UrumQi | “Beautiful Pasture”

Urumqi (Wulumuqi), located in a green oasis between the lofty ice-capped Bogda Peak, the vast Salt Lake in the east, the rolling pine-covered Southern hill and the alternating fields and sand dunes of Zunggar Basin in the northwest, is most famous for holding the Guinness Book of Records as the most remote city from any sea in the world at a distance of about 1,400 miles (2500 km) from the nearest coastline. A relatively new city (founded in 1763), the most land locked area in the world. Previously known as Dihua, meaning “Enlightening and Civilizing”, the Chinese renamed the city in 1884 to its present day tag, Wulumuqi. On February 1,1954, the city was renamed Ürümqi, meaning “Beautiful Pasture” in the Mongolian language of the Junggar tribe.

Taiyuan | The “Dragon City”

Taiyuan is an ancient city once known as “the Dragon City.” It is the ancestral home of the Wang lineage (one of China’s most common names). Settlements in the Taiyuan region date back to Neolithic times. The town, then known as Jinyang, was founded some 2,400 years ago. Its location in a valley near the Fen River put it near the invasion routes from the nomadic regions in the north to the agricultural heartland near the Yellow River.