Urumqi

By bus

The Northern Long-Distance Bus Station is at Heilongjiang Road

Almaty, Kazakhstan via Korgas - takes about 24 hours and ¥440, tickets can be bought at the Bianjiang Hotel, room 2121 边疆宾馆2121号房间 or at the international bus station at Nianzigou 碾子沟国际客运站. Time spent clearing customs at Korgas make the travel time rather variable.

Burqin - takes about 13 hours

Korgas - takes about 14 hours

Lanzhou - takes about 40 hours

Tacheng - takes about 12 hours

Yining also called Yili - takes 11-14 hours and costs ¥165 Jul 2008

The Southern Long-Distance Bus Station 南郊客运站 is in the southern part of city across from the Shuishang Amusement Park (水上乐园)

Hotan - takes 19-26 hours

Kashgar - takes about 24 hours

Korla - takes about 10 hours

Kuche - takes about 17 hours

Turpan - takes about 3 hours heading for Gansu, will need to change buses for Hami

By plane

Urumqi is served by the Urumqi Diwopu International Airport 乌鲁木齐国际机场; Wūlǔmùqí Guójìjīchǎng; IATA: URC, 20 km 12 mi northwest of the city center with regular domestic flights from Beijing, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Dunhuang, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Jilin, Kunming, Lanzhou, Nanjing, Qingdao, Sanya, Shanghai-Hongqiao, Shenzhen, Shijiazhuang, Xiamen, Xi'an, Xining, Yinchuan, and Zhengzhou.

Urumqi also offers flights from Almaty, Astana, Baku, Bishkek, Dushanbe, Islamabad, Istanbul, Kabul, Moscow Sheremetyevo, Novosibirsk, Osh, Seoul Incheon, Tashkent, and Tehran Imam Khomeini.

Xinjiang destinations include Aksu, Aletai, Hotan, Kashgar, Kuche, Tacheng and Yining.

A taxi costs about ¥50 by meter to the city, although most drivers will try for more. Travel time is about 20 minutes without traffic.

Airport shuttles available for ¥15.

For those in transit note that the airport closes after the arrival of late flights and one is not permitted to remain inside the building overnight.

By train

Wulumuqi Railway Station 乌鲁木齐火车站; Wūlǔmùqí Huǒchēzhàn is at Qingfeng Road.

Beijing West - Urumqi 乌鲁木齐 Train T69 takes 33h:52m Hard seat = ¥316: Soft seat ¥502: hard sleeper ¥531 / ¥549 / ¥568: Soft sleeper ¥837 / ¥874

Chengdu - takes about 49 hours

Dunhuang - takes about 14 hours as of September 2009 no trains were running on the branch line to Dunhuang

Hami - takes about 9 1/2 hours

Jiayuguan - about 16 hours

Kashgar - takes 24-33 hours ¥506 for top bunk soft sleeper

Kuche - takes about 14 hours

Lanzhou - takes about 21 hours ¥338

Shanghai - takes about 44 hours

Turpan - takes about 2 hours but drops you about 50 km/31 mi north of Turpan, from where you have to catch a bus

Xi'an - takes about 34 hours

Almaty, Kazakhstan - takes 32-48 hours

To get tickets for Almaty you need to purchase them from the hotel to the right of the train station. One can purchase tickets from (http://www.realrussia.co....) for about 3 times their face value. It is difficult to purchase tickets from standard travel agencies in China.

By car

China Highway 312 is a motorway crossing Xinjiang from Gansu to the border with Kazakhstan. Most destinations within Xinjiang can be accessed via private car. Drivers tend to congregate near the bus stations and will often approach passengers shouting their destination. Drivers usually try to fill the car with four passengers, but you can also rent the whole car 包车; bāochē. In almost every case, a car will save hours of travel time over a bus.