Urho Devil City

On the droughty and barren desert of the Asian continent, a khaki city wall breaks the plane horizon. The 'constructions' inside the city stand in twos and threes; some of them are huge and grand while some are low and separate. The roads of the city are flat and winding, but they are desolate. When a strong wind comes, the air becomes dusty and one can hear the sad and shrill whistling sound coming from the city. People guess that it is the place where devils live, thus Urho has another name 'Devil City'.  

The Urho Devil City is located in the Urho County, at the borderland of Dzungarian Basin of northern Xinjiang. On this barren Gobi, there are rugged and interlaced earth mounds which look very much like the deserted ancient castle. After walkinh inside, you will find that all the earth mounds and ridges are the masterpiece of nature, without any trace of being carved.

The devil city actually is not the habitat of devils, and there is no devil in the city. In geography, this unique topography is called 'Yadan Topography', and the local Uighurs called it 'Yardang', meaning steep hillock. It is a kind of aeolian landform which was formed under drought and windy environment. It is mainly located in the dry region of China's Xinjiang and Gansu.

About 100 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, the Dzungarian Basin was a huge lake, near which the plants were prosperous and the water grass was luxuriant. From the fossil excavated from this area, people have found many strange prehistorical creatures, such as Urho stegosaur, plesiosaur, dinosaur and Dzungarian pterosaur. In later period when the earth's crust went through two huge changes, the lake disappeared while the bottom of the lake rose, becoming dry land. 

Under the scorching sun and severe storm for millions of years, the original flat dry land turned into deep mixed ravines. The exposed stones were carved into grotesque shapes by the fierce wind. Since Urho is located at the wind gap, when gale came, it became dark all round and a big dust-storm was usually caused. The pebbles and stones thus became forceful hammers and chisels which beat heavily on the remaining soil layers. The places which were not hard enough had all been worn away, with only those various unique 'earth carvings' left: short and round earth mounds, steep hummock and lays upon layers of ridges… 

Upon entering the devil city, visitors will get an eyeful of different weird earth hummocks. You will find that the whole city is in color of pale yellow except for some camel thorns. The world before you is in silence. However, once the wind blows across, you will hear strange moans coming from all quarters. The airflow would rampage about between the rough stones and the earth mounds and hummocks become huge natural instruments which magnify the sounds into infinite quantity. The stronger the wind, the louder the sounds will be. At last, the sounds would turn into cries and scream of the 'devil', which usually would reverberate in the city for a long time.  

 Tickets:
Entrance Fee: CNY 30 
Sight-seeing Mini Train: CNY 30 
 Opening Hours: 
09:00 - 14:00 & 16:00 - 19:00 (Mon. to Fri.)
10:00 - 15:00 ( Sat. & Sun.)
 Transportation: There are tourism bus from Karamay City to Urho Devil City.