Urumqi for women

It's different for the gentler gender

Traveling in Xinjiang can be a little different for women than for men, especially as a foreign woman - just keep that in mind. Xinjiang is roughly 50% Uighur, and the Uighur have very different cultural standards than the Han Chinese (there is a significan Hui population in Xinjiang, but I'm not sure of the exact percentage).

I find it can range from very difficult to very easy to travel in Xinjiang. I used to live in Urumqi, and it was a mix of great and terrible. It was hard, as a woman, to meet people, because women in Xinjiang tend to be very reserved compared to women in the rest of China. Also, sexism is much more rampant in the more conservative Muslim areas.

Although DENNIS seems to think that the people of Xinjiang looke "Arab" because of proximity to "Arab" countries, in fact, Xinjiang is nowhere near an Arab country, but rather borders on the "Stans" - former Soviet republics such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, as well as Pakistan and parts of India. The Uighurs looks like Uzbeks or Kazakhs (although there are exceptions, and there are some differences among these people as well) who are ethnically closer to Turks than to Arabs. The Uighur language isn't terribly different from modern Turkish.

Urumqi is a rapidly growing city like anywhere else in China, and so it has some fantastic modern shopping (cosmetics, fur coats) if you are feeling short on luxury. The Holiday Inn is nice enough of a place to stay if you need a break from backpacking. Almost everything you will read about Urumqi in places like Lonely Planet will be wrong because everything changes so fast. Buy your traditional Uighur goods likes drums, cloth, and food in smaller places like Kashgar and Turpan. And bargain like a fool!

That said, do try some da pan ji (literally "big plate chicken") while in Urumqi. The best place, assuming it stays open, is a little Hui eatery at NongDa (Xinjiang Nongye DaXue, also known as BaNong). Go through the main gate, and take your second left. Down the road on the right should be a little courtyard where everyone eats - the Hui place is on the first level, on the back wall, in the middle. It's the cleanest place, the people are very friendly, and the da pan ji rocks.