The team plays its home games at the Urumqi Olympic Sports Center, which has a capacity for 12,000 spectators.

The Xinjiang Flying Tigers joined the Chinese Basketball Association's Division 2 ahead of the 1999–2000 CBA season, as the first step in the league's plans to expand into the country's western interior.

In their first Division 1A season, the Flying Tigers managed to advance to the playoffs, but lost to Beijing Ducks in a 3–1 quarter-final series.

Surrounding Zhou Qi, the Flying Tigers signed former NBA stars Andray Blatche and Jordan Crawford.

In the playoffs, Xinjiang defeated Shandong Kingston Lions 3–0 in the quarter-finals and Liaoning Flying Leopards 4–1 in the semi-finals.

Losing the all-star center, Xinjiang finished the season with a 3–1 loss to Guangdong Southern Tigers in the quarter-finals.

The team also changed the foreign players four times during the season, trying Al Jefferson, Nick Minnerath, Hamed Haddadi, and Darius Adams, and finally settled with Jarnell Stokes and Kay Felder at the start of the playoffs.