Location: Xinjiang lies in northwest China, bordering on Gansu and Qinghai provinces to the southeast and the Tibet Autonomous Region to the south, sharing a 5,000-km border line with eight countries.


Area: 1,600,000 sq km


Climate: While Xinjiang enjoys between 2,500 to 3,000 hours of sunshine each year, the amount of annual precipitation for the entire region averages a mere 150 milliliters (ml), and thus the air is quite dry.


provincial capital: Urumqi


Population: 16.25 millions (March 2001)  


Ethnic groups: Uygur (47.47 %), Han(37.58 %) and Kazak (7.3 %) ethnic groups, as well as the Mongolian, Khirghiz, Xibe, Tajik, Uzbek, Manchu, Daur, Tartar and Russian ethnic groups.  


Agriculture: the region has had 15 successive years of good harvests with total grain output for the end of the year reaching 7.06 million ton, in addition to over 34.59 million head of livestock. The output of staple crops increased significantly, with unprecedented figures recorded for the output of cotton and sugar beets.


Industry: The region's relatively well developed industrial structure focuses on a whole range industries, such as textiles, foodstuff processing, leather, paper, sugar, carpets, raw and refined oil, iron and steel, metallurgy, machinery, chemicals, power generation, building materials and the light industry.