Urumqi

[scoopneals]

I've searched for info on Urumqi all over this forum, but everything is from like 5 years ago or older. I'm interested to learn more up to date info about it, but there's not much information anywhere.

Anyone care to comment on what life is like there now? Is it growing? Cost of living? Lifestyle? Anything else?

Also, I found a recent article about rising inflation- can anyone confirm this:

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/inflation-02012013165057.html

or are there still little noodle shops for 5 Yuan a plate?

[liuzhou]

It's not specific to Urumqi, but the Far West China blog is one of the best on China in general and Xinjiang in particular. All sorts of information.

[Xinoutorah]

You can check out my blog www.bloginchina.com which specifically covers life in Urumqi. It's not as detailed as I would have wanted it to be, but you can get a few pictures of the place. Some areas of Urumqi look very rural, whereas other areas are very urban/city-like. I know some people who expected to come to a very rural place when they came to Urumqi, only to be surprised by how much of a city it was.

Cost of living here is very cheap. You can get a fully furnished apartment for around 1,500RMB/month. I am not sure if you are coming for fun/work. People come to Urumqi to say more money. It's definitely a growing city, in the time I was there they installed a new BRT station (bus rapid transport), and I was only there for about 7 or 8 months. Lots of developments in terms of apartment buildings. I saw several new ones in nice areas being built when I was there. I didn't see as much construction there as when I was in Beijing, but I would saw though Urumqi is developing pretty rapidly it's still behind cities like Shanghai and Beijing, which is actually why a lot of people are investing in getting an apartment there now while they are still decently priced.

I can recommend a few "western style" restaurants if you are interested in that. As a vegetarian I also know of a very good vegetarian place there.

Lifestyle is pretty typical, you can't find too much fun to do here...at least I couldn't. But you'll have your usual KTV, clubs, restaurants, shopping centers, etc... There is also the Great Bazaar, but honestly I wasn't too impressed with it. You might like it though.

What makes Urumqi different than any other city, I am sure as you already know, are the Uyghur people. They live in the south part of the city whereas the northern part of the city is more Han Chinese. So depending on where you want to live you could be exposed to a totally different culture. Going to the southern part of the city is really like stepping into another culture. Once you get on the BRT line you can take BRT 1 or 3 in the southern direction all the way to the end and you'll see exactly what I mean. For the BRT you can invest in a card so you don't have to search for 1 yuan every time you take it (it works just like regular buses, it's just a more comfy way to travel. It looks like an above ground subway (to me) and it has it's own line. I actually took some movies of it...Maybe I'll get them all up on my blog eventually. I started slacking after I felt it was time for me to come back home. But yea, with the BRT card you don't save any money, you just have to pay for a card that you will be able to refill, but it makes your life a little more convenient because fishing out 1 yuan every time you want to take the bus can be a bit tedious.

That's all I can think of right now...if you have any other questions about anything specific feel free to direct them at me.

[scoopneals]

Did some more google digging today, found this article. Pretty good read, pretty recent, too:

http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2012/08/21/where-id-head-now-if-i-was-a-new-expat-in-china-urumqi.html

[scoopneals]

BTW, thanks for the info Xinoutorah. I like the post "Snow in Urumqi" - paints a good picture for the winter