URUMQI is the political, industrial and
economic capital of Xinjiang, China and by far the largest
city in the region, with a population of well over
one million, the overwhelming majority of whom are
Han Chinese. Its name means "Beautiful
Pastures" - a slightly misleading description
these days, even though the skyline to the east is
marked by the graceful snowy peaks of the Tian Shan.
For travellers arriving from western China or
Central Asia, this will be the first truly Chinese
city on your route, and 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 clothes 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 impose the special
low rates of tax, normally permitted only in port
cities such as Shanghai and Xiamen, as a means of
luring in capital - an unusual distinction, to say
the least, for a city located 2000km from the
nearest sea.
If you're coming from eastern China, however, the
city may not seem particularly exciting given its
lack of historical identity. Nevertheless, it does
have lively bazaars, as well as a certain pioneering
feel to it - the shiny, new highrise office
buildings and hotels downtown seem to suggest a
great metropolis, until you notice the barren,
scrubby hillsides just around the corner and realize
that the whole place has fairly recently been
dropped into the desert. Apart from this, the main
reason to visit Urumqi is to arrange a trip to Tian
Chi (Heaven Lake), three hours east of the city
by bus.
Under the name of Dihua, Urumqi became the
capital of Xinjiang in the late nineteenth century.
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. Urumqi began to emerge
from its extreme backwardness only with the
completion of the Lanzhou-Urumqi 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 Urumqi-Almaty
rail line in 1991, the final link in the
long-heralded direct route from China through
Central Asia to Europe was complete.
