Turpan Travel Guide

Turpan is a prefecture and it is located to the southeast of Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.Turpan is a prefecture, it’s covered an area is 69,700sqkm.

Turpan prefecture is located Bogda mountain in the North, Karawuquntag mountain in the west, Qoltag mountain in the south, and Kumtag mountains in the southwast. Turpan prefecture consists of one city and two counties, they are Turpan city,ToksunCounty, Pichan or Shanshan county, and 26 townships.

Turpan prefectures population is 589,600thousand people. Turpan city is an administration center of Turpan prefecture, Turpan city has a population of 250,000 people, this population made up 21 different nationalities. Among the Uyghurs consist of 70% of the total number. Turpan city also known as Huo Zhou (a place as hot as fire), it is hottest place inChina.

History

Traces have been found of humans living in Turpan dating as far back as 6,000 years ago. The city was known as Gushi in the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-24AD); and in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and then it got its name Turpan. The meaning of Turpan is in the Uyghur language and ‘the fertile land’ in Turkish. Lying in the Turpan Basin, the elevation of most of the places in the area is below 500 meters (1,640 feet). Turpan is the city with the lowest elevation in China, which is occupying an area of 15,738 square kilometers (6,076.5 square miles). Turpen Depression accounts for 8.1 percent of the total area of the Turpan Basin. The area in the depression is 100 meters below sea level covers about 2,085 square kilometers which is around 4.1 percent of the total area of the basin.

Geographical Location

The geographical position of Turpan is rather important. Lying at the junction of the east and the west ofChina, it has been a key point on theSilk Road since ancient times, with a great number of historical relics as well as unique landscapes. Turpan is an important city along the ancientSilk Road and the transportation of Turpan is very convenient. It is considered to be an important passage for inlandChina to connect Xinjiang,Central Asia and between south and north Xinjiang. Eurasian Continental Bridge Railway, National Highway No.312 and 314 pass through the prefecture.

Scenic Spots

There are many historical and natural tourist sites in Turpan, which are Emin Tower（Sugong Tower）, Karez(Underground irrigation system), Flaming Mountains(Yalkuntagh), Grape Valley , Desert Ecological, Shanshan Sand Hill Park ,Tuyugou Scenic Spot, Gaochang Ancient City, Jiahohe Ancient City, Astana Ancient Tombs, Bizeklik Grottoes Temple and Desert Clay Handcraft Exhibition Hall, Now the prefecture boasts one national AAAAA-level tourism scenic spot，nine national key cultural relic units， 23 cultural relics at the Autonomous Region’s level，and 179 valuable cultural relic points.

Turpan Weather

The particular topography of the Turpan Depression exerts a tremendous influence on the unique local climate, which differs greatly between central part of the depression and the surrounding mountains. The central area of Turpen depression climate’s represented by whose highest absolute temperature reaches 47 degrees and above. Turpan depression has more than 100 days each year the highest temperature is above 35 degrees and 35 degrees.

The annual average temperature is 14 C (57.2 F). It is reckoned that there are 152 summer days on average, and 28 really broiling days with the temperature above 40 C (104 F). Although the high temperature can be oppressive people can also get some benefits from it. 5 to 50 days of sweltering heat when the temperature is above 40 degrees days of sweltering heat when the temperature is above 40℃ degrees with ground temperature in reaching as high as 70 ℃degrees. The local topography is also responsible for the strong winds which blow frequently in the spring and summer, especially in the months between April and July. The Baiyanghe area is the main wind gap though which the strong winds blow to move the shifting sand dunes on the fringes of the depression.

Turpan Yearly Average Temperature by Month
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Average Maximum Temperature (ºC)	-3.3	3.1	12.6	21.1	28.0	32.3	34.1	33.3	27.5	18.7	7.3	-1.8
Average Temperature(ºC)	-10.5	-4.8	4.6	13.2	20.3	20.3	26.6	25.2	18.5	9.7	-0.1	-8.3
Average Minimum Temperature (ºC)	-15.9	-11.3	-2.7	5.1	12.0	12.0	18.6	17.3	10.8	2.9	-5.4	-13.0
Rainfall (mm)	1.3	1.4	1.0	2.0	3.2	3.2	6.7	4.9	3.3	2.6	1.5	0.9