The Star-studded Cities and Towns
4 min readJiulongtan in Karamay City
Overlooking Xinjiang from the plane, you would be touched by endless emotion.he boundless Gobi, the shining Mt. Tianshan, the intermittent Tarim river, the hazy country roads, the shadowy smoke towers and plants, you could view all of these sites in a glance.
The most surprising thing is the”green”in this vast canvas, big cities and small towns scatter in those big or small oases with stretches of desert and Gobi in between.
Human beings have always been seeking water and settling near the water since ancient times. The cities and towns are built in the oases, scattering in the South and North of the Mt. Tianshan, the South of Altai Mountain, and the North of Kunlun Mountain, and forming the city network skeleton of a combination of dots, lines, and belts along the railways and highways, and State Roads.
The development of the oil industry has broken the restriction of oases, the industrial and mining type towns appeared in addition to the oases agriculture-based towns. The garden-like green towns have been built one after another in Gobi and desert with the jet flow of oil and gas. Along with the acceleratin pace of oil development, a trend of network emerges in the urban spatial structure, and the urban development gradually comes into modernization.
Landmark buildings in different periods in Urumgi-Zhongtian Plaza(right) and Times Square(left) The average distance between cities in Xinjiang is fairly far, with only one designated city for every 85,000 square kilometers or more, and only one designated town for every 9,000 square kilometers. The average distance between the capital Urumgi and other cities is of over 500 km, and this 500 km is the result of the hard work of several generations in Xinjiang. 60 years ago, there was only one city, Urumqi, in the vast Xinjiang.
In 1949, the urban population of Xinjiang was only of 530,000, only 90,000 in Dihua (Urumqi now), which was the only designated city then, and not more than 30,000 in other towns. There were only Urumqi, Kashgar and Yining these three cities when the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was established in 1955 In order to support the construction of Xinjiang, lots of people from all over the country immigrated to Xinjiang. The Chinese people’s liberation army(PLA)troops and the uprising troops transferred to civilian work in succession from 1949 to 1953, forming the Production and Construction Group. The population of Rusticated Youth from provinces and municipalities inland was about 330,000.
Wujiaqu City
From 1949 to 1960, the husbandry, industrial and mineral industry, as well as cultural education developed fast, focusing on building Urumqi, Shihezi, Karamay(including Dushanzi) and other mining cities, the urban population of each towns also grew rapidly.
And the urban population increased to 1.8 million from 0.53 million.
In the three years of the Great Chinese Famine, the urbanization in Xinjiang hit the bottom, with the urbanization rate falling below 20% in 1963.
In the decade from 1966 to 1976, the State invested much in energy and other heavy industries, mainly to Urumqi, Shihezi and other cities, which vigorously promoted the urbanization of Xinjiang. In 1976, the number of cities increased to seven, with the urban population of over 2.7 million, and the urbanization rate of 22.8%.
The urbanization in Xinjiang has entered into a stead rising stage since the reform and opening up. More and more small towns developed into cities, a varying scale department stores, People’s Parks and Stadiums were built. More and more people become “city man”, life had encouraging changes.
In 1979, Korla City was set up; in the 1980s, Turpan, Changji, Bole, Tacheng, Altay, Aksu, Atushi, Hetian these eight county-level cities were added; in 1990s, the towns of Fukang, Miquan, and Usu were upgraded to cities; when entering the new century, Wujiaqu, Tumushuke and Alar city were added in 2007, Miquan city was revoked and merged into Midong District of Urumqi with Dongshan District; in 2012, Alataw Port and Tie Men Guan City were set up.
So far, a total of 24 cities were set up in Xinjiang, including prefecture-level cities (Urumqi and Karamay city), 22 county-level cities (including 6 Corps cities). Of which, megalopolis, that is Urumqi city; and 7 medium-sized cities, including Karamay, Shihezi, Hami, Changji, Yining, Korla, and Kashgar. And there are six corps cities, Shihezi, Wujiaqu, Alar, Tumushuke, Beitun and Tiemenguan among 22 county-level cities.
This 24 cities, some have been over 60 years old, some just a year old However, they are filled with youthful vigor, exudes exuberant vitality. Only thoese tall buildings, silent rings on trees are telling memories belonged to a city. People whether indigenous or residents from other places, are all working hard and striving for a better city.
