Ürümqi is an ancient city with roots stretching back thousands of years as a Silk Road trading hub. However, in recent years it has experienced rapid growth and modernisation due to large incentives and investment from the Chinese Communist Party. Cookie cutter apartment blocks now dominate the skyline and are largely filled with Chinese Han people incentivised to live there. Now it serves as a Chinese stronghold in this remote and isolated part of China once home to the Uyghur people.

Unfortunately there's not much to do here beyond visiting a Silk Road museum and some parks. The latter we did with our friends Tessa and Jannis from the Netherlands while enjoying some cheap beer and fruit. They were on their way to Kazakhstan overland and the border is not far from Ürümqi. This border would be our way back to China after we finished our time in Central Asia. 

We decided to leave a bunch of our belongings at the hostel in Ürümqi so we could travel lighter in Central Asia and make room for some new camping gear. This was our main reason for coming here, and we ended up leaving behind a decent sized box of stuff. Hopefully it will still be there waiting for us in a few months time!

Ürümqi felt quite empty for such a large city and seemed to lack a heart. With only a couple of days here we didn't have much time to explore and spent a lot of time sorting our things and mentally preparing ourselves for a long train ride to Kashgar where we would be ending this incredible leg of travel in China and crossing into Kyrgyzstan!