HISTORY

The place where Urumqi stands was a pastureland in ancient times. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the wasteland was reclaimed and agriculture was initiated by immigrants. During the Sui Dynasty, trade began to be conducted between the region and the interior of the country, which further brought in the advanced civilization from the Central Plains. During the Tang Dynasty, troops were stationed in the Urumqi area to develop the land and to build frontier fortifications. During the Ming Dynasty, a city was set up in the present Jiujiawan District of Urumqi, but it was destroyed by fire in the Jungar Rebellion which was put down by the the Qing government in 1755, the twentieth year of the reign of Qing Dynasty Emperor Qianlong. The Qing troops built barracks on the east side of the Urumqi River in 1758, the twenty-third year of Qing Emperor Qianlong. Five years later, a new city was built and named “Dihua,” which in Chinese, means “enlightening and civilizing” and, so, carried implications of contempt for the minority nationalities. In 1765, Dihua City was extended from its north. In 1884, the tenth year of Qing emperor Guangxu, Xinjiang Province was established and Dihua City became its capital. In 1954, five years after liberation, the city was renamed Urumqi.

POPULATION AND NATIONALITIES

Urumqi is a multinational city with a population of 1.2 million and a population density of 101persons per square kilometer. There are thirteen nationalities living in the city, including the Uygur, han, Hui, Kazak, Manchu, Mongol, Xibe, and Russian. Of the total population of the city 74.11 percent are Han nationality; 11.82 Uygur; 9.87 Hui; 3.10 Kazak; 0.29 Manchu; 0.23 Mongol; 0.16 Xibe and 0.09 Russian. The population of Urumqi is youthful. Statistics of the third population census in 1982 showed that people 35 years of age or below accounted for 70.5 percent and the average life expectancy was 72.14 years, with 70.58 years for male and 73.45 years for female.

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS

Urumqi has under its jurisdiction seven districts (Tianshan, Shayibake, Xinshi, Shuimogou, Toutunhe, Nanshan Mining District and Dongshan), which have forty neighborhood offices and 277 residents’ committees under their administration, one district, twenty-one townships and 106 villages, and six state farms (the May LST Farm, Sanping, Xishan, Toutunhe, No.104 Regiment Farm and the Poultry Farm).

CLIMATE AND NATURAL RESOURCES

The city is rich in natural resources. High-quality coal reserves of all kinds have topped nine billion tons. In the southeast there is forty square kilometers natural salt lake which abounds with salt and mirabilite. Furthermore, the northern part of the city is blessed with many other minerals, such as oil, natural gas, iron, manganese, phosphorus and limestone.

ECONOMY

There are altogether 229,000 workers and staff members employed in the city’s industrial enterprises, of which 155,000 are employed by enterprises of state ownership and 74,000 work in collective-ownership enterprises. Various industries have been built up in the city, such as metallurgy, coal, electric power, electronics, machine-building, petrochemicals, chemicals, building materials, textiles, leather and hide processing, everyday goods and paper-making. The July LST Cotton Mill, the August LST Iron and Steel Factory, and the Petrochemical Plant are large-scale complexes, each having more than ten thousand workers and staff members

Urumqi, as the hub of communications for the Autonomous Region, has 40,000 vehicles of various types. There are up to a hundred public buses running along fifty routes to other parts of the region. Three railway lines meet at the Urumqi Railway Station: the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway, which is being extended further to the west; the Southern Xinjiang Railway which leads to Korla; and the Northern Xinjiang Railway, leading to Ala Pass, which is about to be open to traffic. With more than seventy flights arriving and departing its air port each week, Urumqi has air links with Biejing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Xi’an, Lanzhou, Chengdu and Dunhuang as well as with more than ten counties, cities and prefectures of the region. In addition, there are several international air lines to West Asia, Europe and Africa via Urumqi.

The city has 60,000 hectares of arable land, 46,667 of which is irrigated, 666,667 hectares of grassland and 39,000hectares of forest land with a timber storage of 3.47 million cubic miters. There are nine small and medium sized reservoirs and one medium-sized inland lake, altogether having total water storage of 220 million cubic meters.

