Ürümqi has seen significant economic development since the 1990s and currently serves as a regional transport node and a cultural, political and commercial center.

[10] Upon completing the expansion, the Qing renamed the city Dihua (Chinese: 迪化; previously romanized as "Tihwa"), which means "to enlighten and civilize".

[9] During prehistory, the site of the future Ürümqi was occupied by a nomadic people known in Chinese accounts as the Jushi, who lived mainly on the northern slopes of the surrounding Tianshan Mountains.

The Jushi are often regarded as likely precursors of the Tocharian peoples, who later established city states in the Tarim Basin, south of the present site of Ürümqi.

The oldest known settlement, a town called Urabo (Chinese: Wulabo), was located about 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from the southern suburbs of the present-day Ürümqi.

[citation needed] Han Chinese states, located to the east, exerted increasing control of the Tarim Basin.

Under the name Luntai, the city was founded by the Tang government, in 648 CE, the 22nd year of Emperor Taizong's reign, as part of the Protectorate General to Pacify the West.

There is little information about the Ürümqi area during the time between the Tang and Qing dynasties, and researchers believe that there were no permanent settlements there for most of this period.

During the Ming dynasty, there was a record of a place at Jiujiawan 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) to the west of present Ürümqi, which may have been the Dzungar town that was later destroyed during the Qing conquest.

Ürümqi remained a small town of lesser importance than the oasis and Silk Road trade center Turpan 200 km (120 mi) to the southeast.

Fighting for the control of Dzungaria led to the Khoshuuts (now classified as Mongols) leaving Ürümqi for Qinghai and Tibet in the 1620s and 1630s.

One writer, Wei Yuan, described the resulting desolation in what became northern Xinjiang as "an empty plain for a thousand li, with no trace of man".

A fort was built (either in 1755 or 1758 depending on sources), and the Qing then established garrisons of Manchu and Mongol bannermen and Han Chinese troops at Ürümqi.

[11] After 1759, the Qing government established state farms in the under-populated areas around Ürümqi, where there was fertile, well-watered land.

[10] The Qianlong Emperor named the new settlement "Dihua" (Chinese: 迪化; pinyin: Díhuà; Manchu: Wen de dahabure fu), meaning "to enlighten and civilize".

[12][13] In 1771, another city named Gongning Cheng (鞏寧城) was built nearby to the northwest to house Manchu bannermen, and this would become the seat of government.

[citation needed] Those Qing literati who visited Dihua were impressed by its cultural sophistication and similarity to eastern China.

The writer Ji Yun compared Dihua to Beijing, in that both had numerous wine shops which offered daily performances of Chinese music and dance.

On 1 February 1954, following the founding of the People's Republic of China, the city's name was officially changed back to Ürümqi.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party believed that the name "Dihua", which literally means "to enlighten and civilize", was belittling and ethnically chauvinist.

[35] According to official figures, most of the 197 killed in the riot were Han, a statement which New York Times reporter Edward Wong says is disputed by Uyghurs.

It is about 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) from the nearest coastline as Ürümqi is the closest major city to the Eurasian pole of inaccessibility, although Karamay and Altay, both in Xinjiang, are closer.

[47] In 2008, Toronto Star listed Ürümqi as one of the top ten worst places to live in the world due to sulphurous pollution.

Ürümqi has been a multi-ethnic city from the time of the Qing conquest; in the early years, the Manchus lived in Gongning Cheng, Han Chinese in Dihua and various other ethnic groups such as the Hui, Uyghurs and others in the suburban districts.

The Urumqi Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Fair has been held annually since 1991 and has been upgraded into the first China-Eurasia Expo in 2011.

Lacking a subway, the city commenced the construction of viaducts for Outer Ring Road (外环路) since 2003, which considerably facilitates transport.

Maison Mode Urumqi (乌鲁木齐美美百货), open since 2008, became one of the few notable department stores for luxury merchandise in the city.

[63] The Ürümqi Economic and Technological Development Zone (UETD) located in the northern Toutunhe District, has been a leading base for steel, machinery manufacturing, biochemistry and other industrial innovations.

The Beijiang and the Lanxin Lines form part of the Trans-Eurasian Continental Railway, which runs from Rotterdam through the Alataw Pass on the Kazakhstan border to Ürümqi and on to Lanzhou and Lianyungang.

5The claimed province of Taiwan no longer have any internal division announced by Ministry of Civil Affairs of PRC, due to lack of actual jurisdiction.