Ürümqi - History

History

Although Ürümqi is situated near the northern route of the Silk Road, it is likely to be a relatively young city. According to Chinese scholars, during the 22nd year of Emperor Taizong's reign in the Tang Dynasty, AD 648, the Tang government set up the town of Luntai in the ancient town seat of Urabo, 10 kilometers from the southern suburb of present-day Ürümqi. Ancient Luntai Town was a seat of local government, and collected taxes from the caravans along the northern route of the Silk Road.

Steppe peoples had used the location, the pass between the Bogda Shan mountains to the East and the Tien Shan mountains to the west, connecting the Dzungar Basin to the north and the Turpan Depression in the south. In the 7th century the location was controlled by tribes of the Göktürks (Turkic Khaganate). In 742 AD, the Göktürk Khaganate split as the Uyghur tribes and the Eastern "wing" of the Göktürks broke off to form the Uyghur Khaganate. Ürümqi sat in the center of this empire until 1220, when it merged with the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan. After the division of the Mongol Empire, the town then passed into the Chagatai Khanate where Sufi Islam dominated Ürümqi culture. Around 1670 the Uyghur tribes revolted from the Chagatais and united with the Dzungar tribes to form Zunghar Khanate. Ürümqi remained a small town, and less important than the oasis and Silk Road trade center Turpan 200 km to the southeast.

Thus, little is heard of the region following the Tang Dynasty in the Chinese texts until China's Qing Dynasty vanquished the threatening Dzungar Khanate to the west. 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." After 1759 state farms were established, "especially in the vicinity of Urumchi, where there was fertile, well-watered land and few people." By 1762, more than 500 shops were opened by Chinese migrants to the area of modern-day Urumqi. In 1763, the Qianlong Emperor named the expanded town of Luntai "Dihua" (Chinese: 迪化; pinyin: Díhuà; Manchu: Wen de dahabure fu), meaning "to enlighten." Dihua quickly became Xinjiang's commercial and financial center, boasting many statues also to Guandi, or the Chinese god of war.

Demographically, Dihua was populated with Chinese Muslims from Gansu and Shaanxi, Han Chinese from all over China, and ethnically diverse Bannermen, which included Manchus. Despite the modern Communist redesignation of Xinjiang as a "Uyghur Autonomous Region", Uyghur people and culture are a relatively recent import to Urumqi. Those Qing literati who visited Dihua were impressed by its cultural sophistication and similarity to eastern China. The writer Ji Xiaolan compared Dihua to Beijing, in that both had numerous wine shops which offered daily performances of Chinese music and dance.

The Battle of Urumqi (1870) took place in 1870 between the Turkic Muslim forces of Yaqub Beg against the Dungan Muslim forces of Tuo Ming (Daud Khalifa). With the help of Xu Xuegong's Han Chinese militia, Yaqub Beg's forces defeated the Dungans. In 1884, the Guangxu Emperor established Xinjiang as a Province, with Dihua as its capital.

During the Kumul Rebellion the Battle of Urumqi (1933) and the Battle of Urumqi (1933–34) took place between the forces of Ma Zhongying's 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army) and Jin Shuren and Sheng Shicai's provincial forces. At the second battle Ma was assisted by Han chinese General Zhang Peiyuan.

Following the founding of the People's Republic of China, on 1 February 1954, the city was renamed Ürümqi, meaning "beautiful pasture" in the Mongolian language of the Dzungar people.

The city suffered unrest in May 1989 with 150 injuries, and was the site of major rioting in July 2009 due to terrorist attacks against ethnic Hans by Southern Xinjiang Uyghur extremists in which nearly 200 people were left dead. Reports of extensive retaliation against the Uyghur minority have circulated ever since, despite the Chinese government having shut down access to emails and overseas phone calls.