Urumqi has 11,600 shops, service centers and commercial networks, of which eighteen are large and medium department stores and eleven are large farm trade markets; altogether they employ 50,000 employees.

Urumqi has established sister-city relations with Nanjing, Guangzhou and Chengdu and built up coordination relations with over ten provinces, autonomous regions and more than fifty cities and prefectures throughout the country. It has also established friendly city relations with Peshawar, a city in Pakistan, and at the same time developed extensive economic and trade contacts with Japan, the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, the Soviet Union and other countries and regions in West Asia.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, CULTURE AND PUBLIC HEALTH

There are in Urumqi about 110scientific research institutions under either the government of the autonomous region, the government of the city or various national government ministries. There are also forty-five specialized societies, associations and other academic organizations. Total employment of all these institutions is 5,000 Urumqi has eight institutions of higher learning run by the Autonomous Region, twenty-nine specialized secondary schools, twenty-two technical schools, ten vocational secondary schools, 190 ordinary secondary schools, 340 elementary schools and more than one hundred kindergartens.

Now in the city there are 540 medical establishments, fifty-six hospitals, 10,000 hospital beds, 2,000 doctors-in-charge and 15,000 public health technical personnel.

In addition to its forty cinemas, theaters and clubs, Urumqi has fourteen professional troupes and ensembles, including modern drama, Beijing Opera, other local operas, dance, quyi (folk art forms), and acrobatics. There are two libraries with a total collection of about one million books. In addition to the newspapers and periodicals published by the city, there are a dozen other news papers and periodicals in the Urumqi area. Several radio broadcasting stations and television stations are based in the city, including the Xinjiang Broadcasting Station, the Xinjiang Television Station, the Urumqi People’s Broad-casting Station and the Urumqi Television Station. The city has two gymnasiums, one large stadium, one racetrack and one target range. There are thirteen book stores and book markets as well as the Children’s Palace, museums, exhibition halls, a film studio, a television studio, people’s park, the zoo and the botanical gardens.

SCENIC SPOTS AND HISTORICAL SITES

Red Hill

Red Hill, 1.5 kilometers long and one kilometer wide and 910 meters above sea level, is situated on the eastside of the Urumqi River and at the very center of the city, running from east to west. The hilltop looks like a wriggling dragon. The hill’s rocks are reddish-brown, hence the name “Red Hill.”

At the top of the hill stands a nine-story, solid, grey brick pagoda eight meters high, facing one at the top of the Yamalike Hill. It is called “Zhenlong Pagoda,” meaning “Pagoda to Suppress Dragons.” According to historical documents, the Urumqi River at the foot of the Red Hill overflowed in 1785 and the year after. Some superstitious people at that time rumored that it was the evil done by a vicious dragon and that the Red Hill and the Yamalike Hill would join to each other blocking up the river and Urumqi area would turn into a vast expanse of water. In the year 1788, the fifty-third year of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, Shang An, the governor of Urumqi, had a pagoda built at the top of each hill in order to suppress the evil dragon. After two hundred years of weathering, the pagoda still remains basically intact. There used to be a number of historical sites on the hill. As early as the time of the nomadic Oyrat Tribe, an “Ebo” was built at the top of the hill; “Ebo” is the name for a kind of cairn used by the tribesmen to worship and offer sacrifice to their gods. During the Qing Dynasty, the Temple of the Jade Emperor was built at the top of the hill as well as the Temple of the Great Buddha; the Palace of the Dipper and the Temple of Ksitigabha were built at the foot of the hill. These splendid temples attracted a great number of visitors and made the hill a holy place where worshipers chanted the Bud dhist sutra and conducted religious services. Unfortunately almost all these magnificent buildings were burnt down in wars among warlords and nothing was left except a shaky temple gate and the pagoda standing at the top of the precipitous Red Hill. Today, Red Hill is regarded by the local people as the symbol of the city. As a result of the construction in the past thirty years or more, the barren Red Hill is now covered with emerald green trees and embellished with tourist facilities such as stone-stepped paths and an asphalt road winding to its top.

