Ürümqi
Urumqi is a redirect to this article. For other meanings see Ürümqi (disambiguation).
Ürümqi, in German Urumtschi (Chinese 乌鲁木齐市, pinyin Wūlǔmùqí Shì, Uyghur ئۈرۈمچى شەھىرى, also Urumchi, until 1954 迪化 Díhuà), is the capital of the Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang in the People's Republic of China. The city is also the main city of Dsungarei Province. As a county-level city, Ürümqi has an administrative area of 14,875.5 km² and a population of about 3.52 million (2014).
Ürümqi is the furthest major city in the world from the sea, at over 2000 km, and is barely 300 km from the Eurasian Inaccessibility Pole. It is located at the northern foot of the Tian Shan Mountains. The most important industries are petrochemicals, textiles and iron and steel. Likewise, with the largest wind farm in China, wind energy has established itself in the Ürümqi region. The railway line Beijing - Almaty (Kazakhstan) runs through Ürümqi.
As in all of China, Chinese Standard Time (also known as "Beijing Time", UTC +8 hours; see Time Zones of China) applies in Ürümqi. In relation to the position of the sun, there is a difference of two hours to Beijing.
Population
According to the census (2000) Ürümqi had 2,081,834 inhabitants (population density: 174.53 inhabitants/km²).
The population in 2000 was composed of the following ethnic groups:
| Name of the people | Inhabitants | Share |
| Han | 1.567.562 | 75,30 % |
| Uyghurs | 266.342 | 12,79 % |
| Hui | 167.148 | 8,03 % |
| Kazakhs | 48.772 | 2,34 % |
| Manchurian | 7.682 | 0,37 % |
| Mongolian | 7.252 | 0,35 % |
| Xibe | 3.674 | 0,18 % |
| Russian | 2.603 | 0,13 % |
| Tujia | 1.613 | 0,08 % |
| Kyrgyz | 1.436 | 0,07 % |
| Uzbeks | 1.406 | 0,07 % |
| Zhuang | 878 | 0,04 % |
| Tatars | 767 | 0,04 % |
| Tibetan | 665 | 0,03 % |
| Dongxiang | 621 | 0,03 % |
| Miao | 620 | 0,03 % |
| Korean | 588 | 0,03 % |
| Other | 2.205 | 0,09 % |
Population development of the agglomeration according to UN
In 2017, just under 3.8 million inhabitants lived in the actual urban settlement area of the city. The remaining population lives in the rural hinterland. Due to advancing urbanisation, 5.8 million inhabitants are expected to live in the agglomeration by 2035.
| Year | Population |
| 1950 | 102.000 |
| 1960 | 296.000 |
| 1970 | 581.000 |
| 1980 | 881.000 |
| 1990 | 1.241.000 |
| 2000 | 1.807.000 |
| 2010 | 2.811.000 |
| 2017 | 3.837.000 |
Administrative division
At the county level, Ürümqi is composed of seven urban districts and one county. These are:
| Map | ||||||
| 1st Tianshan Second Xinshi 3. toutunhe 1 Saybag 2 Shuimogou 3 Dabancheng※ Midong ÜrümqiCircle ※ | ||||||
| Uighur | Chinese | Area (km²) | Inhabitants | |||
| Kona Yeziⱪ | Yengi Yeziⱪ | Characters | Pīnyīn | |||
| Tianshan Municipality | تەڭرىتاغ | Təngritaƣ | Tiānshān Qū | 171 | 490.000 | |
| Municipality of Saybag | سايباغ | Saybaƣ | Shāyībākè Qū | 422,47 | 445.000 | |
| Xinshi Municipality ("New Town") | يېڭىشەھەر | Yengixəⱨər | Xīnshì Qū | 142,52 | 377.000 | |
| Shuimogou Municipality | شۇيموگۇ | Shuimogu | Shuǐmògōu Qū | 91,56 | 165.000 | |
| Municipality of Toutunhe | تۇدۇڭخابا | Tutunghaba | Tóutúnhé Qū | 275,59 | 125.000 | |
| Dabancheng Municipality | داۋانچىڭ | Dawanqing | Dábǎnchéng Qū | 5.187,58 | 42.000 | |
| Midong Municipality | میدونگ | Midong | Mǐdōng Qū | 3.407,42 | 296.000 | |
| Ürümqi County | ئۈرۈمچى | Ürümqi | Wūlǔmùqí Xiàn | 4.332,16 | 83.000 | |
