Discover Xinjiang
Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar
新疆国际大巴扎
Urumqi's landmark covered market, built in 2003 in an Islamic revival style around an 80-metre observation tower. It is a shopping and dining complex rather than a historic bazaar, but it is the easiest place in the city to eat Xinjiang food, hear the music and buy dried fruit and knives without leaving the capital.
The story
What makes this place special
The Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar is on Jiefang South Road at Erdaoqiao in Urumqi's Tianshan District, in the historic market quarter of the city. It was begun in April 2002, topped out in October 2002 and completed in June 2003, with a total floor area of about 100,000 square metres on a 40,000 square metre site, designed by the architect Wang Xiaodong as a complex of several linked buildings for trade, food and entertainment, built in sand-coloured brick. Its highest element is an 80m observation tower with a lift, whose external wall carries a large relief on the theme of the Twelve Muqam. Visitor numbers have grown substantially, with reported daily averages rising from 20,000-30,000 to over 40,000 by around 2023, and the site has been developed from a trading market into a tourism complex with a pedestrian street and night market; reports in 2025 put the first two days of the October holiday at 410,000 visits.
What you’ll discover
A block of Central Asian revival architecture with arches, domes and the tall brick observation tower, housing floors of stalls selling dried fruit, nuts, saffron, jade, carpets, knives, hats, instruments and souvenirs, plus restaurants, a theatre with a song and dance dinner show, and outside a pedestrian street and a large night market of food stalls. It is busy, bright and entirely built for visitors, with the Erdaoqiao market area next door carrying more of the city's everyday trade.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Go for the food at night, not the shopping by day. The outdoor night market and the surrounding Erdaoqiao streets are where the lamb, nan, samsa, polo rice and dapanji come from, and that is the part worth your evening.
- Prices in the hall are set for visitors and bargaining is expected; dried fruit and nuts are much cheaper by weight in the ordinary markets a few streets away, and the jade is largely not what it is sold as.
- Go up the 80m tower for the view over the old market quarter and towards the mountains. It has a lift, it is cheap, and most people never go up.
- Urumqi runs on Beijing time officially but the city lives about two hours behind it, so the market and the night stalls do not get going until well after 20:00 by the clock and are busiest around 22:00.
- This is a major public venue and you will go through screening to enter, with bag checks and ID inspection at the gates. Carry your passport and do not photograph the security arrangements.
- The complex dates from 2003. It is not a historic bazaar, and anyone expecting an old caravan market should look at the surrounding Erdaoqiao streets instead.
When to come
Evening, from about 20:00 by the clock onwards, for the night market and the lit buildings. April to October; the Urumqi winter shuts the outdoor market down and drives everything indoors.
Getting around
Good. It is a modern commercial complex with lifts, escalators, level floors and ramps, and the observation tower has a lift, so a wheelchair user can get round the halls and up the tower. The outdoor night market is flat but extremely crowded, which is the practical limit. A bad knee has no obstacle.
Worth knowing before you go
Prices here are tourist prices and bargaining is expected. For a cheaper, more ordinary version, the Erdaoqiao market area next door is where locals actually shop.
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