Karamay (also spelled Karamai) is a prefecture-level city in the north of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China.

[3] A number of natural (Ailik Lake) and artificial (Fengcheng, Huangyangquan) reservoirs are located in Karamay's northeastern Urho District; they all are replenished, directly or indirectly, by water from the Irtysh–Karamay Canal.

Karamay has an extremely continental desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWk, Trewartha BWac), typified by great seasonal extremes in temperature, varying by 43.0 °C (77.4 °F); with long, very hot summers (for its latitude) and long, severely cold winters with brief spring and autumn in between.

The monthly 24-hour average temperature is −15.2 °C (4.6 °F) in January and soars to 27.8 °C (82.0 °F) in July and the annual mean is 8.91 °C (48.0 °F), warmer than most places at the corresponding latitude, due to the long summers.

According to the 2010 census, over 80% of Karamay's population are Han Chinese, with minorities such as Uighur, Kazakhs, Mongols and Hui making up the rest.