The “Southern Mountains” generally refers to the mountain area at the northern foot of Karawuquntag Mountain, a branch of the Tianshan Mountains to the south of Urumqi. This place is not only an excellent natural pastureland but also an ideal summer resort for sightseeing visitors. There are dozens of parallel valleys and ravines running from west to east, with the West Poplar Valley as the most famous one.

Seventy-five kilometers south of Urumqi, the West Poplar valley is located in the transition zone between low mountains and the mountains of intermediate height. At an elevation of 2,100 meters, it has an annual rainfall of 500 to 600 millimeters. The valley, screened by snowcapped peaks and dotted with tall and straight dragon spruce trees, is covered with a carpet of green grass. Setting off the deep shade of the green trees are white yurts scattered here and there, and small exquisite villas, elegant and quiet sanatoriums, reception houses for foreign guests and snack bars make the valley even more attractive. When making an excursion into this place, visitors are welcomed as guests to the yurts of the local Kazak herdsmen and always offered fragrant milk tea, mare’s milk, cheese and delicious roast lamb. They can entertain themselves to their hearts’ content with singing and dancing in threes and fours and ascend the heights, threading their ways through the deep woods, to enjoy the picturesque landscape. Young visitors who are fond of horsemanship can hire fine horses for a few coins from the local Kazak herdsmen, and make use of the whip to urge on the horse to gallop across the vast pastureland.

At the far end of the valley, one finds the landscape even more spectacular. From a striking precipice hiding in the green trees, a waterfall two meters wide cascades forty meters, floating down like a white silk in the air, roaring down to the bottom and spraying fine water droplets and mist onto the rocks covered with mosses and the green leaves on both sides, just like a drizzle making people feel pleasantly cool.

No. 1 Glacier, a geological sightseeing site 120 kilometers east of Urumqi, is situated on the Shengli Slope of Karawuquntag Mountain which is in the middle sector of the Tianshan Mountain Range.

Hemmed in by high mountains on three sides, the Glacier looks like a glistening jade article nestling in a giant bow-shaped basin. The mountain slopes are covered all the year round with snow, which accumulates there year after year and gets so thick that it slides down into the hollow basin. Pressed in the basin, the snow melts and recrystalizes into a translucent pale-blue glacier.

The west branch of the flowing glacier moves down twenty-seven meters a year and the east one eleven meters. When the front tip of the glacier, the ice tongue, reaches below the snow line, it gradually melts and becomes the main source of the Urumqi River.

People’s Park, originally called “the Park for Sharing Happiness,” is on the west bank of the Urumqi River. It was originally a stretch of marshland and lakes graced with centuries-old, luxuriant trees on all sides. After the completion of the city during the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, the place became a sightseeing and relaxing center. The construction of the park started in 1883, the ninth year of the reign of the Qing Dynasty Emperor Guangxu. Later on, the Longwang (Dragon King) Temple, the Zuixia Pavilion (Pavilion of Intoxicating Rosy Clouds), the Xiaochun (Spring-Herald) and the Jianhu pavilions were built successively on its sides. In 1918, Yang Zengxin, a warlord in Xinjiang , had the lake dredged, the lake banks reinforced and the Hall of the Red Phoenix Crying in the Morning Sun built, which was modeled after the halls and pavilions in the Palace Museum in Beijing. Renovated and extended after liberation, it was renamed “People’s Park.” The glistening ripples on the blue, crystal-clear Jianhu Lake, the luxuriant vegetation in the flower gardens, the resplendent and magnificent halls and pavilions with flying eaves and colorfully-glazed tiles as well as the Zoo, the Children’s Amusement Ground and the Memorial to the Revolutionary Martyrs, all add to the beauty of the park.

