The City's Name
"Urumqi" means "A Beautiful Pasture Land" in ancient Mongolian used by the Junggar tribe, which used to live in this area. In Chinese Language it is called "Wulumuqi".
The Ancient Luntai, as Urumqi was called when founded in 7th century, played quite a significant a role on the 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 Long 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. After 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 .
Today Urumqi is far from being a "beautiful pasture". It is the capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Province with about 2 Million inhabitants.


Modern Urumqi city, China