Ürümqi, Xīnjiāng Uyghur Autonomous Region

The capital of Xīnjiāng, Ürümqi (Wūlŭmùqí), is a fairly typical, drab Chinese city of white tiles and concrete-block architecture, with its main claim to fame being the fact that it is the furthest city in the world from an ocean (2250km).

For the most part the city is very hazy with the photographs below in Rénmín Gōngyuán (People's Park) taken on the rare exception, a clear winter's day. Rénmín Gōngyuán is a very pleasant tree-shaded park about 1 kilometre in length with a few pavilions and a lake. As can be seen below, during winter the park is used for ice skating.