Urumqi Culture

Regional Culture

Xinjiang stands at an import place in the ancient Silk Road. As the capital of Xinxiang, Urumqi enjoys colorful culture of the west and east. With its own ethnic culture and other culture that has been brought through the ancient Silk Road, unique and spec regional culture formed here.

Ethnic Customs

There are various ethnic groups here. Their clothing is featured in multi-color and diverse categories. For Uyghur and Kazak nationalities, the clothes of man and women vary a lot, showing quiet different styles. What they wear has become special scenery here. Many clothes and hats have been popular choices for tourist souvenirs.

Diet

Diet here is with strong western styles, and food here is full of nice color and good tastes. Shashlik is known nationwide. Roast whole lamb is specialty here. Hand grasping rice with special eating way and hand grasping mutton are favorite food for ethnic people here, and they are must-eat food of great events like festivals and weddings. Roast Nang (烤馕:a kind of crusty pancake), baking steamed buns, Lamian noodles, Yousanzi (油馓子), youtazi (油塔子), thin-skinned dumplings and milk tea are the traditional ethnic food. In pastoral areas, people could make many kinds of dairy products.

Religion

The coexistence of diverse religions in Xinjiang has been here in history. By the middle of the 20th century, a total of 6 kinds of religion appeared in Xinjiang, namely, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Christian (protestant), and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Seven nationalities including Uygur, Kazak, Hui, Kirgiz (柯尔克孜), Uzbekistan, Tajikistan (塔吉克) and Tatar commonly believe in Islam. Han, Mongolian, Xibe and Daur believe in Buddhism (including Tibetan Buddhism), some of the Han nationalities believe in Taoism, Catholicism and Christianity. People who moved from Russia mostly believe in Orthodox.