Urumqi Travel Guide

China City Guide

Urumqi Brief

No city in the world is more distant from the sea than Urumqi, which lies 2249km (1,397 miles) away from the nearest ocean. The city's name means "beautiful pastures" in Mongolian, but urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonormous Region, is a modern industrial metropolis with a population of 1.5 million, and all its beautiful meadows lie well outside the city limits. Urumqi is the most Chinese of the Silk Read cities.Nearly 80% of its residents are Hen Chinese, recent "economic immigrants" who were induced to move west, attracted by the higher wages and better opportunities available on the frontier. However, the Uighur, the nomadic Kazakhs, and other minorities dominate the surrounding lands. Muslim rebels have ruled the city at times, both before and after Urumqi was declared the capital of China's New Territories in 1884. At the beginning of the 20th century, the city maintained separate Muslim, Chinese, and Russian quarters. The influence of the three groups remains strong today, but the Han Chinese are firmly in control of Urumqi's administration and factories.

The overriding truth about Urumqi,however, is that it is an ugly industrial monster set in one of the least appealing spots on the Silk Road--little more than a slag heap on which to heap more slag. On the other hand, the new Chinese workers and investors are planting greenways and replacing slums, making Urumqi the most modern city on the old Silk Road, a new crossroads for traders from China, Russia, and central Asia. Far travelers, the chief attraction of Urumqi is not trade or industry, of course, but the "beautiful pastures" hinted at in Urumqi's name, and those places are within reach. In the southern pastures of the Heavenly Mountains and at Heavenly Lake, where the Kazakhs roam on horseback, the alpine beauty of the Silk Road is at its grandest.

Urumqi History
Urumqi Climate

Urumqi History

Urumqi means "A beautiful Pasture land" in ancient Mongolian used by the Junggar tribe. 2000 years ago it was once an important town on the new northern route of the Silk Road, which made important contribution in promoting Sino-fore- ign economic & cultural exchanges. During the 22nd year of the Zhenguan's reign in the Tang Dynasty, 648 A.D., the Tang government set up the town of Luntai in the ancient town seat of Urabo.which is 10 kilometers away from the southern su- burb of Urumqi nowadays. The Ancient Luntai Town, which played quit significant a role on the new northern route of Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty, was the only town of tax collection, the only town of management, the town of supply and the first town as well. In the time of Qing Dynasty (A.D.1763), the emperor Qian Lon- g named the expanded city as "DiHua". UP to A.D.1884, another emperor Guang Xu put up Xinjiang as a Province and the Di Hua city as the capital of XinJiang. Af- ter the founding of the People’s Republic of China, by Feb. 1, 1954, the city name was restored to its original meaning e.g.Urumqi...

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Urumqi Climate

Urumqi is the capital of Xinjiang which is the most northwestern region in China. Urumqu has conspicuous continental climate, with highly changeable temperature, sharp difference in temperature between day and night, abundant sunshine, intense evaporation and little precipitation. The mean annual temperature of northern Xinjiang where Urumqi located is 4ºC-8ºC (33ºF-46.4ºF) and that of southern Xinjiang 9ºC-12ºC (48.2ºF-55.6ºF)...

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