Urumqi

Urumqi, the seat of government of Xinjiang, stands at about the same latitude as Marseilles, which has an average temperature of six or seven degrees centigrade in January when the grass and leaves of trees remain green and water flows freely. January in Urumqi, however, has an average temperature of fifteen degrees below zero centigrade, and the ground is covered with ice and snow.

1989, Xinjiang: the Land and the People, Beijing: New World Press, pages 20–21

When I returned to Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, during the Spring Festival one year, police cars were lined up outside the train station. I discovered that ethnic minority people from outside Urumqi needed a letter of guarantee from their local relatives or employer just to leave the train station.

2020, Cha Naiyu, “Witness to discrimination: Confessions of a Han Chinese from Xinjiang”, in Amnesty International

Tesla, the world's most valuable automaker, announced on Dec. 31 that it was opening a showroom in Xinjiang's regional capital, Urumqi. "On the last day of 2021 we meet in Xinjiang," Tesla said in a post on its official Weibo account. Other U.S. and European automakers or their Chinese partners have showrooms in Urumqi, a city of some 3 million people. German automaker Volkswagen AG has a car factory near Urumqi.

2022 January 4, Brenda Goh, “Tesla showroom in China's Xinjiang region blasted by rights groups”, in Gerry Doyle, editor, Reuters, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2022