Red Hill Park

Red Hill (Hongshan) is situated at the centre of Urumqi city to the east of Urumqi River at the Red Hill Park. It is considered the symbol of Urumqi. Red Hill at Red Hill Park is 1.5 km’s long from east to west, 1 km’s wide with a average elevation of 910 meters above the sea level. Its dominant peak is 1391 m high.    The top of the Hill’s looks like mighty lion in its quiet sleep, and the ridge like a wriggling dragon. The hill’s rocks are reddish-brown that is why it got the name of “Red Hill”. There is the mountain asphalt road, the mountaineering stair, the aerial cable car, the pavilion, the view building, the God palace, the artificial waterfall, the Lin Zexu sculpture, the temple and so on in the Red Hill Park.

On top of the hill, stands a nine-story pagoda, which is 8 meters high facing to the Yamanlik Hill. It is called “zhenlong Pagoda” in Chinese which means “Pagoda to Suppress Dragons”. According to historical records, Urumqi River at the foot of Red Hill was overflowed in1785 and the year after. Superstitious people at that time passed the rumour of evil done by vicious dragon and that the Red Hill and Yamanlik Hill would join to each other to block the river to turn the Urumqi into vast expansion of water. In 1788, the Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty and governor of Urumqi had built pagoda at the top of each hill in order to suppress the evil dragon. The red mountain pagoda flattens after more than 200 years wind and rain, until now still perfectly stands erect in the red mountain cliff crest. It is the one of the best places to watch this town scenery. This is a popular spot for local families who come here to get out of the city for the day.