The Shuimo (Water Mill) Valley, located five kilometers east of the city in the suburbs, is a well-known scenic spot graced with gushing springs, emerald green plants and old trees. During the reign of the Qing Dynasty Emperor Guangxu, Pan Xiaosu, the first imperial inspector appointed by the emperor to Xinjiang, gave the springs in the valley the name “Springs of Admiration for the Sacred” and had an upright stone tablet erected, on which was engraved an inscription by the inspector himself. In 1888, or the fourteenth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, Dai Lan, a demoted official sent into exile to Xinjiang by the Empress Dowager Ci Xi, built the “Xiao Cao Pavilion” in the valley. Later on, the Qing troops built water mills here for processing army provisions and caused great damage to the scenery. After liberation, flowers and green trees were extensively planted, wayside pavilions built, small bridges erected and recreation centers opened. Now the valley has become a quiet and beautiful place for sightseeing.

The Grand Hall of the Shaanxi Mosque is located on the north side of Yonghe Zheng Lane (the Lane of Ever Harmonious Justice) on the South Heping Road (Peace Road) in Urumqi. The hall, a brick and wooden structure facing east, about ten meters high and with a floor space of 250 square meters, can accommodate 500 persons for religious service. In the architectural style of the hall, the Islam doctrine prohibiting the use of idols and animal patterns as decoration in mosques is strictly followed and, at the same time, the traditional Chinese architectural style of wooden structures is maintained. Thus, the structure, which reflects the architectural cream of the Chinese traditional civilization, is on the list of the historical relics to be protected by the Autonomous Region. The Shaanxi Mosque is the biggest one in Urumqi. It was built around the reign of Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Jiaqing of the Qing Dynasty, and renovated and extended in 1906, the thirty-second year of the reign of the Qing Dynasty Emperor Guangxu.

Situated at the southern end of South Jiefang Road, in Urumqi, it is also known as the Tartar Mosque, built in 1897 with donations from Tartar people. The mosque was rebuilt in 1919 with funds provided by the local Dehe Yanghang.

The mosque occupies an area of over 3,000 square meters. It is on a square stone terrace, measuring roughly 800 square meters. The ante courtyard, following Central Asian architectural layout, has corridors on three sides with picturesque decorations. The structure is supported by twenty-eight carved square pillars. The arc eaves are colorfully painted. The mosque has four adjacent prayer halls, the floors of which are fully carpeted. They can accommodate 1,000 people for prayers at the same time. The top part of the mosque is of the Tartar architectural style, with a tower is a gold yellow crescent. The tower is called the “Moon-Viewing Tower.” The moon can be viewed here to decide the day of fast for Moslems. On the dome, eaves, doors and windows the brick and wooden carvings follow flower or geometric patterns, strictly adhering to the Islamic principle not to use images or animals as decorations. The mosque is the principal place of religious activities of Uygur, Kazak, Tartar and Ozbek people in the Urumqi area. In the mosque are Koran classrooms, imams’ dormitories and a reception room.

Situated at Erdaoqiao, Jiefang Road, in the city of Urumqi, the mosque has a history of nearly one hundred years, being a leading place of religious gathering of a sect of Islamism in Xinjiang. Originally at Nantaizi, it was rebuilt at Erdaoqiao in 1919. The main structure is the prayer hall in a convex shape. The front section of the roof has double raised eaves are decorative tiles showing two dragon playing with a pearl. A five-layer board under the eaves is painted with colorful floral designs. The ridge purlin bears twenty-two flying dragons. The rear part of the hall is brick-laid, while the front of the structure is fixed with a wooden door is a broad inscribed with characters meaning “Lofty virtues in changing days.” Below the board are inscribed with four Islamic sacred creeds. On the walls on the two sides of the corridor are carved pictures of orchid, plum, bamboo and lotus flowers as well as ethics of virtue. The prayer hall is in two parts. The outer part is 15 x 22 m, while the inner part 15 x 15 m. One thousand worshipers can be accommodated for prayers.

In the compound are a minaret preaching tower, a bathroom for body cleaning before prayers, imams’ living quarter and a reception room for foreign visitors.

