Atlas of China
Karamay 克拉玛依Kèlāmǎyī
An oil city named after black seeps, beside a wind-carved 'Ghost City'
About Karamay
Karamay, Uyghur for 'black oil', takes its name from Heiyoushan, a mound of natural asphalt where crude still seeps to the surface, and the city grew up after the No. 1 Well struck oil nearby in 1955. A canal-fed river now runs the length of the planned town. North at Urho, wind has carved the yardangs of the World Ghost City into towers and ridges, and at Dushanzi, where Xinjiang's first oil well was drilled in 1909, the Kuytun River has cut a deep gorge.
Listed sites in Karamay
6 sites in Karamay are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.
- World Ghost City, Urho 世界魔鬼城 5A scenic area · on the map
The World Ghost City, also called the Urho Wind City, is a field of yardangs on the north-western edge of the Junggar Basin, where strong winds have carved layered rock into shapes likened to palaces, towers, people and animals. - Dushanzi Grand Canyon 独山子大峡谷 4A scenic area · on the map
The Dushanzi Grand Canyon is a section of the gorge, about 200 m deep, that the meltwater-fed Kuytun River has cut through the gravel foothills of the Tian Shan south of Dushanzi. - Heiyoushan 黑油山 4A scenic area · on the map
Heiyoushan, 'Black Oil Mountain', is a low mound of natural asphalt just outside the city centre, formed over ages as crude oil seeped to the surface and set with the sand; Karamay, Uyghur for 'black oil', is named after it. - Karamay River 克拉玛依河 4A scenic area · on the map
The Karamay River is a canal-fed waterway, opened in 2000, that brings water from the Irtysh diversion scheme right across the oil city to a reservoir on its south-western edge. - Karamay No. 1 Oil Well 克拉玛依一号井 National heritage site
Karamay No. 1 Well struck oil on 29 October 1955, the discovery that opened the Karamay oilfield and gave rise to the city. - Xinjiang's First Oil Well, Dushanzi 新疆第一口油井 National heritage site · on the map
In 1909 the Qing authorities drilled Xinjiang's first machine-drilled oil well at Dushanzi with a cable-tool rig bought from Russia, starting the region's modern oil industry.
On the map
Open Karamay on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.
Open Karamay on the map