Ürümqi 迪化

People's Square in Ürümqi, Xinjiang
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:People%27s_Square_of_Urumqi_1.jpg
Author: Ccyber5


Ürümqi (Chinese: 迪化) is the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in northwestern China. Covering 828 sq km (320 sq mi), it has a population of 3.11 million people (2012 estimate), making it the most populous city in the Western Interior.

The history of Ürümqi goes back to the time of the Silk Road. The earliest settlement in Ürümqi is believed to be the town of Luntai, established in AD 648 during the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. The town served as a center for tax collection on the Silk Road.

After the Tang Dynasty, little is known of the Western Interior until the Qing Dynasty. Modern Ürümqi traces its history to when the town of Luntai, renamed Dihua by the Qianlong Emperor in 1763, was made the capital of Xinjiang Province. After the People's Republic of China was founded in 1954, the city was renamed Ürümqi, from the Mongolian language meaning "beautiful pasture".

Today Ürümqi serves as the transportation and commercial hub for the Western Interior of China. The city comprises eight county-level subdivisions of seven districts and one county. Han Chinese forms 75.3% of the population while 12.79% of the people are ethnic Uyghurs.

View of downtown Ürümqi with Zhong Tian Plaza, the tallest building in Northwest China and Central Asia
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Urumq_city_ZT_plaza.jpg
Author: Ccyber5

Planning your trip to Ürümqi

There are flights to Ürümqi from major cities in China including Beijing, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Dunhuang, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Jilin, Kunming, Lanzhou, Nanjing, Qingdao, Sanya, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Shijiazhuang, Xiamen, Xi'an, Xining, Yinchuang and Zhengzhou.

Places of Interest in Ürümqi

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

 Discover with Timothy YouTube Channel

 PG Food Channel

 Learn Penang Hokkien YouTube Channel

SojiMart Videos

 Share your travels and/or ask a travel-related question

Join the Penang Travel Tips Facebook Group to share photos, tips and anything related to your travels, or ask travel-related questions.

Map of Roads in Penang

Looking for information on Penang? Use this Map of Roads in Penang to zoom in on information about Penang, brought to you road by road.

Discover with Timothy

Let me take you to explore and discover Penang through my series of walking tours on YouTube. You may use these videos as your virtual tour guide. At the beginning of each video, I provide the starting point coordinates which you may key into your GPS, Google Maps or Waze, to be navigated to where I start the walk, and use the video as your virtual tour guide.

Disclaimer

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.

Latest from Discover with Timothy: Gurney Bay - what to see and do there

About this website

Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.

Robbie's Roadmap