from home and abroad, with an increase of 30.4% compared to the previous year. During which about 3 .2 thousand came from abroad. The whole year, the city reached the total income of 44.99 billion yuan. With it unique features of culture and scenery, Urumqi has become a hot place for tourists nowadays.

Festivals

People of different nationalities live in Urumqi, and they all have their special and unique events and festivals to celebrate. So in addition to the traditional Chinese festivals, various activities would be given in different nationality. Taking part in local festivals or activities would bring much real experience and feeling of the people and culture. To know more about Urumqi Festivals.

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