Urumqi

Urumqi, like many place names in Xinjiang, is a Mongolian name, in this case meaning "beautiful pasture." But alas, like all of those other places with Mongolian names, Urumqi is no longer much of a pasture. In fact, it is one of the largest and most developed cities in western China and Central Asia, which is quite interesting given that it's greatest claim to fame (at least that I know of) is that it is the farthest major city from the sea. Urumqi is by far one of my favorite cities in China (even though I like being close to the sea), as the mix of various minorities and cultures that have passed through this outpost in the wild west over the past several millennia have left an indelible and obvious impression on the population and architecture of this city. Most interesting to me is Urumqi's ubiquitous mix of Muslim/Turkic and Han Chinese themes throughout the city. It seems that more and more the massive inpouring of Han Chinese into this remote part of their empire has diluted much of the "minority influence", but I'd say Urumqi has fended off the inevitable forces of Sinocization much more effectively than many minority regions in western China that have been inundated over the past several decades with Han Chinese migration. And fortunately my girlfriend lives in one of the main minority areas at the heart of the city, so most of the pictures I took while visiting her family several times in 2008 were of the color-filled streets and dynamic mix of people that truly represent the hybrid atmosphere that makes Urumqi such a splendid city.

It wasn't easy trying to separate the pictures into categories, as I took pictures all over the city and there were too many individual places to give them each their own album, so I grouped them loosely by the major areas (not always with clear boundaries on either maps or the minds of Urumqi's denizens) in or close to where the pictures were taken. As far as I know most of these places don't have English names, so I've just used the Romanization of the Chinese names in most cases. It doesn't really matter though if you've never been to Urumqi... just go look at all of the albums!