Discover Ürümqi

Views across the city, a museum with finds from different eras, and a bazaar offering food and cultural experiences give Ürümqi a varied appeal for visitors. For your trip, you can consider whether you would like to focus on parks and views, historical exhibitions, or the sights and experiences around the Grand Bazaar. These interests offer different ways to decide which locations to look into for your holiday apartment.

Views and history at Hongshan Park

At Hongshan Park, you can climb both Hongshan Tower and the observation tower. From there, you can see across all of Ürümqi. Hongshan Tower is a historic structure dating from 1788, giving a visit to the park a specific historical connection. If views and city history go hand in hand for you, you can make this one of the highlights of your trip.

The park also hosts a recurring New Year temple fair. The ninth edition included the summit viewing platform, the main paths, the area around Hongshan Tower, and the folk culture area. When choosing your travel dates, you can therefore distinguish between a park visit for the views and an interest in the temple fair.

Finds from Xinjiang at the regional museum

The exhibition “千年逝者——新疆古代干尸陈列” (“The Departed Over the Millennia – Exhibition of Ancient Mummies from Xinjiang”) at the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Museum features six mummy finds dating from the pre-Qin period to the Tang dynasty. It also includes more than 100 related garments and other objects. This gives the museum visit a clear historical focus: you can explore the finds themselves and the objects associated with them. If you are travelling with people who have different interests, you can plan the museum as a cultural activity in its own right, alongside visits to the park and bazaar.

Grand Bazaar: products, food and performances

The pedestrian street at the International Grand Bazaar is around 700 metres long. It brings together food, cultural and creative products, and items related to intangible cultural heritage. The Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar is classified as a Grade 4A tourist scenic area.

At Afanti Hetian Barbecue Paradise on the pedestrian street, regional food is combined with cultural presentations and live performances. Guests can watch a stage show while they eat. This is a way to combine an interest in food with a live performance. If you are planning a family trip, you can decide together whether this combination would be more interesting for your group than focusing on views or the museum.

Parks and different visitor interests

Shuimogou Park includes Qingquan Mountain, Wenquan Mountain, W塔塔 Mountain and the Shuimo River. Its focus areas include nature, history and culture, sport and recreation, religious customs, and ecological education. This range of themes makes the park a different kind of destination from the exhibition at the regional museum or the bazaar’s pedestrian street. You can choose according to whether you are more interested in scenery, culture or recreation, without trying to fit every theme into a single visit.

The locations of the places mentioned across different city districts can also help you choose where to stay: Hongshan Park and Shuimogou Park are in Shuimogou District, the regional museum is in Sayibak District, and the Grand Bazaar is in Tianshan District. Compare these districts with the places you most want to visit, rather than inferring the location of other destinations from a single attraction. The Water Park at 4 Yan'erwo Street in Tianshan District is classified as a Grade 2A tourist scenic area.

Other destinations to consider for your trip include Kumul, Bayingol, Bortala, Ili, Altay, Tacheng, Aksu and Turpan.

For the broader travel overview: Xinjiang.