Urabo Ancient City, ten kilometers south of Urumqi in the suburbs and on the south bank of the Urabo Reservoir, is a historical site of the period from the Tang Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty and an important cultural site protected by the Autonomous Region. The ancient city is 550 meters from north to south, 480 meters from east to west and two kilometers in circumference. The remaining part of the city wall is four meters high with a maximum height of seven meters. There are three parts in the city. An earthen wall running from east to west divides the city into the north part and the south part, with the north part bigger than the south one. The north part is again divided into two parts by an earthen wall running from north to south. Almost all the structures in the city were destroyed, but there are still some remains of square-shaped, corner towers. On the ground in the city are scattered a lot of bones of gorses, sheep and camels. After liberation many relics such as pottery jars, pots and other earth ware articles as well as jade articles, square bricks with lotus designs and ancient coins were unearthed in the city.

The site of the Xinjiang Office of the Eighth Route Army is situated in Courtyard No.1, Lane 2 of Shengli Road in Urumqi. On a marble tablet standing at the right side of the gate, the inscription “THE MUSEUM OF THE XINJIANG OFFICE OF THE EIGHTH ROUTE ARMY” is engraved in Dong Biwu’s handwriting. The wooden adobe structure is a two-story combination of Chinese and Russian styles. Between 1937 and 1942 the working body of the Chinese Communist Party was set up here to lead Xinjiang War of Resistance Against Japan. Chen Yun, Deng Fa and Chen Tanqiu were successively in charge of the office as the Party representatives. Many senior cadres of the Party, such as Comrades Zhou Enlai, Wang Jiaxiang, Cai Chang and Liu Yalou, used to stay the night in the office on their way to and fro between Yan’an and the Soviet Union. In 1942, Sheng Shicai, a reactionary warlord in Xinjiang threw in his lot with Chiang Kai-shek, attacked the Communist Party and arrested many members of the Party in Xinjiang. As a result, the Xinjiang Office of the Eighth Route Army was closed. After liberation, the former site of the office was put on the list of the historical relics protected by the Autonomous Region. After the Museum of the Xinjiang Office of the Eighth Route Army was completed, the deeds of the revolutionary struggle of the Party in Xinjiang during the War of Resistance Against Japan were displayed in the museum. Also on display are the life stories, biographical notes and things left behind by eleven revolutionary notes and things left behind by eleven revolutionary martyrs. People like Deng Fa, Chen Tanqiu, Mao Zemin, Du Zhongyuan and Lin Jilu.

The site of the General Detachment of the West Route Army of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, also called “the Site of the Recruits’ Barracks,” is one of the historical relics protected at the autonomous region level. It is situated in Courtyards No. 2, 4 and 5 of Five-Star Road and the Courtyard No. 52 of West Back Street. It consists of three groups of buildings which are houses of wooden and earthen structures. The West Route Army was a unit, belonging to the Fourth Front Army of the Chinese Red Army,, which crossed the Yellow River to west and entered the Hexi Corridor on the Long March in August 1936. After more than four months of fighting bravely bloody battles against the local warlord Ma Bufang’s troops and going through all dinds of gardships and difficulties, the West Route Army, led by Li Xiannian, Li Zhuoran and Cheng Shicai, finally arrived in Xinjiang in April 1937. After the army arrived in Urumqi, it was reorganized into the General Detachment and stationed in the barracks outside the East Dihua Gate.

The Nest of Swallows is located in the southern suburbs of Urumqi and is six square kilometers in area with the Swallows’ Cliff to its east and the Urumqi River to its west. It has long enjoyed a good reputation for its scenery; in summer, the place is graced with tall straight green elms, poplars and Chinese scholartrees, clusters of wild roses and shrubs in colorful full bloom; in winter, it becomes a world of ice and snow, its trees covered with silvery snow flowers. The legend goes that, in the ancient times , a heroic boy called Yan’er, meaning “Little Swallow,” jumped into the Urumqi River and, boiling with anger, killed the vicious dragon who stirred up flood troubles. The flood subsided, and the spirit of the boy changed into thousands of little swallows and turned the place into a “fairy land of swallows.”

In ancient times, the nomadic tribes called the place “Urabo” meaning the “Red Target Range.” The legend has it that one of the tribes often came here and held shooting competitions. The winner would ride a steed and have red silk ribbon draped on his shoulders to show his power and prestige.

