China Guide
The Northwest
Ürümqi
ÜRÜMQI – Wulumuqi in Chinese – is the political, industrial and economic capital of Xinjiang, and by far the largest city in the region, with a population of around two million, the overwhelming majority of whom are Han Chinese. Here, East meets West both in terms of geography and population. There are lively bazaars and food markets, and a vibrant nightlife, its business people, gold-, and oil-miners lending the place a certain pioneering feel. Three hours east of the city, Tian Chi (Heavenly Lake) is a welcome oasis.
For travellers arriving from western China or Central Asia, Ürümqi offers the first chance to witness the consumer boom that is sweeping the high streets of China, in the shape of smart department stores and designer boutiques. So vital has the city become as China's most westerly industrial outpost that in 1992 it was officially decreed a "port" to enable it to benefit from the special low rates of tax, normally permitted only in port cities such as Shanghai and Xiamen – an unusual distinction, to say the least, for a city located 2000km from the nearest bit of coastline.
During the first half of the twentieth century the city was something of a battleground for feuding warlords – in 1916 Governor Yang Zengxin invited all his personal enemies to a dinner party here, and then had their heads cut off one by one during the course of the banquet. Later, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Soviet troops entered the city to help quell a Muslim rebellion; they stayed until 1960. Ürümqi began to emerge from its extreme backwardness only with the completion of the Lanzhou– Ürümqi rail line in 1963. This more than anything helped to integrate the city, economically and psychologically, into the People's Republic. And with the opening of the Ürümqi– Almaty rail line in 1991, the final link in the long-heralded direct route from China through Central Asia to Europe was complete.
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