Dabancheng District (Chinese: 达坂城区; pinyin: Dábǎnchéng Qū) or Dawan Cheng (Uyghur: داۋانچىڭ رايونى‬, romanized: Dawanching Rayoni, Даванчиң Райони), is one of 7 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Ürümqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Northwest China.

Human habitation and irrigated agriculture in this arid area are made possible primarily by streams flowing south from the Bogda Shan range, which is located on the northern border of the district.

“It showed me the utter barrenness of the slopes of gravel and decayed rock over which the ascent is made from the Turfān depression to the watershed; the remarkably low elevation of the latter, which on the plateau of Ta-fan-ch’êng [= Dawan Cheng] scarcely rises above 3,000 feet; and the ease of communication secured by this route between the Turfān basin and Dzungaria.

At the Chinese village of Ta-fan-ch’êng close to the watershed irrigation is still required for the fields, and a lively stream coming from the high Bogdo-ula mountains to the north-east serves this purpose.

This marked change in climatic conditions made its effects strikingly felt when we reached Ta-fan-ch’êng from the south-east; for there can be no doubt that the violent gales from the north-east for which the plateau is notorious, and one of which obliged us to make a day's halt there under rather trying conditions, are directly due to the ‘ aspiration ’ which draws the cold air of Dzungaria through this great gap of the T’ien-shan down into the deep depression of Turfān, where the atmosphere is warmed, even during the short winter, by far more abundant sunshine.”[2]Mountain ranges between Dabancheng and Ürümqi create a natural wind tunnel, increasing windspeed in the valley.