“The Urumqi Cemetery of Martyrs” is situated at the foot of the Swallows’ Cliff, and has an area of about 700 mu. It was set up in the beginning of 1956and rebuilt in 1975. Engraved on the gate of the cemetery is the inscription “The Urumqi Cemetery of Revolutionary Martyrs” by Dong Biwu. In the cemetery lie the remains of five martyrs (Chen Tanqiu, Mao Zemin, Lin Jilu, Qiao Guozhen and Wu Maolin), and the ashes of some other revolutionary martyrs. The atmosphere of the cemetery is solemn and respectful and the environment is quiet and tasteful. Now the cemetery is an important cultural unit protected by the autonomous region. Around the Chinese Festival of Pure Brightness every year, tens of thousands of people come here to pay respects to the martyrs and, at the same time, to enjoy the beauty of the place.

The Confucian Temple, its main gate facing south, is located on Qianjin Road in Urumqi. The structures remain on the whole, intact, though the exterior is in a state of decay. The structures standing in the north of the temple are the front hall and the drum-bell tower. The temple, which has a floor area of nearly 1,000 square meters, was built when the new Dihua City (now the city of Urumqi) was extended by the government of the Qing Dynasty. It was named Palace of Longevity in 1884 when Xinjiang Province was established. Later on, it was renamed Zhao Zhong Temple (Temple of Showing Loyalty) in order to cherish the memory of the officers and men fell in the battles to recover Xinjiang. After the Revolution of 1911, it was named Temple of God. Since 1944, it has been called Confucian Temple and memorial ceremonies are held here for Confucius.

The Chaiwobao Lake, forty kilometers south of Urumqi, is located in a Tianshan Mountains canyon which connects the city of Urumqi with the Turpan Depression. The lake is screened by mountains with snowcapped peaks in both south and north. On its north bank is the Chaiwobao Tree Farm. On its east bank are numerous mounds which are graves of nomads who died during the Han and the Jin dynasties. The lake, twenty-eight square kilometers in area, is as smooth as a mirror and so clear that one can see his own reflection in it. The lake is densely laced with luxuriant weeds and herbs and teems with fish. In the last few years, crabs have been introduced into the lake and visitors can savor them in autumn when the crabs get fattest. The facilities in the lake area include pleasure boats, swimming pools, angling spots and amusement rooms. The natural lake has now become a new scenic spot for the city of Urumqi.

The Museum of the Autonomous Region is the center of collection and care of cultural relics as well as the cultural scientific research center of the region.

The museum was set up in 1953. Its staff is composed of Uygur, Kazak, Hui, Mongol, Xibe, Manchu and Han cultural relic team. The museum is rich in the characteristics of ethnic architecture. The museum’s area is nearly 17,000 square meters, including an exhibition space of over 7,000 square meters. Ever since its establishment, workers on cultural relics of different nationalities have been carrying on large-scale activities for the investigation of cultural relics and scientific excavation of key ancient graves. They have attained a series of important scientific research results. The museum now houses valuable cultural relics several thousand pieces in number. It has held more than ten exhibitions of historical cultural relics and received over a million Chinese and foreign visitors. The received over a million Chinese and foreign visitors. The exhibitions now open to the public include.

The Exhibition of Xinjiang Historical Relics. It is organized according to the development stages of primitive society, slave society and feudal society, reproduces the general historical development process of Xinjiang during the long period of four or five thousand years before the year 1840. Among the one thousand or more pieces of Xinjiang cultural relics on display are many kinds of stone implements and earthenware of the New Stone Age as well as cotton and woolen fabrics, silk, wooden articles, iron and copper tools, jade objects, clay sculptures, wooden carings,, paintings on silk, frescoes and ancient coins of various historical periods. On display are also inscribed wooden slips and documents in ancient written languages of various nationalities in Xinjiang, such as Kharosthi, Huihu, Qiuci, Sogdian, Brahmi, ancient Uygur, ancient Tibetan (Tubo) and Chinese. In addition, there are on display some Persian silver coins and gold coins of the Eastern Roman Empire, which are important relics showing the cultural exchanges between East and West.

