Located at the foot of the snow-capped Tianshan Mountain Range, Urumqi is the capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest of China. The place became known to foreign visitors mainly for its role as the last stopover along the" Silk Road".
Resourcefully rich and ethnically diverse, this region attracts many adventurous travelers, keen to discover something about the western China. Urumqi is located in the temperate zone and has a continental climate. The average annual temperature is 6.4 centigrade and the precipitation averages 236 mm yearly and is a semi arid area. Urumqi has four distinctive seasons and the best time to travel the region is from May to October.
Xinjiang contains the driest, hottest and coolest spots in China. The longest inland river, the Tarim River is here; the lowest area, the Aidin Lake in the Turpan Basin and the largest desert in China can also be found in Xinjiang.

Ürümqi currently comprises 8 administrative sub-divisions, county-level units, of these, 7 are districts and 1 is a county.
The areas of the city are divided into 7 districts and 1 county:

• Tianshan District
• Saybagh District
• Toutunhe District
• Shuimogou District
• Xinshi District  
• Dongshan District
• Dabancheng District
• Ürümqi County