Shihezi Travel Guide

Shihezi is a county level city directly under the jurisdiction of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. It is located in the middle of the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains and the southern Junggar Basin with a total area of 6,007 square kilometers and 150 kilometers east of Urumqi, the capital of the autonomous region. The city has a population of 659,000. Alias of Shihezi City: Stone City, Poem City and Gobi Pearl.

● What to do & where to go in Shihezi

Luotuo Mengpo Desert Park is located in the southern edge of Gural Tonggut Desert of Junggar Basin. It is a desert as well as a natural desert botanical garden. The park is also a zoo where the distribution of a national protection of wild donkeys and wild boars, yellow sheep, wolves, foxes, jerboa, baby head snake, sand birds and other more than 100 kinds of animals.

The North Lake Scenic Area was developed in 1985. The scenic area is 21 square kilometers, the perennial water surface area is 11 square kilometers. The 14 kilometers long lakeshore line has thick and strong lakeshore forest, thick reed, tamwillow, wool wax and other wild natural plants. In spring and autumn, more than 30 animals under national primary and secondary protection have been found such as the black-necked crane, swan, black zygomatic, red-crowned crane, egret, wild duck, etc.

Nanshan Scenic Area is located about 70 kilometers south of Shihezi City which is the remnant of the Tianshan Mountains. Here winding roads, steep mountains, canyons, thousands of peaks unexpectedly show, towering trees, spring green grass, flowers and birds. Kazakh ethnic customs are rich. It is a good place for people to spend their holidays.

Bayin Mountain Resort is a national 4A(forth level) tourist attraction. Located at the foot of Heishantou of Bayingou River Canal on the north slope of Tianshan Mountain, it is a natural summer resort in the large area of primitive water willow forest.

● What to eat in Shihezi

Flat peach, red sweet melon, mutton pilaf, roast whole lamb, kebabs, steamed cold noodles, Naan - a kind of crispy cake (the most favorite staple food for Uyghur people), saute spicy chicken, hand-pulled noodles, boiled mutton and so on.

● Transportation

Railway: Shihezi Station has trains to/from Alashankou, Urumqi, Altay, Yining, Bortala, Karamay, Urumqi, Hami, Lanzhou, Xian, Zhengzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai, Shijiazhuang, Jinan and Chongqing.

Highway: Shihezi City is 150 kilometers east of Urumqi, the capital of the autonomous region and 549 kilometers west of Yining City, a key border town in Ili Prefecture. Road transport buses are directly connected to 18 agricultural and animal husbandry farms in Shihezi and Urumqi, Yining, Karamay, Qitai, Tacheng, Kuitun, Altay, Hami, Korla and other directions in Xinjiang. Outside Xinjiang, direct buses are regularly opened to Chongqing, Chengdu and Shangqiu in China’s inland.

Airport: Shihezi Huayuan Airport has flights to/from Korla, Hotan, Burjin, Aksu, Tumushuk, Kashgar, Hami, Tacheng and Kuqa, Beijing, Chengdu, Yining, Xi an, Guangzhou, Lanzhou, Shanghai and Shenyang.

● Climate

Shihezi City is a typical temperate continental climate, winter is long and cold, summer is short and hot. Frost free period is 168 to 171 days. Temperature is low in the north and high in the south. The highest temperature of the year occurs in July with an average temperature of 25.1-26.1 ℃. The annual precipitation ranges from 125.0 to 207.7 mm. The months with more precipitation in the year mainly occur in July, May, June and April in the north with precipitation ranging from 13.0 to 20.0 mm. The southern region occurs in April, May, July and June with precipitation ranging from 21.7 to 27.6 mm. The region has abundant sunshine with annual sunshine hours ranging from 2,721 to 2,818 hours and the northern region has more sunshine hours than the southern region.