Exhibition of Xinjiang national customs. This comparatively systematically introduces the cultural relics showing the customs and ways of living of a dozen nationalities, including the Uygur, Kazak, Mongol, Kirgiz and Hui minorities and reflecting the results attained in the study of Xinjiang’s ethnology and folklore.

Exhibition of ancient corpses. On display are a Gulan corpse (female) 3,800 years ago, a Hami corpse (female) 3,200 years ago and a Qiemo corpse (male) 3,000 years ago. These are specimens of ancient remains preserved comparatively well in China. Also on display are corpses of a couple of the Eastern Han times buried together and the corpse of the Gaochang General Zhang Xiong of the Tang Dynasty and other relevant cultural relics.

In addition, there is the exhibition of calligraphy and paintings of different times preserved by the museum.

The displays and exhibitions mentioned above represent the histories of the people of various nationalities in Xinjiang living and multiplying and creating their splendid cultures. At the same time they show the world’s economies and cultures mingling with each other in Xinjiang, which was the communications hub of the world.

Located on Youhao Road, in the city of Urumqi, the museum is a show case of Xinjiang’s mineral resources. The museum has two display halls and exhibition space of over 2,400 square meters. The exhibits in three parts include Xinjiang’s mineral resources and topological popular science, exploration and utilization of mineral resources and geology.

More than 10,000 specimens, models and charts are on display or in storage. The specimens and mineral products have come from different parts and industrial departments of Xinjiang, reflecting basically the present state of exploration and utilization of Xinjiang’s mineral resources and the situation of geological work at present.

The Exhibition Hall of the Autonomous Region, located at the north end of the Youhao Road of the city and adjacent to the People’s Hall of Xinjiang, is a comprehensive exhibition center of the whole Autonomous Region. It was built in 1965 and covers an area of 62,000 square meters with an exhibition area of more than 7,000 square meters. Held in the exhibition hall after it was opened were more than fifty kinds of exhibitions such as “The History of the Communist Party of China,” The Show of Folkways in Xinjiang,” “The Exhibition of UNESCO” and “The Show of Multi-Purpose Articles of Everyday Use.” On the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in 1985, “The Exhibition of the Achievements in the Thirty Years Since the Founding of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region” was held here, divided into the introductory hall, the farming and animal husbandry hall, the hall of industry, communications and capital construction, the hall of science, technology, culture and education, the hall of finance and trade, the hall of Production and Construction Army Regiments and the military hall. Also held here were exhibitions of new products, high quality products, famous brand products and special products needed by minority nationalities.

The People’s Hall of Xinjiang, located at the north end of the Youhao Road of Urumqi and just opposite to the Kunlun Hotel on the other side of the road, is one of the architectural projicts designed as a present for the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The hall, with a floor space of 29,000 square meters, was completed on August 31, 1985. The main hall is linked to the round side hall by a corridor. In the three-story main hall, there is an auditorium which has a seating capacity of 3,160, equipment for eight language simultaneous interpretation and an automatically raised stage and orchestra pit. In the three-story side hall, which has a unique setup, there is a round-table meeting room, a multi-purpose conference hall and another thirteen prefecture conference halls. With a splendidly decorated interior and a magnificent exterior, the People’s Hall merges modern architectural style and Xinjiang national style into an integral whole.

The Hall of Science and Technology of Xinjiang, facing north and adjacent to the People’s Hall of Xinjiang, is situated at the south end of Beijing Road. With a ten-story main building 42.5 meters high and a total floor space of more than 10,000 square meters, the Hall of Science and Technology is imbued with the rich, distinctive local features of Xinjiang.

The hall, decorated elegantly inside, has a scientific education cinema with a seating capacity of 500 and a scientific conference hall, in which there is modern equipment for four-language simultaneous interpretation, with a seating capacity of 300. In the main building, there are audiovisual education rooms, demonstration rooms for physics and chemistry education, a closed-circuit television broadcasting system, a science and technology library and a multidiscipline activities room. The main building also houses large showrooms and picture galleries, which make it an ideal place for conducting popular science education and for youngsters to begin their scientific and technological pursuits.